{restaurant} FISH in Sausalito, CA – Delicious but Crazy Expensive

I have been several times to Fish in Sausalito and it is always fantastic food. Of course, it is also helllllla expensive. It can be pretty slow in the service department, it’s cash only, and did I mention that it’s hella expensive? As my friend Whitney tweeted just the other day: “only in the Bay Area would you order at a counter and sit at a picnic table and your entree was $22.” The funny thing is, she didn’t mention the name of the restaurant, but I could guess from that description.

The positives: The food tastes great, and the place has a nice view. All of the fish is sustainably caught and organically grown which probably explains the expensiveness to some extent. But it’s kind of an idiosyncratic little spot because the food is delicious and expensive and fancy but the place is super casual- example 1, you order at a counter and then find your own table; example 2, the drinks are served in jam jars.

The best thing I’ve had were the barbecued oysters. I’m not even an oyster lover so I was totally being a martyr by agreeing to order them the first time- or so I thought. I could have eaten about 100 of them. The cocktail sauce was warm and tangy and the oysters were fresh and salty and divine.

One thing we had that was a good value was the ceviche. It was a really big portion and had huge chunks of fish in it and tasted superb.

Other random fun facts. You can get beer by the pint or QUART. I have never seen that before! Saves you the trouble of going back in the slow-ass line. There is also a fish market there where you can buy, uh, fish. Like raw fish. Which is expensive too. Did I mention it’s expensive?

It’s not in the fancy part of Sausalito that you usually go to. It’s on a weird dock thing farther south. So basically if you’re driving on the main drag and you continue south, you turn right on Harbor Drive and then it’s on your right in a parking lot. Weird! But you can’t beat the view from these outside picnic tables, especially at sunset.

So to sum up, in the pros column we have “super delicious seafood” and “great view” and in the cons we have “really expensive for how casual it is” and “spotty service that is sometimes crazy slow.” If you’re like me and find yourself driving between the North Bay and SF a fair amount, I’d say it’s definitely worth a sunset dinner stop some Sunday night when you’re headed back into the city! After a trip to the ATM, of course.

Here’s a link to their site.