Fish.

photo - Yelp, Suliman A.

Fish., Dinner, Sausalito

May 28, 2016

P:

The Saigon King Salmon Sandwich - Grilled, marinated wild king salmon with a blend of fresh carrot, jalapeno, cilantro and house made Vietnamese ginger-scallion sauce atop a fresh roll; served with a choice of chili-lime coleslaw.

J:

Tuscan White Bean and Tuna Salad - The Fish. version of the old Italian classic, served with Iacopi bombaloni beans, house-poached albacore tuna, red onion, black olives, fresh lemon, olive oil and aged red wine vinegar.

Notes:

We've been to Fish. once before.  Today, it was our last stop before heading back home after a day of roaming aimlessly around the Bay Area.  (Side note: if you have never found yourself roaming aimlessly around town, I suggest you give it a try.)

Fish. is a sustainable seafood restaurant on the waterfront in Sausalito; their mission is to serve sustainable seafood alongside locally grown organic fruits and vegetables.  The food is always very good here.  I wouldn't say it's always amazing, but it's always very good.  Take the Saigon King Salmon Sandwich, for example.  The name suggests it will be a take on the Vietnamese sandwich: a soft roll filled with a rich meat (typically pâté, or roasted pork, or pork belly...and the list goes on), and filled with crunchy raw and pickled veggies, jalapenos and piquant sauces.  Well, here we had the soft roll going on, and the raw veggies, and a generous hunk of beautifully cooked salmon, but the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts.  The sandwich was plain, it had no zip; with a little something more, it could have been amazing.  The slaw, to boot.  No zip!  Where was the chili?  The lime?

And, then there was the Tuscan bean and tuna salad; I absolutely love this type of thing.  Here, it was a mountain of flaked tuna (I'm not kidding, it bordered on obscene), tossed with some giant white beans, a few slices of red onion and a smattering of black olives.  All good, but it was a little dry, and the flavors weren't coming together.  If you've ever had this dish made proper, and clearly whoever created this dish has not, no one ingredient overwhelms another (except for maybe the dressing - it's usually swimming in olive oil and lemon juice) and it's a magical combination of textures and flavors.  This dish was good, but missing the magic.

Though nothing we had this time was spectacular, most of what we had on our first visit was memorable, so I know this to be a great restaurant.  And, yes, it's expensive, but the portions are ridiculously huge.  We could easily get away with 1 dish between the two of us, which we'll try to remember next time we visit.