I paid a March visit to F.I.S.H Restaurant & Bar (formerly Boca) in Stamford shortly after it opened,
and then a second visit in late May.
I had high expectations of this seafood eatery from the owners of Osianna and Quattro Pazzi, and both times those expectations were met, even exceeded.
The restaurant is modern and attractive, its seafood theme understated.
I get a kick out of the hand dryers in the bathrooms.
F.I.S.H. has a nice drinks menu,
and we partook.
On the first visit, we even received a small amuse bouche.
During both visits, bread and butter contented us until our food arrived.
The menu had many temptations, the entrées divided into sections for naked fish (with various customer options for accompanying sauces and sides) and modern comfort food (complete dishes designed by the kitchen).
There were dishes we enjoyed so much the first time that we couldn’t resist reordering them on our second visit. That gave us a chance to see the evolution in their presentation, which was fine in every case to begin with but in some cases even improved.
So let’s look first at the dishes that we repeated, and then at dishes we experienced only once. The avocado and shrimp salad was simply delicious.
The grilled Spanish octopus with haricots verts, potato, olive, red onion, crispy capers and lemon was also wonderful.
Grilled Scottish salmon with lump-crabmeat-and-shrimp-béarnaise sauce (the first time on the side) was also well worth reordering.
And from the dessert menu,
the banana cream pie’s presentation had clearly been taken up a notch.
Enough horsing around—let’s look at the rest of the food. Who could resist this lobster-and-crawfish chowder?
Also nice was this shaved Brussels sprouts salad with hazelnuts and Grana Padano in a light truffle vinaigrette.
Spicy Buffalo rock shrimp sounded to me like a bad idea, but they proved absolutely addictive.
We also liked the jumbo lump crab cake with spicy rémoulade.
For main dishes, we were pleased with the ricotta gnocchi with lobster,
the whole flounder
(with mashed potatoes
and sides of both caper and lemon sauce
and crawfish and chive beurre blanc),
and the blackened scallops in a red coconut curry sauce.
For desserts, the warm chocolate soufflé was a real winner
as was the “coco-misu”
and vanilla ice cream
with a shot of Kahlúa.
As we exited the restaurant on our second visit, we could see the promise of fair weather to come.
Inside or out, F.I.S.H. serves some of Connecticut’s best seafood.
F.I.S.H. Restaurant & Bar, 245 Bedford Street, Stamford, 203-724-9300, www.fishstamford.com