Title: Passionfish
Author: GCS
Last saved by: ENU

Passionfish in Pacific Grove, CA  - update, dinner
Review date: November 2012
(previous review appended below)

We dined at Passionfish back in July 2010 on the recommendation of fellow foodies Rob and Beth. We thought it was excellent, with clean pure flavors and elegant presentations. However, we hadn't made it back since. On a quick trip down to the area with our friends Mel and Christie, we thought it would be fun to try PF again.

The menu surprised us. It seemed much heartier and robust, with more meat dishes than we remember. In fact, we decided to share one of the starters, a smoked bacon fritters with Vietnamese dipping sauce. These are five tiny rounds of batter dipped, thick sliced, super-smoky bacon. If you love bacon (and who doesn't?) these are very satisfying bar-type food. The sauce was good only in small amounts, as it was quite salty from the fish sauce and soy sauce – unnecessary with the bacon. All of us loved these fritters.

There were four salads offered, so with four of us that made it easy. Each person picked one, and we shared tastes with one another. 

Brussels sprout salad: mandolined slices of sprouts with ham, thin shavings of crumbly ricotta salata, small halved red grapes and a mustard vinaigrette. Carlos ordered this but found it a little disappointing. He was expecting something more robust in flavor. Instead the vinaigrette was very mild, with little tartness. The sprouts were fresh and nicely parcooked, but he didn't care for the ricotta salata. It's a fresh cheese of a type he never finds very interesting, preferring either fresh mozzarella or something aged and sharp. The rest of us, however, liked this salad very much.

Dungeness crab salad with avocado and spicy ginger vinaigrette. The avocado and crab were the usual layers molded in a cup, topped with baby arugula. Ginger is a tricky flavor to handle. Mel ordered this. She's not normally fond of ginger, but in this dressing the ginger was balanced skillfully. There was just enough bite, but not so much that it overwhelmed the crab. Neither she nor Christie usually like artisanal greens, but Mel was surprised how well the gentle pepperiness of the baby arugula went with the crab and dressing. 

Baked gorgonzola, curried greens, golden chutney, spiced pecans. I chose this tiny filo-wrapped round of gorgonzola, set atop long slices of housemade apple and raisin chutney. I'm fussy about chutneys. Having grown up with only the hideous bottled types, fresh chutneys were a revelation to me when I first encountered them around a decade ago. This was a lovely chutney, sweet apples mixed with the bite of a good mustard. The greens were well-dressed and sprinkled with pecans. The curry dressing on the greens was strong and surprisingly spicy. The pecans added a gentle crunch while the gorgonzola contributed a touch of creamy butterfat and the jolt of saltiness. I was startled by how different this dish was from anything we remembered on our first visit. This salad had strong, aggressive flavors, yet was well-balanced. All of us liked it – Carlos preferred it to his sprouts salad.

Goat cheese salad with spiced pears, prosciutto crisp, almonds and heirloom lettuce. A small heap of lettuce in a lovely, slightly spicy dressing was sprinkled with chopped almonds. On the side were sweet, mildly spiced pear slices, topped with a generous spoonful of mild whipped goat cheese – almost mousse-like in texture. Christie ordered this salad and loved it, although like Carlos she said she was wowed by the spicy curry dressing on my greens. I thought her salad was a lovely combination, the pears giving it a buttery sweetness that lifted the usual goat cheese-and-lettuce combo up another level.

We were tempted by the intriguing meat dishes, which included a duck confit with honey reduction and a 12-hour lamb breast. However, in the end we decided to stick with the fish entrees, and chose the following:

Sea scallops, tomato-truffle butter, savory rice pudding. This was Christie's selection, and she thought it was amazing. Three large scallops, just barely cooked but with golden pan-fried tops, sat in a very fine buttery tomato sauce. In the middle were some baby Savoy cabbage leaves that were cooked with a touch of mild vinegar (verjus, perhaps?), giving them a slight tartness. The rice pudding was unmolded from a cup, with a super-creamy texture and the gentle acidity of roasted red bell peppers. The rice had almost dissolved, with just enough used that the pudding could stand up by itself. Carlos considered this the best of the four fish dishes, and I ranked it second.

