Dining in Vancouver – Fish Shack

Glowbal Group’s Newest Addition
Glowbal Group has added The Fish Shack to its collection of restaurants (Glowbal – previous blog, Coast, Trattoria, Society, Italian Kitchen – previous blog and Black & Blue). The Fish Shack is located at 1026 Granville, between Nelson and Helmcken, the latest block to undergo renovations and additions. We have had two occasions to visit in the last few weeks. The first was a Saturday lunch on the way to Christmas shopping and the second a holiday lunch get-together with our good friend Cadi of Jordan Consulting.

The decor is quite different than the other Glowbal restaurants and I think I like it better. It has less of a ‘club’ feel and is brighter with modern, almost stark furnishings and decor. No plush velvet here. The theme is “hook it & cook it” and the menu consists of steamers (clams and mussels), salads, burgers, chowders and 7 varieties of fish and chips. Your fish and chips can come traditionally battered plus grilled or blackened. There is also a $11.99 lunch box special, a fresh sheet and three different price fix 3 course menus. On both occasions our sever was very good explaining the menu and the daily fresh sheet.

There is both New England style and Manhattan style chowder on the menu. On our first visit we chose the New England style ($8.95) which is served in a bread bowl. The chowder was quite spicy and we loved it. Usually we end up putting lots of pepper in a restaurant chowder but this was very good. Just beware if you do not like your chowder spicy. 

We then ordered a 2 piece fish and chips with one salmon and one snapper ($16.50). The batter was not too heavy and there was a good portion of fish. We both really liked the salmon, still juicy and not overcooked. Jeff was a bigger fan of the snapper than I was. You can mix and match the types of fish (halibut, lingcod, salmon, haddock, oyster, snapper and prawn) and pay for the higher of the two. You also get to choose from three types of coleslaw. We went with the creamy horseradish which was good but could have had more horseradish for our liking. Other choices are kimchi style or asian vinaigrette.The french fries were really good too. 

The second time we visited we both chose the Lunch Box feature available weekdays until 3pm for $11.99. The Fish & Chips option includes one piece of battered Salmon, chips, coleslaw and chowder.

The Box Lunch Fish Tacos option (also $11.99) includes to fish tacos (cod) with fries and chowder. This time I tried the Manhattan Style chowder. It was nice and spicy too but I preferred the creamy New England Style. The fish taco was flavourful with a decent amount of fish. The Box Lunch – either option – is a great deal for $11.99. 

The tables are plain wood and the bench seats red leather. We really liked the decor of the whole place. 

The bar menu features four speciality Caesar’s each of which has a garnish that could be a meal in itself. This is “Red Sky in the morning” which is made of Sauza silver tequila, Clamato, horseradish, tabasco, worcestershire, lime juice, s&p, cayenne and salt and served with seared scallops and a house baked bacon strip ($8.00). I don’t often order a Caesar but this one was really good and I will try the others one day too.

Nice bar. Not alot of seats but you get to watch the bartender steam the clams and mussels in the steamers
right on the top of the bar. 

One entire wall to the ceiling is covered with pallets. Did I mention we liked the decor.

There is a blackboard wall that describes about 20 different varieties of fish by their size,
age and where they come from.

We liked The Fish Shack on both visits. it will be a good place to take out of town guests who want fish and chips on days when it is too rainy to go to Granville Island or the Raincity Grill take-out window.
 

Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf Solutions write two blogs on their website, one is their 19th Hole Blog where they share personal experiences and the Biz Blog where they share business best practices and golf industry related opinions. They have owned CK Golf Solutions for 5 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries.