We took our aunt and uncle visiting from Indiana to The Fish House for their anniversary dinner. My aunt loves the blues and my uncle (originally from Miami but gone over 30 years) is a drummer, we’d heard of The Fish House having live blues and jazz so we were banking on a good time and it paid off!
The Fish House has live music on Fridays and Saturday’s in the BackRoom. The BackRoom is just that, a cozy room on the right side of the restaurant where you are pretty much up close and personal with the musicians while you dine and enjoy your party.
The restaurant is known for their seafood which was another reason I choose it to gather as my aunt loves fish and crab legs! We were seated immediately which was good, however I was both confused and surprised when I walked up to the hostess area and requested seating for a party of 4 and was asked if I had a reservation. Reason being is I called twice, once during the week and the day of our visit and was told that they did not take reservations on Saturdays but their were reserved signs on 2 of the tables… They just kind of dismissed my inquiry regarding the reserved tables when I questioned why I was told that I could not make a reservation.
Since no one in our party had dined there before we were both overwhelmed and excited about the menu. My aunt is allergic to tilapia so we needed to confirm how the seafood was cooked. She was a bit disappointed to learn that all of the fish was cooked in the same grease as she wanted to try the yellowtale snapper on the menu. She ended up going with grilled shrimp and I wanted to surprise her with a crabcake, however the waitress after putting in our order learned that the crabcake was also cooked in the same grease and fryer that tilapia was cooked in so she changed the order to a lobster tail but didn’t tell me. I really still don’t know how to feel about this, I just know she was trying to help me surprise my aunt and make her evening special.
The rest of the party had the following. Island conch fritters for an appetizer and a shrimp and rice entree for my uncle in which he said the conch fritters were made different from those he grew up having as they were more like cakes or patties versus the balls he had on this night. Marty had the golden fried sailors platter that included calamari, wild jumbo shrimp, sea scallops, mussels, and fish nuggets. Lightly floured and deep fried with coleslaw and tostones. I had the yellowtail snapper fillet with a caesar salad and grilled vegetables which consisted stringbeans, corn, and mushrooms from what I can remember.
We enjoyed our meal while listening to Motel Mel delight us with blues, R&B, jazz and soft rock. He was good and very engaging with the room (BackRoom). I can tell you that our table could sing and name just about every song. My uncle won the trivia (I bet you can’t name the group) that Motel Mel shouted out and he also wished my aunt and uncle a happy anniversary at our secret request.
Upon leaving, the lady in charged thanked us for coming and asked if we enjoyed ourselves.
Well.. Yes, we hit the nail on the head this night.
Lynn Dowdell 