Fish City Grill — Restaurant in San Antonio

This was my second visit to this establishment and I was hoping it would be better than the last time. It wasn’t and I will no longer come here or suggest that others do either. Most of the time I like to leave positive reviews and I usually do unless I have a bad experience. It was our anniversary and my wife said I couldn’t complain because she insisted we have a good time, so out of respect for her wishes, I didn’t speak with the manager which is what I prefer.

To start with, for a fish restaurant with prices like theirs, it is very plainly decorated. There’s nothing on the plain wood tables and chairs, no tablecloths, no candles or flowers, nothing. We were asked to seat ourselves which is fine and selected a booth. The wall above us is a giant chalk board with the daily specials and fortunately we were handed a piece of paper along with our menus that had the specials listed so we wouldn’t be staring up at the wall. My wife wanted the salmon entree off the menu which came with the lemon basil rice and wilted spinach. When the waitress came to take our order, my wife requested the salmon and I ordered the halibut special. Be prepared to wait, as the kitchen is fairly slow which was something I noticed the first time as well.

The herb crusted halibut sounded good, but I failed to notice it only came with rice and some cherry tomatoes. For $30 it was not a good value at all. The halibut was prepared well and not dry and served on a mountain of lemon basil rice which wasn’t bad, but I would have rather had a green vegetable side and less rice. Serving size of the halibut was okay but definitely not what you’d call a hearty portion.

Instead of the salmon entree my wife wanted, the waitress came with my halibut and a fish burger with fries. Turns out, one of the specials was a salmon burger (battered and fried). Obviously not what my wife wanted and declined the order immediately. As the waitress left to correct the order, she asked my wife if she would like a soup or salad while she waited. With no indication it would be complimentary, she declined. I proceeded to eat my entree and in the time it took for her entree to be ready, I finished mine completely. I was even trying to eat slowly. Finally my wife’s food came and it was my turn to watch her eat. Not the anniversary meal we had hoped to share. My wife tries to accept responsibility for the mixup, but I contend we didn’t know there was more than one salmon dish and the waitress absolutely knew and should have asked my wife for confirmation regarding which salmon dish she wanted. The waitress made an incorrect assumption for which nothing more than an apology and a paid soup or salad was offered.

The lack of communication and updates from the wait staff when things are delayed with no apologies or acknowledgement is the biggest problem I have with this place. Customer service is atrocious for the money you spend. I’m done being disappointed, frustrated and irritated with Fish City Grill. My money and expectations will be better...

As fate would have it Fish City Grill made the short list for a Friday night dinner. Gun shy with all the reports of bad service and sub par food preparation abounding we wanted to trade a few greenbacks for a meal at an established restaurant to minimize any food related faux pas. It seems to be that one is destined to queue participation on a Fri. or Sat nite however, regardless of one choosing the clown or Mon Chou Chou. 30 minutes was our penalty box duration for our Fri. Nite challenge.

As we sat down I reminded my wife to shift her patience and tolerance gear into low two. Unbeknownst it would be an almost three hour haul for dinner in the end.

My beer was cold and her sweet wine was tart, at least for sipping naked (that's with no food yet served). She gained a hurricane on the house (and the frugal fellow that I am, I drank the wine that was left for us).

Our mouths properly set for grilled oysters, we blew through the 6 peso sized buggers in mere seconds. Good, but diminutive and so needy of a baguette to absorb the briney, buttery liquor.

Crab stuffed flounder leaped from the menu like the patterns of a stereopsis eye exam. And after ordering . . . the waiter returned to convey that the fish delivery had not occurred today which, of course, contained the flounder. All righty then! The alternative snapper with buerre blanc sauce, skillet potatoes and green beans it was.

Of heavenly descent the grilled snapper and celestial sauce ascended into our mouths . . . and the choir sang! The 68 decibel environment, the wait for a table, along with the wine and shortage discombobulation faded away entirely leaving only broad smiles as we ate. Potato prep excellence gained the chef further respect, but my wife rejected the flash seared crunchy beans.

A shadow was cast over the table. Not from green bean displeasure, but from the persona of a beardless Hagrid sized mountain of a man looming over our table. Rocky, the GM, knew of our wine and fish faux pas and came to inquire after our meal satisfaction. Hearing of my wife's dislike of the beans he immediately rolled through some pleasing options of which she chose grilled asparagus . . and a primo choice it was. If one has ever had an aversion to these asperigusic acid creating, whiz smell affecting shoots, a taste of these grilled green shafts will change your mind. Just excellent.

Of an even greater expression of customer satisfaction awareness, Rocky, obviously a consummate restaurateur and accomplished industry professional, provided us with cards good for two crab stuffed flounder meals gratis whenever we chose to collect them.

All consideration given to the fumbles and recoveries as well as the anticipated service gaps and long waits, we were bowled over with the quality and price of the food, the pleasing decor of the restaurant, and the bend over backwards to please adjustments Rocky made with jovial aplomb and sincerity. My list of seafood restaurants that excel just gained...

A weekend visit in the middle of the day to this location was overall a 3.5/5 rating.

Scene: Saturday afternoon, 4:30 pm, restaurant at about 30% capacity.

The host was very friendly and easy going. We asked to sit outside but if it got too hot could we come back inside and he assured us it was no problem. Thankfully the outside area had plenty of ceiling fans and a mix of booth and table seating and was pleasant. (Though I can imagine it would get a little warm as we move into the summer.) This location has a very casual, playful New England shuck shack/Port A seafood restaurant feel.

Our server, Sebastian, was excellent. He was very nice and made a few recommendations. He was attentive without being overbearing and brought the food out in a timely manner. The drinks (beer and margaritas) took a while to come out, even though the bar wasn’t busy at all.)

We started with the chargrilled oysters. What a disappointment. They were the size of nickels and dry. Given what we received, we felt they were pricey at $16.99 for half a dozen.

The fried catfish was good but not outstanding. It was light on the cornmeal batter and the fillet was a good size. (We ordered the half portion meal.) The coleslaw is vinegar based, but lacked any kind of real flavor. The small (about the size of a quarter) hush puppies were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, but also lacked flavor. :(

The fried cod was the highlight of the meal. A nice crisp, not too heavy batter and perfectly fried - the cod was tender and moist. (It was a fillet, not a loin.)

However, the fried oysters were very disappointing. What we think were the oysters were about the size of nickels, but we may never know because they were really just tiny morsels of (over) fried batter. They were smaller than the hush puppies!

We will probably try this location again, give it another chance. Continue to explore the menu. We are familiar with the 281 location so we were surprised at the lack of flavor in some of the food we...