Blue Fish Restaurant and Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Jacksonville

The first thing I said was “the menu is too big,” and that shows in execution. They offer Caribbean, Italian, and French cuisine and maybe more.

Flower Power cocktail is two thumbs down. I think it was made with expired OJ, or there was way too much lime juice. It does not taste like hibiscus.

For starters we got Salmon Cakes, Crab Cakes, French Onion Dumplings, and Shrimp Cocktail. Out of all of these the salmon cakes were the best—well seasoned and served with a nice and savory tartar sauce with pickled red onions. The red onions are meh, they could be replaced with just some diced red onions and chives and no one would know the difference.

The crab cakes are good, could definitely use more salt, but they’re fine. The French Onion dumplings are a joke. It’s basically 4 (and I hope I’m wrong) frozen Asian style ground chicken dumplings (the ones you get to sear in a skillet and then steam with 1/4 cup of water with the lid on) served in just chicken broth that’s trying hard to be French Onion soup with some almost caramelized onions. For these to be on the Specials menu is insane.

The shrimp cocktail is fine, I think maybe they are from a batch of shrimp blanched in unsalted water by accident, hopefully they’re not always that tasteless, but you can cover it up with cocktail sauce so whatever.

For entrees, I personally got the Shrimp Scampi which is okay. I think I had the same shrimp that was served on the cocktail which could’ve been more seasoned. The sauce is thin, broken and didn’t coat the overcooked linguine, but it has a decent flavor. Ironically, with all of the red and green bell peppers in the dish, the flavors from the bell peppers are missing. it tastes like they are cooked ahead of time and just tossed in the dish to save time. There should be a bell pepper sauce incorporated into the sauce the linguine is tossed in because the peppers are just lost. A little more salt goes a long way to enhance flavor. Maybe the chef is watching his blood pressure. The best part of this dish is the sourdough bread served with it, and you get two slices which is too much.

Honorable mention: My friend got the Scallop and Shrimp White Cheddar Mac and Cheese, and all I can say is lol. I wanted to ask them if they had even ever had mac and cheese? There is no sauce coating any noodle, there is barely even cheese, if any. The cavatappi is untouched by the sauce that is puddled in the bottom of the bowl. It is thin. When you stir Mac and cheese you are supposed to hear that creamy sound—that is definitely not happening here. I felt insulted they tried to pass this off as Mac and cheese. Ridiculous.

I was definitely disappointed tonight. I have been in the past and enjoyed happy hour. The mussels always did me well, and brunch has always been great as well, but I don’t think I’ll ever come back for full on dinner. $80 for an appetizer, two drinks, and a completely lackluster...

This was a nice unplanned visit prompted by the more than perfect February winter weather of the day (week so I hear). I took my camera out for a walk in Avondale and purposely passed by a couple of favs, Brick and Mellow Mushroom so that I don't get into too much of a habitual pattern. It's nice to change things up.

They all had their storefront windows and doors open, but there's something about Blue Fish when it opens up to the outdoors it looks like the dinning room naturally extends outside seamlessly. I've always thought it was more enticing to people passing by. Maybe it's the awning too.

The swing vote went to the courtyard. I knew it wouldn't be crowded in the back and it's beautifully charming little area when the temps are comfortable and annoyances like bugs are not a thing.

I parked at a hightop in the bar at first because I knew there was an outlet right there. But Ellen, the bartender, informed me that there was one behind the bar she could plug me into. So I relocated to the bartop which works out better for my oversized computer footprint and accompanying electronics.

Not planning to make it a formal food outing, I was wary of spending too much. But there are a 3 good choices on the lunch specials menu as well as appetizers that are very reasonably priced for any restaurant.

I had a 1/2 dozen oysters lightly steamed that were done better than I've had in a long time. Undrained (natural saltiness is still there) and the steam created a little "broth" in each shell. The fresh horseradish seemed better than most. I kept eating it for the burning torture after the oysters were gone. I can be weird, no doubt.

Still hungry I ordered again and added a glass of Cabernet to what has now official become full on lunch, not a seafood snack. I wanted the burger. It sounded really yummy and only $10.95 (same as two of the other lunch specials). Then the guy down the bar ordered one. He was probably a reg from the way everyone said hi and how he special ordered. His burger came out fast and looked amazing. So now I really wanted one.

But, I'm in a seafood restaurant. If I'm going to take pics and write about my experience, I should choose a seafood item and ignore what could have been some really good burger bites.

Trout Almondine ended up being my lunch plate. It was tasty, creamy saucy, with lots of almond slivers. The sides were good, nothing special. I think the starch was rice pilaf, decent, but keep in mind I'm not a fan of rice other than Asian styles. They tend to be boring to me. This wasn't boring but I wouldn't crave it or remember what it was the next day, apparently.

The staff was nice. Moreso to the other guest than to me which was legit because i did have the "do not disturb" laptop flipped up. I did notice they have a great repore with the regs which numbered 5-6 at the time.

Overall a solid lunch, great value, deliciously prepared but my socks...

Long story short, I was ghosted by Blue Fish's events manager.

I found Blue Fish when researching wedding venues in Jacksonville. My fiance and I are always hanging out in Avondale, and the restaurant itself is gorgeous, so I thought it would be a great fit! Their website lists contact information for their event manager, so I emailed him initially on February 28th asking if we could have an in-person tour of the banquet space and discuss the wedding. I stated that we were planning a wedding of less than 100 people and that we could be flexible with dates. The event manager emailed me back a few days later asking me to call at my convenience, but the number he provided was the main line to the restaurant. When I called, the employee that answered the phone stated that the events manager was unavailable and took a message. I received a call back from a different employee offering to discuss my "party" (not wedding), but again, that employee asked me to call back the main restaurant phone number. I tried calling back multiple times over the next week, and I was told every time that none of the events employees were available. I emailed the events manager on March 16th asking if there was a better date for us to connect. We finally spoke on the phone for the first time on March 20th, and we scheduled a tour of the venue at 6:30pm yesterday, March 27th.

Well, we arrived at the restaurant at the scheduled time yesterday, but the hostess had no idea why I was there. I explained the events manager told me to arrive at that time, but she said that he was "out sick." She was very nice and tried to figure out what to do, but none of the employees working there were even notified I was supposed to meet the events manager at all. He didn't even email me or call me to reschedule. The hostess (not her fault at all) offered to show us around, but she wasn't able to tell us anything about booking the venue, policies, decorating, DJs, food/alcohol, etc. Again, it was not her fault at all, because it should be the events manager that handles all of those details. Ultimately, the restaurant is very nice, but the banquet rooms she showed us were cramped. I don't know how 100 people could comfortably have an event at Blue Fish. My fiance and I would've loved to stay for dinner yesterday, but we felt so disrespected that we just left after the hostess showed us around.

It has been over a month since I first contacted Blue Fish about my wedding, and I'm extremely disappointed with the lack of communication. I would've greatly appreciated honesty in the beginning, if they were unable to help me or don't host weddings, they should've said something. I'm not sure why Blue Fish advertises event spaces on their website because it seems like they don't have the time to actually book events. If you're planning a wedding, please save yourself the stress and...