I won’t dance around the fact that I’m a big fan of Wildfish Seafood Grille.
Wildfish first opened in Orange County and then took the show to Scottsdale.
Seems like in so many other cases, restaurants first open in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. Then another restaurant emerges here.
(Don’t tell the rest of the world, but it’s our enviable lifestyle and heavenly environment that catches them every time.)
I’ve had so many impressive meals with my patient dining partner,my husband Patrick,and with a group of friends hauled along here and there.
Everyone seems to agree with me that the ambiance is just the right balance: attractive and friendly,the sort of place that cossets the stressed psyche without getting cute or pretentious.
When a restaurant opens, there’s buzz about where it will fit in with others of the same genre. Some of the dining public is serious about trying everything new immediately. They’re the easy targets.
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Front of Wildfish; high recommendation on Fifi’s list |
The rest of us try new places as our schedules permit. In both cases, it’s the repeat business we give a restaurant that defines its niche in our landscape.
Now facing its first anniversary, this team is relishing its fit in the community.
Wildfish was founded by seafood lovers Guy Villavaso and Larry Foles, who have more than 30 years of restaurant partnership behind them. They started their friendship in the 1970s in Baton Rouge, La., when Foles hired Villavaso as a restaurant employee.
They later became business partners, creating Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill, with 10 locations in six states, and Roaring Fork, with one restaurant each in Arizona and Texas.
In 2000, they launched Eddie V’s Edgewater Grille, a concept of prime seafood and steaks and live music, with three restaurants in other states.
Bon App & #233;tit magazine said that “Eddie V’s sets the standard for seafood.” Villavaso’s and Foles’ concepts are known for quality, impeccable service and innovative menu items.
To gain first-hand experience in the science of seafood, the pair attended a highly acclaimed school in Boston. They spent countless hours on the docks where they were mentored by the best. They learned how to source, ship and store seafood. This expertise gives them the confidence to claim they provide the freshest seafood available from the Pacific Coast to the North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean.
They continue to send the general managers and chefs of each of their restaurants to this same seafood school. Villavaso and Foles also conducted extensive research, dining at acclaimed restaurants nationwide, which helped spark ideas for innovative dishes.
At our Wildfish, we are under the care of general manager Damon Hovannisian, who comes from a famed restaurant family. This business is a natural for him.
If you appreciate a manager who stops by tables to welcome customers and sees that everything is going well, you’ll appreciate even more that he’s a team player who often helps the serving staff by bringing food to tables. He’s just a friendly manager, a real gem of a person who’s focused on delivering a special experience to diners.
Wildfish is a relaxing place that makes good use of varied architectural elements. There’s a dandy oval bar, big and central as you enter, that oozes friendliness. On our most recent visit, we ended up having an aperitif there.
The restaurant has a sense of openness. Only a partial wall down the middle of the main dining room acts as a room divider between the open kitchen and customers. Booths along the walls join properly dressed tables. I like sitting in the slightly elevated dining area that’s up a step and overlooking that happy bar.
At the back of the room is a creative floor to a ceiling wine storage section with glassed front panels. Beyond is a superb patio with its own bar and nice Newport style ambiance. Modern chandeliers, warm woods and one outside wall of windows add to the sociable scene.
A good part of what keeps me coming back is that they are dedicated to cooking each kind of fish, or meat, in the manner that suits its texture best. And they take food presentation seriously.
Perhaps there’s nothing that demonstrates all this better than colossal shrimp, perfectly poached, perched around a pool of signature cocktail sauce with a wonderful melon and jicama slaw on the side.
The crab cakes are barely holding together because they are almost entirely chunky pieces of crab and they are outstanding. Crunchy calamari pieces mingle with cashews and finely cut vegetables in a meaningful marriage of flavors and textures. These are such fine beginnings to a meal, or snacks with a cocktail or glass of wine.
Big, fully cracked crab claws are Patrick’s passion, served with both their cocktail sauce and bracing mustard. Take the aforementioned shrimp, some of those crab claws and freshly shucked oysters and it becomes a seafood tower.
Still in the first courses category, there’s the rectangular plate that holds a nice mound of diced, fresh tuna (tartare) seasoned with sesame and curry oils. On one side of the tuna are slices of crusty baguette, on the other a m & #233;lange of sliced citrus fruits and avocado. Some of these items could suffice as a light meal and I would have to include in that realm the terrific soft soba noodles with toothsome shiitake mushroom pieces and seared fresh tuna atop it all.
Of course, since the selection of oysters changes daily, you’ll want to peek at the blackboard on the end of the cooking line to see what briny treasure awaits.
