Wild Fish was opened on November of 2011 by a British couple, Liz and Kelvin Jacobs, who had relocated to California. She was a food writer and he a chef and they wanted to create a restaurant that served local, seasonal and sustainable seafood and organic produce. They have an additional place in Pacific Grove, CA. They have been offering take out options but in Little River they also had a small patio behind the restaurant that overlooked the ocean and greenery leading up to the shore. There were only 6 small bare wood tables and one actually was on the parking lot. The restaurant was behind a gas station/convenience store/post office and there were no umbrellas for shade but heaters were there for later in the evening. There was music in the background, a small bottle of hand sanitizer on each table and lots of plants on the patio. Servers were friendly and wore masks. They had a small but well chosen wine list and many wines were offered by the glass (a good pour) as well as by the bottle. Each food item had a suggested wine to go with it and we chose to try their suggestions, creating our own tasting.
We started with some of their raw oysters. They offered 2 types that evening, served as a half dozen or you could get a mix with 3 of each, which we chose. The Miyagi oysters, from Marin, were my favorite – fresh, briny with a clean aftertaste. The others were Kusshi oysters which were not as mild but large plump ones. The tray came with a lemon wedge and a mignonette that was tart and herby. The oysters were good with as well as without the sauce and very fresh.
A house made focaccia was served as individual warm rectangles of soft bread. It was nice but unremarkable.
The Heirloom tomato salad had 2 types of tomatoes, roasted baby beets, house made ricotta and basil and all dressed with an olive oil vinaigrette. The smooth ricotta was spread on the plate and then topped with thin sliced beets and the vinaigrette was filled with lots of chopped basil to supplement the leaves that were in the salad. It was all wonderful, particularly the beets. The red tomatoes had a tad more acid than the yellow ones and the olive oil in the dressing was fairly mild. It was a simple mix of terrifically fresh ingredients that blended well and tasted great.
Wild King Salmon was served with a crispy skin on asparagus and alongside a roasted corn-tomato relish and salsa verde. It was a delicious piece of salmon that was perfectly cooked. All the sides were good but the asparagus were not peeled which made some of them a bit woody on the ends. It was a generous portion of salmon and the tomatoes and corn were a tasty pairing.
Sable Fish was served with a crispy skin on top of and surrounded by roasted fingerling potatoes, summer squash and citrus beurre blanc. The velvety smooth fish was divine. The potatoes were nicely browned and perfectly cooked too. Yellow squash and zucchini were combined and here the yellow squash was much tastier. The incredible fish didn’t really need a sauce but the beurre blanc added even more richness to the wonderful plate.
Dessert was an oral menu and we chose Sticky Toffee Pudding served with ice cream, nuts and caramel sauce. It was a good sweet fix with the moist ‘pudding’ made even moister with the sweet caramel and melted ice cream. It wasn’t a large portion but plenty to finish off the meal in a terrific way.
