Pam Schwartz and I went to a media tasting at Something Fishy (2107 E Semorian Blvd, Apopka, Fl 32703) organized by Ilene Lieber of Passion PR. This small restaurant is a family affair organized by the team of chef Terence Phillips and his wife Patrice Phillips. Their niece created the logo and handles the marketing. The chef grew up in New York and used to travel often to the Hampton’s and Montauk where he got the idea for the theme for the restaurant. The restaurant is celebrating its two year anniversary and the staff that started on day one is still helping the restaurant grow today. There will be a block party at the restaurant this weekend Saturday, February 24th from noon to 4PM in celebration and all are welcome!
The evening started off with a cup of red wine as we waited for the appetizer to arrive. The opening course was a light and subtle Lobster Bisque. There were a few chunks of lobster on top. I happen to be a fan of bisque so I sampled it as I started the sketch. Patrice kindly offered Pam a vegetarian taco since she is not a fan of sea food or cilantro (both prevalent in the menu). The second course was a fried fish slider with cilantro mayo, hush puppies, and fries. The sandwich was light and crispy. The hush puppies were sweet and delicious with actual sweet corn inside, some of the best Pam said she had ever had. I let Pam eat most of the hush puppies and fries since her main course hadn’t come out yet.
The next course was a pan seared shrimp taco with house slaw, back beans, corn salsa and avocado aioli. This was my favorite item from the night. I sampled a couple of the shrimp separately and they were delicious. Tthen I ate the soft shell taco as it should be eaten and the flavors blended nicely. The next item was a mini crab cake with slaw. They offered wasabi slaw but I didn’t want the heat, so they substituted a more tame slaw. The crab cake was sweet and flavorful. Pam’s spicy cauliflower taco with aleppo pepper arrived and she let me have the avocado slices that were on top. This was her favorite item from the night. The cauliflower tasted perfectly spicy, adding a nice warm crunch to the taco.
The one item that I didn’t manage to finish eating was a seared Ahi tuna bowl over a bed of jasmine cilantro lime rice. The tuna was spicier than I can handle so I let the dish sit. The evening was capped off with cupcakes which came in carrot, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. I sampled the carrot and got a surprise when I bit into it. The center was hollowed out and filled with a light cool frosting. Apparently there were, in fact, carrots and even raisins in the cupcake, but I ate it so fast I didn’t see them.
The bottom line is that Something Fishy is a restaurant that I would return to.