Salads are so where they need to be. Just clever enough and saturated with interesting flavors. The knife and fork version of Caesar salad is dappled with the best parmesan cheese and includes anchovies. Love the round of hot goat cheese atop a wild mushroom, arugula and shallot base in another. I am, however, particularly taken with this seasonal salad: sliced apples, French green beans, golden beets, baby lettuce, candied pecans and crumbled blue cheese dressed in a cranberry vinaigrette. It’s awesome.
I am mostly a fan of firmly textured fish, while Patrick goes for the very soft fleshed varieties. Here, we’ve both been turned around in our thinking because the preparations give the fish such new dimensions.
On our first visit a long time ago, we ordered the roasted sea bass given highlights of lemon, garlic and scallion. We also ordered the saut & #233;ed lemon sole in a parmesan crust with a garlic-butter sauce and tomato and herb salad on the side.
I hadn’t planned to fall so hard for the tender fleshed sole and subsequently have ordered it many times. It is way up on my “must have” list. Conversely, Patrick had not expected to like my firm sea bass so much either. But, that’s the sort of thing that happens here.
I must stay with the sea bass conversation for a moment more so that I can introduce you to the aria of flavors that define the chunk of fish when it’s done Hong Kong style. The fish is poached and served in a very light soy broth with sesame perfumed spinach on the side. We recently had this as part of a dinner with friends. Their sighs completed the chorus for this fetching dish.
The Atlantic salmon is smoked ever so lightly, which adds a nice dimension. A combo plate of New Zealand grouper with Jonah crab stays simple with lemon-chive butter. Swordfish is another of my preferences and this one has an avocado and red chile accent.
Traditional lobster tails with drawn butter and lemon and the once trendy and now almost classic seared tuna are on the menu, as well as jumbo sea scallops wrapped in bacon (these with a nifty tomato-basil butter sauce).
Wildfish may refer to itself as a seafood grill, but it also is considerate of the meat eater. Steaks are all center cut, specifically aged and sourced from a premium producer in Chicago.
Filets, strip steaks, a rib eye (always my favorite steak) and even a veal chop make the list. Chicken is presented as a roasted double breast with wild mushrooms and natural jus.
For only an additional $4.95, an iceberg, Caesar or apple salad can be ordered with any entree.
More highlights come via side dishes to go with all that good protein. My must-haves include the truffled macaroni and cheese, slightly spicy green beans, wok-seared sugar snaps with exotic mushrooms and crab fried rice with scallions.
Good potato dishes hover in the guise of a creamy scalloped version, ultra crispy fries (done the correct Belgian way) and brabants: cubed, crispy potatoes humming with hints of garlic and fresh parsley in a very New Orleans style.
Have you ever known me to skip dessert? Imagine my smile when I came across the best dessert I’ve tasted in the past year: cinnamon-raisin bread pudding souffl & #233; with hot bourbon sauce.
This fluffy cloud of bread pudding on its own is soft goodness. It takes us even further into dreamy places with its topping of browned meringue-like mountainous swirls.
Our friends, Gene and Rosemary Taylor of Coto de Caza are Wildfish customers, but Gene admitted to me that he’s not a fan of bread pudding. That changed when Rosemary ordered it and she encouraged him to taste it. Now, he’s a more than willing convert to this version.
A rich Godiva chocolate cake with a melting chocolate center is another lovely decadence, but in the winter season, I am prone to order the hot apple cobbler.
Lemon meringue pie is refreshing and for those who love smoothness on the palate, either cr & #269;me br & #369;l & #233;e or ice cream sundae with hot chocolate ganache will please.
The wine list is as stylish as the food here. St. Supery 2004 Sauvignon Blanc, Sebastapol’s Lynmar 2002 Russina River Pinot Noir, Artesia 2005 Chardonnay, Cambria’s 2005 Pinot Noir and Justin’s 2004 Cabernet are wines I remember. Of course, there’s always a long list of wines available by the glass.
Consider this one of my high recommendations. It is such a nice package.
AT A GLANCE – Wildfish Seafood Grille
Fresh seafood preparations and specially aged steaks, warm and lovely ambiance and superb service, delivered at friendly prices.
Address: 1370 Bison Ave., Newport Beach (in The Bluffs shopping center)
Phone: (949) 720-9925
Hours: Happy hour nightly from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.; dinner from 5 p.m.
Cost: Appetizers, soups and salads $6.75 to $14.95; entrees, $14.95 to $36.95; desserts $6.95
Parking: Self or valet
