Boca - City Fish

A visit to a restaurant is for the food, the service and a couple of hours to relax and have time with family and friends. When a restaurant places a group of five at a round table for seven people the last of these desires pretty much goes out the window. Our visit to City Fish included that unfortunate occurrence. We asked for a smaller table immediately behind the one we were assigned and were declined. Yet 30 minutes later another group of five were given that table.

After we were seated and drink orders taken, two large baskets of bread and two large plates of butter are brought. The bread was warm and was very good, and the butter was spreadable. I ordered the snapper with sweet potato mash and seasonal vegetables. Others at the table ordered the scallops, the lobster frites, a crab cake and my wife wanted grilled scallops and shrimp with a salad. This would have met the requirements of the Fresh Catch and Salad Platter, but the server insisted she order the shrimp and scallop pasta Alfredo without the Alfredo (think Five Easy Pieces). She did not want pasta, but ordered it as well as a side salad. It was an arduous ordering process.

My Snapper and mashed sweet potatoes were delicious. Two large fillets were sautéed perfectly and the sweet potatoes were true to their name. The vegetables were significantly undercooked, borderline raw. Likewise there was little seasoning (easily fixable) and no lemon wedges (again easily remedied). The scallops were even better, seared on one side, to a rich golden brown, cooked throughout and sweet and delicious. My wife’s shrimp on the pasta was, unfortunately badly prepared, and inedible. It appeared they were first boiled, then sautéed and were drastically overcooked. The server was spot on, removed it from the table and the bill. The lobster frites looked pretty bad, the smallest piece of overcooked lobster I have seen in quite some time I was told it was delicious. The crab cake also looked very good.

Overall, I was very pleased with my fish and mash, and the scallops were fantastic, but the rest of the food looked pedestrian or was inedible.

I’ve been there twice in the past couple weeks, and was underwhelmed with their food. Great bread though, but my Sole Franceze was under seasoned both times, mash was dry and reheated. Service was slow.

I’m still a Chops Lobster House fan for fish but it’s pricey. They are both owned by Buckhead Restaurants.

Interesting.

I guess it is the luck of the draw. We went to Chops last year and I cannot think of a single item that I would give a passing mark to. The service was awful, the food was carelessly overcooked to inedible and the manager was asleep at the switch. Two hours, no food, and we finally left.

If you’re looking for excellent, fresh seafood - but willing to go casual and no reservations, I’d suggest skipping the big corporate type places and instead go south or north about ten miles.

South, to Calypso Restaurant in Pompano - been there for 20 years and still a great little spot (closed weekends). Or North, to Coolinary Cafe on Donald Ross Rd just E of 95.

if you want to investigate before going with a larger group, they’re both open all day, pretty much from 11AM to 10PM, so you can go in for lunch, or mid-afternoon, sit at the counter if you want and get to know the staff… and in the case of Coolinary, see everything prepared right in front of you in open kitchen.

http://www.calypsorestaurant.com/

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