A fine catch in Simi
There is something incredibly difficult to stomach about eating at a shopping mall.
By Bill Lascher 02/28/2008
Red Fish
1555 Simi Town Center Way, #595, Simi Valley
(805)823-4756
www.sparkredfish.com
$12-42
There is something incredibly difficult to stomach about eating at a shopping mall. Tart them up as much as you like, but mall eateries always seem to extend the packaged hyper-capitalism of suburban America into the food.
Thus, I was skeptical about Red Fish, which opened at the Simi Valley Town Center in December 2007. A concept restaurant modeled by the owners of the Spark Woodfire Grill, which has locations in Studio City, Huntington Beach and Beverly Hills, Red Fish is heavy on design. Fortunately, Red Fish is also heavy on gastronomic delights and turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
The menu was almost daunting with hot and cold starters, daily specials and a variety of cleverly presented “leaves and bowls” salad options, “fins,” “land & air,” and “shells” entrée choices. After lingering between quite a few options my companion and I settled upon a seared ahi tuna with soy ginger sauce and jasmine rice for her, and a pistachio encrusted halibut with a green onion mojo, charred broccolini and red peppers for myself. We also split a plate of the spicy tuna tartare with fried wontons. We also considered a pink snapper special, seabass, and a mesquite grilled “organic” salmon plate, among many of the other options. Unlike other recent experiences with tuna tartare I found the Red Fish tartare to emulate the texture of steak tartare well, and the flavor paired well with the crunchy wontons. Splitting the $12 plate had as much to do with the size of our stomachs as the size of our wallets, and combined with our main dishes the appetizer proved just plentiful enough.
My companion definitely bested me on the main dish. She is always a sucker for ahi, and this offering didn’t disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed my dabbling in her plate, and especially the soy ginger sauce.
Meanwhile, I am apparently a bit confused when it comes to seafood. For some reason I didn’t realize the striking similarity of halibut to cod and somehow imagined it wasn’t a white fish. Thus I was a bit chagrined when I bit into my dish and learned the truth, to my friend’s befuddled amusement. Still, the halibut was prepared quite well for what it was, the broccolini were succulent with a bit of a buttery overtone. My friend, meanwhile, will probably attest to my enjoyment of the red peppers which I kept trying to offer her excitedly.
However, I can’t deny that my definition of “pistachio encrusted” differs from the folks at Red Fish. Where I was picturing crunchy thin slices of pistachio (if such a thing is possible — I might actually be imagining almonds) I found a thin powdery film around the fish. While my confusion may mean the restaurant isn’t to blame, I do think some sort of thicker crust with a little more flavor would have offered a better contrast to the subtle tones of the halibut, all the moreso because the garlic mojo lost itself a bit.
Still, this complaint seems to say more about my choice of entrée than the restaurant itself, and I saw enough from the other dishes and the menu to make me enthusiastic for other offerings (including the lobster mac and cheese). Meanwhile, our desserts sealed the deal. Despite its overabundance of restaurants, Ventura County has a rather lackluster dessert scene. The dessert menu at Red Fish, however, offered quite a few enticements, including the chocolate hazelnut brazilia I chose and the Napoleon selected by my friend (There were about eight other unique choices and a variety of after-dinner drinks). Although my Italian-dessert-expert of a friend was skeptical about the true Napoleon-ness of the dish, she was by no means skeptical of its tastiness. Nor was I of my cake, which, in addition to its rich filling, did feature a crispy hazelnut crust.
The atmosphere at Red Fish was pretty swanky, with cool modern accents. Some of it was a little eye-roll-inducing, such as the little pots of grass growing as centerpieces on each table.
As to service, the hostess and waitress were friendly, but there were simply far too many servers. Having so many different people coming to our table left a somewhat impersonal impression. It was a quiet rainy night, though, so perhaps they just wanted to stay busy.
The experience at Red Fish was certainly a welcome departure from my own anti-mall prejudices and it felt like a charming escape from the humdrum similarities of much of the county’s dining scene. While pricey, it’s a great choice for a special evening out, especially for East County residents.
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