Fish Hopper — Restaurant in Monterey

I want you to look at the dish I photographed. It was a Chilean sea bass special, with ravioli and scallops. Upon reflection, the word that comes to my mind is "possibilities."

Perhaps it's a little unfair to focus on a dish that may never appear on the Fish Hopper menu again, but I bet on the night my companion and I visited this Cannery Row seafood eatery, this particular dish sold well. Upon arriving at their destined tables, I'm confident that their recipients gasped mightily.

I'm equally confident that, upon taking a steaming mouthful of this dish, they experienced the most profound disappointment imaginable, perhaps even pausing mid-chew to contemplate how astonishingly, galactically flavorless this beautiful meal turned out to be.

Nestled on a shallow pool of curry-adjacent sauce, the ravioli had the consistency and flavor profile of Elmer's glue. The benighted sea bass seemed to vanish on the tongue, deprived of its mildly salty smokiness. The scallop was like a stale marshmallow. No salt. No pepper. No garlic or onion. No scallions. Nothing. It was like eating the wind, but with lashings of wheat paste. The basic tenet of professional cooking is to season the dish at every stage - what happened? Did the line cook who moonlights at the hospital commissary prepare this meal? Was the CDC absent during quality checks? What?

The main I had, which was some sort of forgettable fettuccine Alfredo dish, was equally bland and glue-like. I've literally blocked it out of my mind.

We tried their "award winning" clam chowder - it was entirely too milky and thick, and lacked any hint of clam flavor, even though the clam meat was clearly in evidence. If I had wanted a corn starch slurry, I would have stayed at home and done it myself. Bereft of depth and complexity and pepper, except that which I added. Maybe I should have included salt, too.

That was preceded by the iceberg wedge, an old standby that was not only pleasant to the sight, but the only item we had that night that contained any taste. I mistook this single victory of theirs for what might follow.

The Fish Hopper is a tired Cannery Row tourist-pleaser better known for its unbeatable views of the water. My companion and I saw whales breaching in the distance. That is the show one is really paying for; and if the Monterey Bay Aquarium wasn't enough, the sight of sea creatures being wild and free is worth the price of admission. One easily forgets the rubber-chicken quality food in the convivial presence of loved ones, and surrounded by the majestic Pacific Ocean.

But if Fish Hopper expects to continue truthfully advertising itself as "award winning," along with its gelatinous chowder, then it had better focus on the possibilities suggested by that glorious-looking sea bass dish, and endeavor to match...

Let me start by saying that the location is great and the views are spectacular specially if you get seated by the window or outside. Why do you ask that I gave it 3 stars? We showed up at about 11:30am and they were mostly empty and no one was waiting to be seated. There was a girl at the podium on the phone and when we walked up she didn't acknowledge us, didn't look up, and acted like we weren't there. We waited patiently for her to say something or finish her call, when she did she just walked away without saying a word. So we waited again with no one saying anything to us even though multiple people saw us. When someone finally came out to seat us there was no pleasantries only to follow her and that was it. When we got to the back we asked if we could sit at the tables where l with the sun since my wife was cold and the girl said no. She sat us where she was originally taking us but the couple immediately after us was sat at the table we requested to sit at. So for our first impression the staff was not friendly nor accommodating. She also removed all the wine glasses from the table without even asking if either of us was going to order wine which we were. Just not how you expect to be treated at a nice establishment.

The server came out and was the same, didn't seem happy, wasn't very friendly when he took our order. The nicest person who actually spoke to us and was friendly was the person that offered fresh crushed pepper and parmessan. So we almost left before we even ordered.

The food was good but pricey. We got the chilled seafood appetizer and the oysters were really good and so were the prawns but the crab claws were pretty dry and flavorless. My wife ordered the lobster risotto and we were pleasantly surprised that it also included shrimp and scallops. I ordered the ribeye and crab stuffed prawns. The prawns were stuffed with real crab which was a plus. The ribeye was good but wasn't anything to write home about. Over all the food was good. I probably would choose a different restaurant next time.

If you want good food with a great view and don't care about the service then come here. But if you want to be treated with some friendliness then I recommend to go somewhere else.

So all in all the 3 star rating was due to the service provided. Specially for such an expensive restaurant you would think they would treat their guests...

Frankly I would’ve chalked this up to a bad experience but the bar staff were very disrespectful to my wife for no reason so I’ll be more then happy put Bar staff and management on blast.

My wife and I with our recently turned 1 year old daughter came into town to enjoy Monterey because we enjoyed our experience so much last time. It was getting late and she was hungry so before returning to our room I suggested this establishment since I saw the reviews online and people going in and out.

We were figuring out if we are able to order a Togo order from the outdoor bar staff. She went inside to order clam chowder and since we had our little one and I wasn’t really hungry, we wanted to take it back to our hotel room. When she came back she seemed very upset. I asked how long the wait is for her bowl, and she claims no one told her anything since the bar staff didn’t even communicate anything about a wait time. So not wanting to seem rude she left outside to met with me and our child outside while we wait for the food. She stated she felt very uncomfortable with the staff because they didn’t want to help or assist her, didn’t acknowledge her until she needed to ask for assistance. Had to just guess on a wait time and frankly she did not like the attitude of the bar staff assisting her. I understand people have long days at work and towards the end of your shift you just want to go home. But all you have to do is put on some fake smile for a customer and be as helpful to everyone equally. Imagine if they treated there mother like they made my old lady feel. It frankly ruined our night by placing her in a depressed mood feeling like she did something wrong or feel like she wasn’t wealthy enough to be treated as a person.

On top of it all she told me that the clam chowder tasted like a bowl of salt, that not even my 1 year old can stomach and she’s a garbage disposal.

Frankly as myself being in a management position would really go over with my staff customer service and basic communication with customers instead of letting them figure it out on their own. I don’t understand how a place has a 4.4 star rating when they want to treat some people below them. I love the beach and I love Monterey and luckily we were able to save the vacation the next day. Just treat others, especially paying customers, the way they’d want...