Perhaps unsurprisingly, seafood is a “Big Thing” on the Keys and the Fish House makes a great play of the support it gives to the local fishing industry by buying direct. Whether it’s that, or a possible paucity of other decent places in the immediate area, but it makes a popular spot and it was packed on a Friday evening.
Not local, but they do a mean clam chowder here – thick, creamy, lots of clams, lots of bacon. As for the other starter, I don’t like to write-off a new food on my first try (I make an exception for andouillette de Cambrai – a sausage so vile in taste and texture that it will never get a second chance). So, here was a second attempt at conch fritters – very much a local thing. I first had them in the Bahamas a few days prior and was unimpressed. Here, they were not greasy and did have identifiable dice of conch in the mix. And they were nicely fried with a hint of charring here and there. But I am really am now done with them.
Main courses were good. Flounder was lightly breaded and fried and served with a cream, white wine and basil sauce. It came with fries and an overly sweet coleslaw. Local restaurants call the dolphin fish “mahi mahi”. It’s presumably to prevent squeamish tourists thinking they are eating Flipper. They’re not. This is a firm white fish and it was in a generous serving of three fillets. Came with rice and the coleslaw.
We didn’t bother with dessert which was, I think, limited to ice cream, cheesecake and the inevitable key lime pie.
