Goldfish Pacific Kitchen

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Restaurant: Goldfish Pacific Kitchen - Restaurant Review
Cuisine: West Coast/Pacific Rim/Fusion
Last dined: December 8, 09

Area: Vancouver (Yaletown/Downtown)
1118 Mainland Street
Price Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5 (Based on lunch)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 5.5
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

Located in YaletownMostly Asian chefs/cooks ? Chef William Tse (previous sous chef of Joe Fortes and Chop House)Asian fusion/Asian inspired menuFocus on seafoodSophisticated and creative foodExtensive Wine BarContemporary, trendy & ?Yaletown? atmosphere & décorQuite a large dinner menuDining Room/Lounge/PatioCovered sun room with lounge couchesGreat for appies/drinks/late nightM-F 11am-4pm ?$10 Gold Plates?M-F 4pm-6pm Happy Hour ? appies and drinks

**Recommendation: Chicken satays, tuna tartare, short rib sliders, bacon fried rice (very popular but I haven?t tried), Trio of West Coast Sushi Pizza, Shiitake mushroom meatloaf

I posted my resstaurant review for Goldfish?s Happy Hour yesterday so this review focuses on the lunch I had there. For more details on the restaurant and overall review please see my post from yesterday: http://tinyurl.com/yfqzr6l

I came for a late lunch at 3pm and it was almost empty. Therefore I think the food I had was actually probably better because they could take the time to prepare it and do it well. It?s not always the case, but just my thoughts?

On the table:

Flash Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwich 2.5/6Sweet onion marmalade, mustard greens $14

I love ahi tuna and when I see it on the menu I?m likely to order it. There was nothing really wrong with this one, but I expected more from it. The ahi tuna was slices of ahi tuna rather than an ahi tuna filet. I felt like they used their tuna tataki appetizer and made it into a sandwich by serving it on toasted white bread. There wasn?t that many pieces of tuna, but just enough slices to cover the bottom layer of bread. I think it could have used more ponzu sauce. It was more sweet than tangy because of the marmalade.The sweet onion marmalade was basically a red onion relish ? it was tangy, sweet and savoury and went well with the tuna, however there was a little too much of it and not enough tuna.I wish they used better sandwich bread ? they either used Wonder Bread white bread or the white bread from T&T Supermarket. I think they used a combo of butter and garlic aioli before toasting it. It was nice and crispy, but boring at the same time.

It came with fries which were I think are hand-cut. They were quite starchy but were really good with the garlic ginger aioli. The aioli is made in house and you can really taste the ginger ? it?s so aromatic. It came with ketchup too ? I really think they should start making their own ketchup. The new restaurant Society also in Yaletown does and it?s great. I really like the sauces at Goldfish so I think they should really make their own.
**Shiitake Mushroom Meatloaf 4/6
Tomato Hoisin jam, confit of whole shallots, roasted garlic jus $10 This is their Tuesday Gold Plate ? basically the Goldfish lunch special of the day for $10It was a bit small, but that was somewhat expected. It was only $10 anyways.
The meatloaf was actually really good. It was made of pork, shiitake, white pieces of bread (not crumbs), onions, garlic, Hoisin sauce, and some other spices. It was really tender, soft and moist. It was almost like bread pudding, but in a good way. There was a decent amount of pork pieces, almost chunks and I was surprised they didn?t use ground pork. This made it more gourmet and I appreciated that. I loved the addition of shiitake mushrooms. It absorbed so many juices they were all plump and juicy and gave the meatloaf a whole other level of sweetness and moistness.
The meatloaf was baked and maybe even pan-fried to the point where the glaze became charred. I liked it though. I was scared it was going to be dry, but it wasn't. It had a crispy crust and was very well marinated and coated with a deep and rich tomato Hoisin jam. The Hoisin jam tasted like it was made with a cranberry jam. It was sweet, tangy, savoury and tart. I would have appreciated more roasted garlic jus though. There wasn?t enough sauce for both the meat and the rice.I didn?t like the rice, it was really dry and needed sauce. The whole shallots were amazing though. They were really really soft and basically melted in your mouth.
**Trio of West Coast Sushi Pizza 3.5/6Hokkaido scallop, salmon, albacore tuna, wasabi tobiko $10
This is their Thursday Gold Plate. I actually tried it on September 10 when I went for happy hour ? but I?m including it in this review because it?s a main dish.When I ordered it they had it as a special, so you would choose 1 of the 3. Now they offer it as a sampler. I tried the salmon and the albacore tuna pizza. Those were the 2 the waitress recommended so I just went with that.
This was a sushi rice patty pan-fried until crispy and topped with chopped sashimi. I liked the salmon better than the tuna, but both were good.To make it better they should marinated them in a little bit of ponzu or something. Give it more flavour becuase they don't have too much going on. It's a very simple recipe.It?s not too greasy and the patty is nice and thin so you really taste a nice ratio of ingredients. The fry the rice up very nicely to the point where it?s a bit charred so it?s all nutty and crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside. They drizzled a teriyaki citrus glaze or reduction before serving it. The wasabi tobiko tastes like regular tobiko to me ? I missed that spiciness.

I liked it better than the sushi pizza I had at Sushi Sky. I liked the rice patty here better, but I liked the addition of avocado at Sushi Sky. Ideally I would want to have a drizzle of teriyaki glaze and wasabi mayo. They use Teriyaki glaze at Goldfish and Japanese mayo at Sushi Sky, but it?s not wasabi mayo. To see my review: http://tinyurl.com/yefvj9r