Fish Counter–Vancouver

My friend brought me over to try out Fish Counter on Main street in East Van over the weekend. I’ve passed by this place myself a few times while driving and always noticed it was busy with people filling up the  shop.

Upon entering, I was quite surprised that this was not a full service restaurant.  On one side of the shop is like a general store with a small fridge and shelf selling different products. You can kind of peek through the picture above to see what I mean.  Further in, there is also had a big seafood fridge where you can buy sustainable seafood, “Ocean Wise”. 

The other side of the shop was where you can order hot food to eat.  However, there are no tables. There are some seats along the window and also a small standing area with a counter for eating.

They’ve got a simple no no nonsense menu on the wall:

I ordered one piece cod with fries:

The cod was huge!  It was lightly battered and was well balanced so there were no parts that were more crispy than others. The cod inside was still very juicy cooked to perfection.  The fries appear to be home made as I saw freshly cut fries in a bucket behind the counter.  The fries were very fresh and fried with a light crisp.  Underneath was a big delicious pile of coleslaw that had a nice vinaigrette dressing which helped to balance out the fried goodies.

My friend ordered the Arctic Char which apparently is not always available so it was recommended by staff to try it out.

Similar to the cod, it was 3 very large pieces cooked with the same consistency and served with a large batch of fries and coleslaw.

We also shared some crispy oysters.

The oyster had a thicker batter but inside was a extra large oyster. It was very fresh, I can tell from the flavour it was almost like it came right out of the ocean.

The staff here are very friendly and laid back.  They are also quite passionate about the food that they sell as they are very happy to chat with you if you got questions.  The food was superb.  The only downside is that there aren’t any tables so be prepared to stand while enjoying the food.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.–Las Vegas

We first tired Bubba Gump in Maui back in 2016 and had a pleasant experience so we tried again this time in LV.

We had some trouble finding the restaurant because we were looking all over on the street level.  Turns out it is on the 2nd level of the building we were standing next to which was largely a drug store.

We got in for a late lunch and the place was almost empty.  We were seated immediately while the hostess informed us that they were giving out free appetizers for their guests.  The free appetizer of the day was their spinach dip.

It has a big plate of tortilla chips and warm spinach/cheesy dip which we had nothing to complain about since it was free.

For our mains, we first got the Shrimp Po Boy.

This had a big load of fried shrimp on top of soft bread with mayo, fresh cucumber and lettuce.  The shrimp was fried very well with a light batter.  It had a big serving of fries too.

Next is Forrest’s Seafood Feast.

This had fish and chips, fried shrimp and something they call seafood hush pups which are the round balls you see in the picture.  This was not that great as it seemed over fried as you can see from the dark batter compared to the shrimp po boy batter above.

The service was fast and the food overall was acceptable.  We would have preferred the feast plate was fried a minute or so less so it wasn’t so dark.

Our server was trying to heard to be affectionate which made it look too fake and condescending we’d suggest they dial it down a notch or two.  We also think they should put up some more signs at street level to make it easier for first timers to find the restaurant.

SFDD gives 3 out of 5 Delights.