Goldfish

In the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to dine at Goldfish in Ossining twice. The first time I went was during restaurant week. I found the meal to be a little off, but I didn't write about it because I thought the fixed price menu and the increase in customers might have put undue stress on their systems. For example, I had the seared tuna, and the fish, while perfectly cooked, was not the quality one could expect at a restaurant specializing in fish. To add to my latest theory, the kitchen gave a ridiculously large portion. I feel that chefs, in an effort to fight higher costs, have been increasing plate size to make up for purchasing lower quality ingredients. I'm not saying the food was bad, but it wasn't as good as it had been during the summer when we last went.

I went back a week and a half later with my in-laws. I started with the pan roasted octopus that turned out to be a mistake. The meat itself was barely edible. To add to the failings of the texture, the kitchen had left way too much of the tentacles uncut and they ended in pointlessly long squiggles of chewy string. I was actually shocked. If it had just been the sauce or the idea of the dish I wasn't pleased with I would take on a much mellower tone in my critique, but there were no components of this plate executed properly.

For dinner I had the roasted Chilean sea bass. The fish itself was perfectly cooked this time, but the crust was very soggy. The portion size and the good fire on the fish helped to make up for any flaws (again, that portion size was very large and makes me wonder).

My in-laws had soup/chowder and those were very tasty. Chrissie had the tuna tartare. The tuna chunks and the portions were huge (not in a good way) and the the overall dish was heavy. She had a special for dinner that was fine.

High Points-

• Great service
• Interesting location and physical layout
• Almost an all fish menu
• A gigantic martini that I almost couldn't finish
• Fish was all well cooked (with the exception of the octopus)
  

Low Points-

• Quality of food is not as high as it was last year
• Two nights in two weeks with meals that all had real problems
• The octopus appetizer was the worst dish I've had in a quality restaurant in a long time

Will we go back? We have had great meals at Goldfish. We sent my Aunt and Uncle there this winter and they had a few very good meals. With that in mind I am willing to go back to Goldfish and give them another chance, but I can't imagine that happening before the summer.

Update- We went back recently with my aunt and uncle. The food was in fact differently portioned (the sea bass was a normal sized piece and did not have the oily crumb crust). My aunt described a similar experience with the octopus and no one tempted fate by ordering it a third time. The only issue of the evening was a plate of truffled French fries that arrived just as we were ordering dessert. The management was very apologetic and offered complimentary desserts to balance out the issue. The real shame of the matter was that the fries were very good and I would have enjoyed devouring them during the meal.


Goldish is located at:
6 Rockledge Avenue
Ossining, NY 10562