Shrimp with salmoriglio, flageolets, tomatoes, feta, herb salad. Mel picked this, receiving a very generous serving of six large grilled shrimp with what was essentially a vegetarian cassoulet. The salmoriglio is a seasoning mix made with olive oil, lemon, garlic, and oregano, helping to flavor the creamy white beans. I'm not normally a bean and fish fan. In fact, I usually loathe the combination. But when she shared a taste of this, I was surprised by how well the shrimp went with the beans. The smoky grilled flavor gave them the extra "oomph" needed to stand up to the richness of the baked beans. I thought this was a brilliant dish in both conception and execution.

Halibut, spicy tangerine-cilantro sauce, lemongrass rice, red curry vegetables. Carlos got this but was disappointed that the halibut was a touch overcooked. He loved the sauce and would have liked more of it. The rice didn't seem to have any real taste of the lemongrass. The vegetables were very flavorful. Although he rated this poorly, I actually liked it better than my sturgeon, described below.

Sturgeon, white bean salad with preserved lemon, spicy herb relish. This was my entrée.  A modest slice of fresh sturgeon sat in a pool of spicy cilantro sauce. If this was a relish, it was a pureed one! My bean salad was very different from Mel's. It had batons of celery and finely diced carrots. The preserved lemon was used to create an unusual sweet-and-sour flavor. Again, a creative combination of flavors I wouldn't have thought could go together well, but did. The sturgeon was left plain, to better appreciate its meaty texture but mild flavor. The celery was cooked yet still a little crunchy, while the grassy heat of the sauce unexpectedly complemented the sweet-tart beans. Mel had never had sturgeon before, and she really liked the taste I gave her. I liked all four dishes, but thought the halibut and the shrimp were the best.

Mel, Carlos and I decided to have dessert. Christie contented herself with a few bites from each plate, while drinking a tea called Dragon Well. Passionfish is a tea-drinker's restaurant, and they make their high quality loose-leaf teas properly, in a teapot. Christie had never tried this tea before and really liked it. It is unique in that it is a pan-roasted green tea. The taste of the roasting comes through clearly, even though it is lightly flavored, similar to a fine Oolong. 

Carlos and I were pleased to see that PF has finally given in to diners' wishes and is offering coffee (organic, of course). The decaf is more flavorful than the regular, but Carlos was fine with the latter accompanying his dessert of chocolate truffle torte with orange syrup. The torte was a rich dark sweet chocolate with a Mandarin orange syrup, and a spoonful of whipped cream. It was baked a little too long for his preference, although we couldn't tell whether that was deliberate. The interior was still soft, but the outside had a chewier crust than expected – rather like a large canele.

Mel had the dessert special of the night: pumpkin cheesecake with a spiced nut crust topped with marshmallow. She loves pumpkin in any form, but found the crust and topping somewhat overwhelmed the cheesecake layer. The marshmallow was housemade with a soft fluffy texture. It was more like a meringue topping, and at least an inch high.

I had the bread pudding with caramel sauce. This was very soft and light, almost as good as the one Seison/Oakland had given Carlos and me the night before our trip. If Passionfish had added some liquor to the caramel it would have been perfect, as the caramel was a little on the sweet side for my taste. Bourbon or rum would have offset the extra sweetness.

We liked all the desserts, but the bread pudding won the unanimous vote as the best of the evening. Even though the other two desserts weren't perfect, they were still very good. Passionfish cares about the quality of their ingredients and execution is precise. We especially liked the sizing of the portions, which are neither undersized nor oversized. 

The cooking was so different in style I stopped by the reception stand to ask if they still had the same chef as when we came two years ago. There has been no change, so we'll chalk it up to natural evolution. 

