Review: Seven Fish Resturant
The Seven Fish is a small seafood restaurant located in Key West Florida; we found it using Zagat.com. At the time the Seven Fish was rated as the second highest seafood restaurant in Key West, with only a 2 points difference between the food quality of it and the #1 restaurant—but about a $25 difference per person in price. Other Zagat readers said that the place was physically small, and very popular, so reservations were suggested. We made our reservation about 4 hours before were arrived, and it was the last opening they had for the night.
When we arrived the first thing I noted was that the reviewers were right—the place is small. Cramped, it could probably sit about 45 guests. Our table was not ready for us when we arrived. The place was so tiny we couldn’t wait inside. However the bartender came from behind the bar and showed us to a bench outside, and offered to serve us drinks while we waited. He also provided us with a menu which was printed nicely on paper—which is a good sign that indicated the menu changes frequently. He also stayed and talked with us about the local flare of Key West, and the current menu. He indicated that not everything on the menu was locally caught—like the crawfish in the seafood pasta dish. He suggested we go with the house specialty of fresh, locally caught fish. We weren’t going to argue with that since we’d pick the restaurant specifically to eat some good local catch. He got our taste buds set for the snapper which on this day was offered in two preparations—one with a mango chutney and one with a creamy curry sauce.
After a few minutes the bartender gave us seats for some other guests whose table was ready, but who hadn’t arrived yet. Our waitress approached us quickly, and with a welcoming smile went over the same specials which sounded just as good the second time. Both Jay and I knew what we wanted. However when we went to order I mentioned my allergy to seeds and nuts which sent the waitress into a spin. She ran into the kitchen to see if my mango chutney had sesame seeds in it, and returned to tell me that it was already toasted in sesame seed oil. So I ordered the curry sauced snapper, and she ran back into the kitchen again and came out to tell me that it was made with coconut milk. She suggested that I just have the broiled snapper. Since I did not hunt through some many other culinary options to end up eating “just broiled fish”, I ordered the 3rd, and last, local fish option on the menu that night. Now I had never heard of this fish, but she compared it to Mahi-Mahi. It was a simple preparation—grilled with light butter and black pepper. Since I’m not at all a fan of steak-like fish, I smiled tight-lipped and disappointed that my mouth was geared up for one thing and I was now settling on another. However I was intent to try freshly caught local fish, and this was the last option on the very small menu that would fulfill that.
A few minutes after placing our order the waitress came back out and told me that the garlic roasted potatoes that my fish was served over had seed oil in it too. I was given the choice of having plain mashed potatoes, white rice, or plain boiled pasta served with my fish instead. In the end, my husband had the curried snapper and I had the steak-like fish that was extremely lightly flavored, served with veggies was were just boiled in hot water, all served over sauceless boiled pasta. I will say that the fish was definitely fresh, but it was the most flavorless thing I’ve ever had at a restaurant. I was completely disappointed. My husband, however, said his food was amazing, but he couldn’t enjoy it while I sat across the table pushing my food around on the plate. Even though the waitress came up and could plainly see something was wrong, no move was made to correct or try to enhance my experience.
This restaurant probably is great. How could so many people, including my husband, seem to drool over their plates, and it be anything but delicious? However, their menu was completely inflexible, and didn’t account for people’s dietary restrictions and preferences. I never plan on returning.
More information about 7 Fish: http://www.7fish.com/
