L-O-V-E Fish Public (Kensington)

Tried Fish Public tonight with a girlfriend. LOVED it.

Reviews on Yelp are mixed. Some say: delicious, great service!!!!  Other say:  not great service, food not delicious, and it's much too loud!  So....

The inside is very loud/"hip". And if you didn't order the right things, you might say, what's the big deal? And maybe you didn't luck out with your waitstaff.

But we sat outside: wonderful atmosphere on the patio, could hear eacho ther fine.

We had an awesome waitress: extremely friendly and knowledgeable about menu.

And we had very delicious food and drinks, even if some dishes were stronger than others.

So maybe you don't like it if you're inside and order the wrong things; and you love it if you're on the patio or don't mind noise, and get the right things!! I'm on the L-O-V-E side, very firmly.

DRINK MENU: Crazy delicious looking choices. And the Cape Cod Redo was an absolute home run.  FANTASTIC. Had to meet the mixologist, Dustin, and congratulate him. Lime-cranberry shrub, rose + vodka. A bit effervescent. Y-U-M x 3. I would have bought the bottles to take home if only they would let me.  One of my favorite cocktails in SD, and now one of my favorite restaurants.  My friend very much enjoyed the sangria. Fresh sangria cocktails are everywhere in SD right now, but this was an especially good example (had a taste).  They also have a great mocktail menu, so I switched to a fresh blackberry soda after having a cocktail (drivers have to be restrained!). Otherwise I would have been dying to try something else on the menu, like the Frenemy.

APP:  Salmon tartare: very delicious, with some yummy sourdough crostini (very thin and light)

SALAD: This was the least successful dish of the evening.  Peach, blue cheese, almond, chicory. It wasn't terrible (I liked the dressing and the chicory), but the blue cheese was much too heavy for a summer salad, esp. with peach. Just did not come anywhere near the peach salad I had earlier this week at Davanti.

OCTOPUS APP: I didn't eat the octopus, but my friend said it was very good, and the portion was humongous, not an app size at all.  I tasted the salad, the romesco sauce and the artichoke stems.  DELECTABLE. We would both order the romesco sauce on its own and eat with bread.  One of the best things at the restaurant. YUMMMMM.

FISH ENTREES:  We split sole entree and salmon entree. Both fishes were perfectly cooked.  Sole was tasty but less inventive: straight forward brown butter, almonds, green beans.  Salmon was more inventive and very delicious. Served with fennel cut like sauerkraut (with yummy peppercorns or whatever they were), butter, and grapefruit (though I skipped the grapefruit).

We were too full to have dessert.  Can't wait to try it again (I just need another friend not allergic to fish!)