Yuli L.
Yelp
It's surprising to find decent fish markets in Portland metro area, even though we are only 1.5 hours away from the coast. That always puzzle me a bit...
Anyways, I was making sushi and wanted to explore my sashimi grade fish options, so I looked up fish markets and decided to give a Portland fish market a shot.
It's quite a drive to get there from beaverton, but it's about the journey (and the fish), right?
Once we arrived, we saw the store posted the COVID guidelines on their front entrance, which was helpful. The shop was clean and organized. There were two young male clerks attending the counter and the shop was quiet.
We waited our term and ordered 1/2 pound of sashimi grade salmon and albacore tuna. "How about 0.24 pound of tuna?" The clerk grab a piece of tuna and said to us. We looked at each other and replied: "No. we ordered 1/2 pound of salmon and albacore tuna...?!". He then put the fish back and sliced a 1/2 pound of tuna. To his credit, he did confirm each piece of fish weight before he put them in the zip lock bags.
When it's time to pay for our purchase, and ordered us some fish n chip for lunch, the cashier told us it's be $1 for a bag of ice, which we were happy to pay. However, he then put the ice and fish in a brown paper bag. It was a hot hot day, so I mentioned the paper bag probably would be wet and torn before we reach home, he shrug and that was it.
finally, it's time to get our fish n chip by the side window. It took a while, so much so another customer started a small talk about how long it's taking. I told her "I think they made everything from scratch, It's gonna tasted delicious... I think!". It was about 25+ minutes when i received my food, and the young clerk at the window quickly called my name, passed my food and walked away from the counter. Which is fine, I guess I'd just walk away quietly (while waited in the heat with a bag of sweating ice inside of a brown paper bag) #justsaying.
How did the sashimi turned out?
It was ok. The salmon has mild favor and the tuna was more flavorful. However, both fish steaks has overwhelming amount of connecting membrane, made it less enjoyable in our sushi dinner.
How about the fish n chip?
We ordered the tuna, and the flash was firmer than other fish n chip we tasted before. It was delicious though, so does the fries.
Would I come back? Probably not.
Because:
01. I can get better sashimi grade fish @ the Beaverton Japanese grocery with competitive price,
02. The customer service was minimal. It didn't "bring me joy" during our encounter,
03. We can get decent fried fish in Beaverton area,
04. It's just too far to travel for previous reasons.
Overall, it's just too far for an ok experience.
I'm sure they have awesome fish selection, and serve their neighborhood handsomely. If you are in the area and crave some good fish l, give it a try and see how your experience differ (or the same) from ours!