Caleb D.
Yelp
Dang, beaten to the punch by Steven!
Been excited to see this one for a while now and it did not let me down. T'was a Saturday night and the plan was to take the female canadian type one out for a spot of dinner to celebrate her 10 year 'whoop, they let her stay in the country!!' day. To The Finnie we went.
In we stoated to be met with a friendly face that just seemed to set the tone for the entire evening. Served by three people over the course of the night, the chat was friendly, service attentive and with thought and attention paid. Spot on.
The place feels excellent. Pub like at the front, with a more booth restaurant feel through the back... kinda like a reverse mullet... in a good way. It's cosy, well finished and feels like the kinda place you could hit up for a post work/weekend drink or dress up for a bit of fancy grub.
Drinks wise, yeah I'm sure they have beer on the go but it kinda felt like a fancy event so I plumped for the most most manly (ahem) cocktail on the menu, the Rangoon Daisy (i think??). I believe it was gin based, but thats of little consequence when you take the first gulp. Bitter, sharp, packed full of flavor and total bang to the palette. Lovely.
Ra grub. Without blathering on too much and boring folks, it's suffice to say that the fare is fishy in the Finne. The woman type is of west coast canada origin, so a pretty good judge of the fishy. She was not disappointed. With scallops and soup for starter, followed by giant king prawns and fish n chips for mains (all very tasty indeed), desert seemed like a foolish folly in the finne, but ah, what the hell. The lady plumped for the strawberry sorbet and I the pana cotta, both awesome.
Ooh, kinda feel like I missed out the fish facts there. Scallop wise, they were fresh, very flavoursome and cooked to perfection (wife is uber picky about this). King prawns were indeed king size and served up on a wooden board that just looked awesome. The fish supper was fresh, well portioned but kinda left me wishing i'd opted for the chicken or beef instead (totally my tongues fault, just not a big fishy fan).
Overall the experience was spot on, good food, great service and a very cosy feel to the joint. Pocket wise, it was reasonable for a 3 courser with drinks, but certainly not a pub grub bill.
So why not the 5 stars? Well, I just feel that there is more to come with the Finnie. Given the high standard thats been set by the Lebowski boys, I just feel that this latest venture has a little tightening up to do, which I have no doubt will come with time.
Having hit it for food, I'd like to drop by for a wee drink at some point and just see how it sits.