It's a real pleasure to see chef-owner Ted Walter grow in confidence and become inspired by new flavor pairings. We were not fond of the Asian influences at Cyrus/Healdsburg, which seemed overt and even banal, an awkward melding of gussied-up Asian standards and Cal-French cuisine. My reaction to Cyrus' food was best described as, "Pork teriyaki? Are you kidding? For how much?" 

In contrast, Passionfish created pairings that felt more original and less forced. The food is memorable, and the cost is very reasonable in view of the quality, skill, service and décor. It was a very good restaurant the first time we tried it, and it's only gotten better over time. Not many places can say that. If you're coming down to Monterey, this is a restaurant you should really try to include for a fine dinner.

Four people, dinner: one starter, four salads, four entrees, three desserts, two beverages, one glass of wine (Christie had a glass of a Portuguese Vinho Verde) with tip was $254.

Passionfish
701 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove, CA
http://www.passionfish.net/menu.html
Review date:   July 2010

Passionfish was recommended to us by good friends who love the Monterey/Carmel area. We took the opportunity of being in nearby Soquel to finish the weekend in Pacific Grove. Passionfish is a modern bistro in the downtown PG area. It serves only sustainable seafood, sticking to the recommendations of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a leader in this movement.

This being tourist season, parking was crowded but not impossible, a nice change from San Francisco in the summer. The weather was its usual summer fog/4 hrs of sun, which I love but Carlos doesn't, LOL.

I decided to pick several starters for my meal. Carlos chose to start with the fried oysters with arugula. The creamy ponzu dressing was generously applied, but these were older arugula leaves, not baby ones, so the peppery flavor and chewiness stood up to the dressing quite nicely. The four oysters were half the size of the ones Phil's Fish/Moss Landing served, but they were very fresh and deliciously different from Phil's.

Passionfish uses a decent amount of cream - not so much that you're overwhelmed with it, but they like to use it in many of their sauces. I started with the summer squash soup with a swirl of lime cream and a generous sprinkling of bacon crumbles. It was yummy, creamy yet clean-tasting, not overwhelming the mild squash flavor. 

They brought two starters for my main course. One was golden beets with fried onion rings and goat cheese dressing. The beets were mildly pickled with sweet vinegar, the onion rings were a generous pile and very tasty, and the dressing was a nice change in the usual goat cheese/beet pairing. I really enjoyed this starter. Athough there were only four small wedges of beet, the concept was imaginative and delicious.

My second small plate was a special, salmon arancini with wasabi cream and micro-greens. It was good, but not as successful as others I've had, although the inside was nice and creamy. It needed a slightly more crisp coating to contrast texturally, which is what arancini is all about.

Carlos picked the halibut wrapped in prosciutto with deep-fried portobella 'fries' (actually slices) and a mushroom soubise sauce. The tarragon emulsion was a small dollop of very intensely-flavored chopped herb - I like tarragon but this didn't quite resonate with me. The halibut was a good-sized piece, beautifully cooked. Passionfish slow-poached this fish so it's got the soft, tender texture that great fish deserves.

We debated dessert, and Carlos wisely asked the waitress how big they were. On her recommendation we shared the banana pudding, which worked out perfectly. It was a banana-flavored version of sticky toffee pudding – never my favorite dessert, but the banana cut down the sweetness a bit - served with caramelized pecans and chocolate-whiskey sauce. It was large, so splitting it was ideal.

Passionfish gets demerits, however, for having weak coffee and no espresso at all. The owner is clearly a tea lover, which is fine; but there is no excuse for not having decent coffee in a public restaurant.

On the plus side, the quality of the food is excellent, the execution is creative and skillful, the service is friendly and competent, and the price is simply phenomenal. Four starters, one entree, one dessert, two coffees, with generous tip cost only $98, an amazing bargain. Without the tip, it wasn’t much more than lunch at Phil’s Eatery in Moss Landing. You always know Phil’s will have cioppino on the menu, but for the price Passionfish’s polished décor and service makes Phil’s seem extremely ‘bare-bones’.