Andy B.
Yelp
I received a recommendation from one of my friends to come here as she loved the ambiance. Her instagram stories looked quite promising so I was looking forward to the place.
Upon arrival, one waitress rushed to the entrance and bumed into another customer. No apologies were given and the family did not appear too pleased. What a wonderful start!
In times of COVID I understand that places would limit you to a maximum of 2 hours service. I was aware of this upon booking. And upon confirmation of reservation, sitting down (for each and every guest), halfway through the meal and about 15 minutes before the end, which I will get back to.
It was quite a cloudy and rainy day so not much natural light came in to the dining area so the place was quite dark: some electronic candles lit up the place greatly when it was 7 PM, but that did not last for long with the gloomy skies.
I started with the Salad which was a delectable start to the evening: a fine balance of vinaigrette and delicious veggies. The sashimi was okay and the cut was kind of lack luster fresh-out-of-the supermarket packaging style. Overall, it was good.
The tartare was to die for. They both had their strengths and it was hard to say which one is better. We also ordered a side of fries (not pictured) and the truffle mayo that came with it was amazing.
The oysters were good: we liked them. It's hard to fail oysters.
The maki rolls were a bit disappointing as they lacked some harmony and it just felt like a bite of a corner street poke bowl. We gave them a second chance and went for the Sumo Roll and the Sublime (we ate them too fast!). A notch higher than our poke bowl bites, but that's about it: severely overpriced in my opinion.
We went for another salad because the taste of the first one left us begging for more. As we begun to dig into our salad this is where the stars started dropping off:
We were first prompted by a young lady that it has been 2 hours and we should hurry up and leave. We politely told the staff that we should be finishing any time now and give us a bit of time.
Afterwards, shortly after, a second employee, quite the authoritative figure he was, approached us from the back and basically told us to pack it up and leave in midst of our conversation. We felt like we had commited a crime against humanity: he was very intimidating. After a little bit of argumentation from both side, we had no choice but to leave as they urgently needed the table for 8 (we occupied half the table). Funny thing is that the other half of the table appeared to be in no rush and was told nicely about the policy, which they kindly brushed it aside as they took their time to enjoy their drinks. They sat down at around the same time as us.
We got out of the restaurant after paying for our bill totalling up to 300$ and stood a few minutes to discuss abiut our frustration with some travellers from Toronto who were excited for a Fish Bone experience. We were quite frank and honest: we suggested some place else as the food was overpriced and mediocre at best, and with a service applicable to retail closing times. After conversing for about 25 minutes with this young couple, one of our friends noted that the table next to us was still seated and appeared to be in no rush to leave.
All in all, I believe that a place like this attempts to keep itself afloat in the cutthroat environment of the old port by having a good reputation online via their marketing tactics which instead should be invested in proper service. I guess they really don't care about customers returning as they are basically being carried by tourists who superficially heard of Fish Bone. Needless to say, I won't be stepping foot here for a second time as I believe I can get as good food for, not only a fraction of the price, but rather a quasi-reasonable level of service and decency.
Oh yes, also, one of our friends came late and said that his friends were already seated, but the staff was very dismissive simply because he forgot the name of who the reservation was under. I'll spare the snotty and rude remarks from this review, but I guess this was a hint to a terrible night of tragedies.