Oddfish goes for simple and delicious
Seafood eatery adds to an already hedonistic block
To find a good meal, you can’t go wrong pointing yourself in the direction of the 1800 block of West 1st Avenue, especially since Oddfish opened earlier this summer, making for a hedonistic street. Oddfish is within hailing distance of AnnaLena, Cacao and Koko Monk Artisan Chocolates.
It’s run by veteran restaurateurs Mike Jeffs, wife Nicole Welsh and partners Brad Roark and Jamie Maxwell (who’s done stages at Alinea and Fat Duck) and the fact we had to wait for a table mid-week gives you an idea of how it’s doing. (It’s no-reservations as per usual these days.)
For Jeffs and Welsh, it’s an auspicious street. They met 22 years ago when they worked at Carpaccio, now long gone, where AnnaLena is today.
Since hooking up, they founded the long-running hit, Tavola (once upon a time, called Tapastree) in the West End as well as Nook pizzeria, which is morphing into a chain (a third one opens in September at Olympic Village).
Oddfish is averse to meat, it appears, and focuses on seafood and vegetables. Upon arrival, a sniff test recognized aromas of fresh fish, whispering of ocean. Seductive!
“For me, personally, I’m done with meat,” says Jeffs, who returned to the kitchen recently after a couple of years out of it thanks to tendinitis and severed ankle ligaments. Surgery got him back on track.
“I’m tired of Italian food. For a city by the sea, we don’t have a lot of seafood restaurants. We have expensive ones but not simple ones.”
Simplicity is sometimes sexier in its naked honesty. But simplicity isn’t simple. It demands great ingredients and on-point technique. The kitchen’s use of the plancha cast iron grill gives dishes a bedroomy look — a little bit wild and messy with charred bits from the plancha.
Take the cauliflower on special one evening, with pomegranate molasses, quark, yogurt and chermoula, charred and so enticing that I copycatted it at home for guests. A bit of char (and even ash) is found on many modern plates these days, but Jeffs says every night, a dish returns to the kitchen because of it. There is a difference between charred and burnt. (And a little bit of char, I’m told, is not gonna kill you.)
Mains dishes at Oddfish are $15 to $22 and the menu is tongue-tied and minimally verbal (Butterflied Trout | Salsa Verde; Side Stripe Ceviche | Leche de Tigre, and so on).
Jeffs’ favourite share plate, The Seafood Hot Mess, costs $65 but it’s a seafood bacchanalia. It’s cooked à la plancha and includes half a lobster, squid, mussels, clams, scallops, prawns and other fish, and it’s served with salsa verde. “We sell a lot,” he says.
Spicy Squid looked like big flower blossoms and were almost as tender. It hits the grill with a little chili, garlic, olive oil and parsley and that’s it.
The Ahi Tuna Poke features silky tuna tossed with avocado, red onion, herbs and is sweetly acid. Mussels, in a coconut chili and lime broth, are plump and lovely and served with charred baguette slices.
The seafood isn’t local but they stick to Ocean Wise species. “We’re not members. We’re too lazy,” says Jeffs, “but what we use is 95 per cent Ocean Wise.”
Dessert was simple, too. A dish of fresh figs with ricotta, honey and walnuts. And a strawberry shortcake. The strawberries were the best of the season but the biscuit for the shortbread lacked character to the point of tasting stale.
Wines are reasonably priced with a European focus and a good selection by the glass, especially the seafood-pairing whites; and there’s local beer as well as cider on tap.