As weekend nights go, Saturdays are usually my favorite for a date night. My husband and I don’t mind waiting for a table if we get to try some place new and have a nice time. I also enjoy the hustle and bustle of a busy restaurant. We decided to try out King’s Fish House on Pine Avenue, mostly because I have heard rave reviews and I like to support Downtown LB whenever I can.
We arrived and our server sat us immediately, there was no wait but the place did seem to be pretty packed and lively. As we were walked to our table I took a look at everyone’s food and everything looked pretty tasty, I was excited!
We were seated in a booth, my favorite, and waters were poured right away. My husband really wanted to start with the oysters so we ordered the Carlsbad oysters which were about $11 for a half dozen. Neither of us are oyster connoisseurs so I’m not sure how that price is compared to other places but when they arrived they were fresh, delicious and had amazing shaved horseradish to go with it, so we thought it was worth the price. Ryan had an old fashioned and I tried their desert pear margarita, both of our drinks were brought to us quickly and they were very tasty. Mine could have used more tequila but that will usually be my complaint.
For dinner my husband decided to have the wild Baja Californian yellowtail with red potato salad and homemade Mac & cheese [$17.95]. I had the parmesan crusted wild Alaskan sand dabs with zucchini and steamed white rice [$18.45].
When it came to the actual dinner this is where it went very downhill, very quickly. Our orders took a little bit longer than I would have expected but once they arrived they both looked delicious and were large portions. When it came to my husband’s dish the sides were much better than the fish, the yellowtail was very overcooked and extremely dry, it didn’t bother him at all but if it had been my order I think I would have been a bit sad and would have had to drench it in lemon. On the other hand, his sides were incredible. That homemade Mac and cheese was delicious and he couldn’t stop raving about his potato salad.
My dish was amazing, 4 large portions all crusted and covered in lemon sauce and capers, my rice was fluffy and the zucchini tasted pretty good. After a few bites I decided I was pretty full from their fresh sourdough bread and the oysters and that I would take the rest home. I decided one more bite of rice couldn’t hurt me – man was I wrong. I started to choke pretty hard, and wasn’t really sure what was happening, but I reached my fingers into my throat and pulled out what at first thought must have been a fish bone. I set it down, chugged lots of water and tried to figure out what it was. After looking at it for a little bit I realized it was a twist tie.
How had a twist tie made itself into my rice? This was disturbing for many reasons: that is very unsanitary and had I not been able to cough it out and then finally remove it from my throat myself, who knows what would have happened? I don’t mean to sound dramatic but after working in a few restaurants as a manager and as a server this seems very unacceptable. Our server offered many apologies and I appreciated everything he had to say, but once the manager came out, he didn’t seem very interested. Though he did comp my drink and my dinner, I feel he should have shown more compassion.
All in all, I do not think that is enough of a resolution for such a big issue. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll be returning and now I’m not even sure if Ill check out Fish Camp, which is another restaurant that they also own. I wish this date night had ended a little bit better; their desserts did look delicious.
Update:
Since my visit at Kings Fish House both Sarah and Justin, the managers, have reached out to me separately to discuss the object found in my food and how they wish it hadn’t happened and had been dealt with in another way. This customer service after the fact is very appreciated and shows that they really do care about their customers. I will be going back to give them another try because as I said, the food was delicious.
Keep your eyes peeled for when we return. Thank you!