Fish in Sausalito...almost perfect

[Shane Greenwood]

Went here yesterday for lunch. We try to frequent local restaurants that support sustainable practices, and Fish makes a very big statement to that effect. But one thing jumped out at us, they have basic Heinz ketchup, in all its High Fructose Corn Syrup glory, sitting right there on every table.

Why do so many places give us this junk to pour onto our organic, sustainable fries, burgers, and so on?

The restaurant is great but very expensive. $66 for lunch for 3. Crab Roll, Tuna Melt, cup of chowder, bowl of chowder, small wedge salad, three drinks.

Crab roll - best I've ever had
Chowder - Portuguese Red, perfect amount of spice and clam with bits of linguica, fantastic
Tuna melt - mom ordered and liked it but wasn't blown away
Wedge salad - blue cheese dressing was great

Ketchup -- industrial dreck with HFCS...why?

[EmoryJ]

A Crab Louie salad at the Scoma's there is pretty great on the right day....not as great atmosphere as teh S.F. location, but swell just the same. The Cat and Fiddle has great fresh fish and fried yummies too - it's further down Bridgeway though, off the main tourist hang

[little big al]

FYI Cat and Fiddle has been closed for years. It's been empty for that long too. So whether it was ever "chowy" is moot,( but it never was.)

[EmoryJ]

Wow..it hass been a long time.....I lived on a boat right there (Pelican Harbor) for a long time....they had good fresh fish there.......but you're right...it was never Chowy. Is their bar closed too?

[annabana]

Chuckles, its actually closer to $15, not cheap but given all the other plus', still good value. On a nice day, so much better than almost any other waterfront resto in the area.

[Chuckles the Clone]

It's certainly my favorite place in Sausalito, and really nice on a pleasant afternoon to sit by the water. No disagreement there.

But according to the online menu, f&c is $22, including tax and tip, and I'm pretty sure that's what I paid last time. If you take $17 and add 8.25% tax you get $18.40. If you add a 20% tip to that, you get $22.08. So the Fish charge is the equivalent of $17 anywhere else. If you tend to tip less, then the Fish Equivalent Charge is even higher than $17.

[wolfe]

CTC, you tip on the tax. Joe Biden would call that very patriotic.

[Chuckles the Clone]

I have a theory and my theory is this: who is going to do something more interesting with the money, my bank or this here waitressperson? 90% of the time, the answer is this here waitressperson.

[And for those of you non-patriots, who tip only 15% excluding the tax, the Fish Equivalent Charge is $17.85 ... :) ]

[Civil Bear]

Sustainable fries? What is that?

[annabana]

I love Fish, (not unconditionally, their fired oysters were awful the last time I tried them but they took them off the tab) and I think it does new readers and the resto a disservice to talk about how pricey it is w/o acknowledging that tax is included and because its mostly self service, the tip jar at the ordering counter is optional (unless they've changed their policy recently.) So that $66 lunch includes about 25% (about $16-17) which would be added on at almost any other resto. Given the quality of the ingredients, care of prep., really nice water view and locale, Fish is not cheap but I would posit it is still good value. And like RW, I actually prefer Heinz (organic or regular) to most home made ketchups, except of course, my Mom's.

[rworange]

Never realized the tax was included in the price.

[Chuckles the Clone]

If you figure tax+tip is 30%, then their $22 fish and chips work out to be $17 anywhere else. Which still seems a bit steep.

Both Heinz and Muir Glen, being worlddominating agribusiness megacorporations, have managed to hire food technologists capable of reduplicating the traditional ketchup taste in an organic format. For not much more than regular. I'll make it a point to whine to the Fish people next time I'm in there....

[wolfe]

Was it the new "better tasting" organic, made with organic sugar, or the old America's favorite classic?

[Shane Greenwood]

No, it was not the organic ketchup, just the regular "classic" ketchup. The Heinz organic does not have the HFCS, so even that would be an improvement.

[rworange]

Why? Because people like me complain because ketchup means Heinz. That being said, at the prices at this restaurant, they should spring for the organic Heinz which tastes like it originally did.

I don't like house-made frou-frou ketchup for the most part. Very few places do it competantly.

[EmoryJ]

I love the taste of Heinz's organic ketchup....I think it's decidedly better

[Shane Greenwood]

Yes, I would love to see it served by Fish and any other restaurant that is trying to embrace organic and sustainable practices. Eliminating the HFCS products would be step in the right direction.

[little big al]

At those prices I don't think it's too much to ask for home-made ketchup, but it's also not too much to expect table service and table-cloths and you're not getting those either. On the other hand I stop by Fish at least once a week to buy fish at their fish store. "There isn't a lot there, but what there is is cherse." Filleted sardines , $6 ;sandabs, $7 (no head);real cod $16 and recently even some local shrimp that never saw a freezer $18 (no heads).