Vancouver Restaurants: The Fish Shack

I spontaneously decided to try out the The Fish Shack on Saturday evening, after reading about the restaurant on Twitter.

The Fish Shack, opened by the Glowbal Group in late October 2012, is a no-fuss seafood restaurant with fresh fish and reasonable prices. Located at the old Sanafir restaurant on Granville Street, the Fish Shack has been revamped into a buzzing restaurant with swarms of tables, a chalkboard wall and a busy bar.

A friend and I arrived at The Fish Shack around 7 p.m. on Saturday night -- prime time dinner time. The place was packed and the aroma permeating the restaurant was making my mouth water. We hadn't made reservations and there was another couple waiting for a table before us. The hostess informed us the wait would be about 20-30 minutes but they'd give us a phone call when our table was nearly ready. Tip: Make a reservation.

We wandered around Granville for a bit before deciding to head back to the restaurant and wait there. On the way back into The Fish Shack, a couple coming out started raving about the restaurant to us, telling us how amazing it was. Good sign.

We got back inside and waited a bit longer before finally getting a table. The menu had so many choices that I was lost on what to order. They had fish and chips, grilled fish, clam and mussel steamers, fresh oysters, and much more.

Fried Oysters

My friend and I decided to share the fried oysters as an appetizer. For our mains, we both knew we wanted blackened fish, but didn't know which fish we wanted. I asked our waiter for a recommendation, mentioning I liked my fish moist. He recommended the snapper and we were both sold on it. To drink, we decided to each have a The Fish Shack's Very Own caesar.

The Fish Shack has four casears on the menu. The Fish Shack's Very Own caesar, which is made with vodka, was a deliciously spicy concoction served in a large jam jar. While you're probably used to caesars adorned with celery sticks or spicy beans, this caesar was topped with a spicy pepperoni stick and a whole prawn. It was tasty and innovative.

The fried oyster appetizer was delicious too. For $9.50, you get a pail of five fried oysters served with a side of chipotle tartar sauce. The oysters weren't super crispy, perhaps because we let them sit for a bit before devouring them. Nevertheless, I enjoyed them.

Blackened Snapper

Our mains -- blackened snapper served with jasmine rice and coleslaw -- were really good, but could have been better. First and most important, the fish was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The snapper was moist and really hit the spot. The main downfall with the dish was the rice. The rice was a bit too wet and not fluffy enough. The plain white rice didn't quite match the fish either. I think a rice pilaf would have worked better. The coleslaw was good but nothing to write home about. The Fish Shack does have three types of coleslaw though, so perhaps the other two coleslaws (kimchi-style and Asian slaw) would have been better. Overall though, the main dish was delicious and the fish really shined through in the dish.

We sat around for a bit finishing our caesars before deciding to order dessert. The waiter recommended the sticky toffee pudding, which we were already thinking about. Sticky toffee pudding is one of my favourite desserts and you could say I'm a bit of a sticky toffee pudding snob because I've eaten this dessert countless times while living in the U.K. The sticky toffee pudding at The Fish Shack wasn't an authentic sticky toffee pudding. The cake wasn't the right type of cake. Instead of a moist brown cake, The Fish Shack used a piece of cake that was more like a dense vanilla pound cake. This was drowning in a pool toffee sauce and topped off with some cream. The dessert was good, but not the best. It was a large portion though and was perfect for sharing.

Overall, I had a great experience at The Fish Shack and would definitely go there again. The service was great, the food was tasty and the bill wasn't too hard on the wallet.