Grand Opening of Fish Shack

Friday, October 26, 2012

Grand Opening of Fish Shack

On Wednesday, Glowbal Group introduced Vancouver to their latest creation, The Fish Shack. Located on Granville at the old location of Sanafir, this place has been completely transformed.

Walking into the room, you can tell that a lot has changed. The candle wall from Sanafir days are gone, as are the beds on the second floor. Instead, there are now TVs strewn throughout and lots of touches that conjure up the ocean.

I love the area above the bar/shucking station, the ropes and knots help give this room a very nautical feel.

With a daily promotion of "Buck a Shuck Oysters" from open until 5pm, these two will be kept busy for sure!

And Bar Star Ryan (aka @MartiniSlinger) awaits to serve up one of their four signature Caesars. At just $8 each, order yourself up a few dozen oysters and give them all a try. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

And for those of us who need a little more information on the various types of fish on the menu, well, here you go. This gives you the run down on the size of the fish as well as some interesting tidbits too. Who knew there were 144 species of Anchovy!?

So these are the fresh oysters that they are serving today, but this will change as seasonally. Okay, enough with the decor, let's eat, er,rather, let's drink!

This is the The Fish Shack’s Very Own - one of their four Caesars. Made with vodka, both clamato and tomato juice and the regular fixings of tobasco, and worcestershire, there are also a few new other flavours, sich as lime juice ,their own caesar mix as well as mustard. The garnish is pretty amazing too, with a long pepperoni stick and a jumbo prawn. This is almost a meal in itself!

And to the Oyster Bar we go! These were cleanly shucked, which was impressive given the speed with which they were pumping these out. No shells fragments were present, and the oysters themselves were not slashed or mangled in the process. These were really well done.

If you're like me, when ou think of clam chowder, you instantly know which one you like, either the New England one (white) or the Manhattan (red). And it's always a struggle for me to remember which restaurants have the one I like. Well, The Fish Shack has solved this problem by serving both. Here is the New England version in a sourdough bread bowl. The soup was really mild, and it was hard to pick out various flavours or seasonings with such a small bite.

And here is the Manhattan version. I'm not a big fan of this but the tomato/clamato based broth had stronger hits of flavour, compared to the New England one. I might have to come back and do a head-to-head competition between the two.

This is a miniature of their Dungeness Crab Cocktail, and I really liked it. The crab was sweet and juice and the mixture of the greens on the bottom helped to make use of the cocktail sauce. A nice light healthy bite.

Another variation of the Dungeness Crab Cocktail is the Shrimp Cocktail. Take note, this isn't a prawn cocktail so the shrimp are much smaller. But it's about half the price of the Crab version, so you get the same idea with less of a hit to the wallet.

This was probably my favourite of the night, a Kentucky Fried Oyster Sandwich. The fried oysters on this was spot on, great crunch in the well-seasoned breading, with a juicy oyster on the inside. The juices practically bursted out when I bit into it. It was damn good.

The other burger we tried was the Blackened Snapper Burger with a tomato salso and a lime mayo. The bun was really fresh and soft and really contributed to the whole dish. There was a bit too much dressing on this for me, but the fish was done perfectly. I liked that fact that this was a healthier option, without a heavy batter and not deep-fried. I'd probably ask for the salsa and mayo on the side, or at least an "easy" serving of both.

And this is the star of the show. Although I didn't get a chance to sample this, it will be what I'm ordering on my first visit, along with the two clam chowders. This is The Fisherman's Catch. There are are two options of this available, at a $20 price point and a $30 one. For the $30, you get: lobster, dungeness crab, snow crab, mussels, prawns, calamari, crayfish, potatoes, corn, chorizo. They bring it to your table, give you a bib and slice the whole thing open for you to attack. You get a mallet and whatever other tools you need to get at the food, but this is the key to their motto: Hook it and Cook it.