It’s no secret that the fishery has been a long family tradition since it opened. Or that most weekends you can find jamie and I hanging out on the patio at our favorite table. It’s my favorite spot for fresh fish, so always an excuse to grab food when I need seafood for a dish.
But one thing we haven’t really done since the kids were younger and we’d drag the whole family out to dinner almost once a week (they loved the sushi rolls and the hamachi dishes), is hit up the fishery for dinner. Which is a shame, because there are some distinct differences between the lunch and dinner menu, and whole dishes we never get to try.
Except I wanted to cook fish for dinner tonight, so off to the fishery yesterday we went. Midweek no less. And Jamie got roped into a meeting, so our late lunch turned into an early dinner. And what a dinner it was. There’s a new chef in charge - who used to work under the old chef as a sous several years ago, and there have been some fun changes to the lunch menu so we were excited to see what the dinner menu had to offer.
lone ranger
local bluefin toro tartare: guindilla, shallot, caper, lemon aioli, wayfarer sourdough
In the words of elle woods, oh my god you guys! This tartare was amazing. The peppers, the capers, the chives. I can’t even tell you. And mixed with the aioli? Seriously. Everything was perfectly balanced, no ingredient overpowered another, and nothing outshined the toro itself.
We may have to make dinner a regular thing, just for this dish… unless it gets moved to the lunch menu… here’s hoping.
oysters of the day
tomato salad: zucchini-basil, burrata, evoo
This salad, however, is on the lunch menu as well as the dinner menu - and I had to include it and the oysters because it’s my new favorite pairing. And you can get it at dinner. And I highly recommend. The tomatoes are so fresh, the zucchini pesto? To die for. It’s like you went out to the backyard, freshly picked tomatoes and zucchini, and threw them on a plate. In a highly specific manner to make each ingredient shine.
I know we are getting to end of zucchini and tomato season, so I’m really worried we are also going to come to the end of this salad soon.
Which will be a shame…
pacific swordfish: ricotta gnocchi, tomato, fennel, melted leek, bloomsdale spinach
You already know what I am gonna say here. This was a fantastic dish. The gnocci was tender, fresh, and fluffy. Decpetively not dense, but bright and airy. The spinch brought the right amount of herbyness, the tomatoes the perfect pop of acid, the capers brought the brine. And the swordfish? Perfectly cooked.
It was such a homey meal, where you just felt comforted by every bite. And could order it again and again.
So shocker, but you’ll prolly find us at the fishery around dinnertime again.