Fish Story Review
790 Main Street
Napa, CA 94559
(707) 251-5600
Fish Story Facebook page
Fish Story menu
Directions to Fish Story
Make reservations at Fish Story
Brunch: Sat.-Sun. 10:30am - 2:30pm (not at opening but supposedly coming soon)
Dinner: Sun.-Thu. 5:30pm - 9:30pm Fri.-Sat. 5:30pm - 10:00pm
Fish Story food
Since we associate Stephen Barber with BarbersQ, it was kind of weird to hear that he was leaving the restaurant named after him to open up a seafood restaurant in downtown Napa. A seafood-heavy place isn't new to the area. For instance, GoFish in St. Helena opened years ago. Fish Story's twist is that it only serves what sustainable seafood as determined by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Like GoFish, there are a handful of "other than fish" dishes for the non-fishy types in your crowd.
So, how well would he do switching from a red-meat type of place to a more delicate seafood place? Fairly good, I think.
We started off with an order of calamari which also came with Shishito peppers which made for nice complement to some nicely fried calamari.
New England style clam-chowder with two drill drop biscuits. Taste-wise, it was fine although I've had better. My big beef here was that it came out a little on the lukewarm side whereas to me clam chowder should be pretty hot. Somehow, I doubt the folks from Bah-stan want lukewarm clam chowder on a cold day. And at $9 a bowl ($6 a cup), you need to deliver.
Below is a very nicely cooked pan-roasted piece of cod sitting on top of cranberry beans, fennels, gypsy peppers, and watercress. Crispy on the outside, moist and light on the inside and the beans gave it some heft beyond the fish. Very nice.
Here's the North Beach Cioppino: Manila clams, Dungeness crab, snapper, mussels, calamari, and white shrimp. Not the best Cioppino we've had, but it was still good. We would've liked a bit more broth though.
And finally two desserts. An apple turnover with caramel and I think that was some sort of cinnamon ice cream which was definitely the better of the two. The darku chocolate dessert below which you can't even see because I forgot to turn on the flash was ok I guess if you're a chocolate lover, but we thought the apple turnover was the stronger of the two.
Fish Story setting and service
So, we went shortly after they opened. And any time you do that, you have to expect bumps in the road for service and food. So, we try to keep that in mind. Service was mostly ok. On one hand, they kind of forgot about us once. An appetizer came out fairly late second. One time, our scallops had some teeth-shattering calcium deposits in them (they were still tasty though). We've been to a number of restaurants at the first opening so we know to cut them some slack.
Price of our meal at Fish Story
Price for 2 appetizers, 2 desserts, 2 entrees, 2 glasses of wine, + tax & tip = $150
1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 glasses of wine, 1 dessert + tax & tip = $110
The food is fine and all, but the prices are a bit high for what they deliver. They supposedly do have a cheaper brunch option though as the Barber has mentioned that he wanted to serve dishes that people could eat at say lunch without breaking the bank. But let's just say that dinner isn't at those levels.
Other Fish Story reviews and links