Eating Dallas: Fish City Grill

Fish City Grill.

Let’s look at that name.

Fish. One would expect an abundance of fish on a menu from a restaurant with fish in the name, yes? Not so much here. Most of the items on the menu were shrimp, oysters, crawfish or crabs – none of which is a fish. If I may go back to my pre-med days, fish are chordates (I use chordates rather than vertebrates to include sharks – look it up). So there is little fish at Fish City Grill

City. One would expect a huge bustling environment, like, oh, I don’t know, maybe new york CITY. Not so much here. When we walked in there were only two tables occupied.

Grill. On would expect that most of the items on the menu were grilled. I’ll even allow for griddling as opposed to open fire grilling. Hey, I’m a generous kind of guy. Nope, not here. Most of the items on the menu were fried.

So the place should be called Invertebrate Shellfish Village Fryer.

Now to be fair, there were a half dozen or so actual fish items on their menu chalkboard. One of the more “interesting” offerings was a Lighly Blackened silver bass in a beurre blanc sauce. Huh!??!?! You take a piece of fish and subject it to the intense spicy flavors of a blackening and then top it with a light subtle sauce like a beurre blanc. That's like dipping buffalo wings in cream gravy. Oh, actually that sounds good. Everything is good dipped in cream gravy.

So how was the food? Well, this place’s menu was so uniquely devoid of anything worth trying I came very close to just paying for my beer and walking out. But, really, the only places worth reviewing on this blog are the truly great and abjectly putrid. Thus I stayed and ordered two appetizers – the always dependable crab cake and chipotle fried shrimp. In addition, a sample of the signature dish, oyster nachos was offered and accepted.

Admittedly, this review has been overly harsh. Therefore I will say the oyster nacho was very good. The pico de gallo that topped it was fresh and vibrant (how’s that for flowery review language???). But, to be honest, the dish could have been oyster nacho with doo doo as the oyster and it would have tasted much the same. A fried oyster drowned in a yummy chipotle mayonnaise tastes little different if it had been a turd.

The chipotle fried shrimp were ok. The shrimp themselves were a bit rubbery and fishy. But the always deliciousness of all things chipotle balanced out this dish to score of adequate.

But it was the crab cake that was the biggest disappointment. It looked like a giant potato pancake and tasted about the same. To their credit, it was filled almost exclusively with actual crab. And when the crab has very little flavor and you add nothing to add flavor, all you taste is the pan and the oil used to cook the crab cake.

So ignore this Dallas Observer Best of recommendation and ignore Fish City Grill.


Oh, and by the way Fish City Grill folks, there's a swordfish right on your logo. How's about you have some swordfish on the menu. AND DON'T FUCKING FRY IT!!!

D

2323 N. Henderson Ave., Ste. 109 Dallas, TX