To be honest, when I first heard about Garage Fish in Anaheim, all I could do was think about that name. Garage Fish doesn’t seem like the appetizing name. Anyways, I decided to check it out since I heard they had good fish tacos and poke.
Garage Fish was located in a dark corner of a small strip mall just off Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim. Not the best location for a restaurant.
At first glance, the restaurant looked small, but once I peeked through through the numerous glass, I realized that the place took up a lot more space than I had first thought.
Even though the place had been open for months, I found it comical that the “Grand Opening” sign was still proudly hanging.
When I walked through the glass doors into the restaurant, I walked into a fairly large and open dining room with a counter on the left and a small sushi bar towards the back of the place. There were a few tables by the door and more tables to the right of the door. For such a large place, I was surprised that were was so much unused space. Behind the counter was a menu written in chalk on blackboards along with a small open kitchen where all the food was cooked and prepared.
It seemed like the decor was meant to be clean, cool, and modern. The interior was designed with black ceilings and tabletops, metal chairs and red booths, tin and faux brick on the walls, with music playing in the background. The decor wasn’t horrible or anything, but it just seemed to lack any warmth or inviting feelings.
The Garage Fish menu was found written on the chalkboards behind the counter. The menu was separated into appetizers, entrees, salads, and sushi. Also, if you check into the Yelp app during your visit, you can get one free fish taco.
There were also some new menu items including a fried calamari taco, oyster taco, poke salad, poke plated, salmon roll, spicy tuna roll, California Roll, crunch Roll, and rainbow roll.
While I was deciding what to order, the friendly man behind the counter gladly helped ask any of my questions and jokingly tried to get me to order more food. He explained how great the food was. Whatever he did worked as I ordered more food than I was originally planning.
After paying at the counter, I grabbed a seat and waited for my food. Immediately after paying, the same man that worked the counter and took my money proceded to head staight to the tiny kitchen area behind the counters where he began to prepare and cook food. It was interesting to watch, listen, and smell the food being made freshly on the spot.
As food became ready to eat, the man would hurry over, deliver the food hot, and run back to the kitchen to continuing cooking.
The drink menu features a good selection of bottled beers (Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin Ichiban, Kirin Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Shock Top, Blue Moon, Corona, and Negra Modelo), wine (Chardonnay and Pinot), and non-alcohol drinks (apple juice, Perrier, UCC coffee, and coconut water).
Garage Fish Taco
My first taste of Garage Fish, though a little on the pricey side, was a fried Garage Fish Taco ($3.25).
This fish taco was made with a home made corn tortilla, panko fried fish, sour cream, cabbage, pico de gallo, and aurora soruse. I have no idea what aurora soruse was, but I believe they meant to put aurora sauce, which is a tomato cream sauce.
The first thing that caught my attention was the home made tortilla. The tortilla was warm, thich, and fluffy with a great consistency. The tortilla was a perfect holder for all the ingredients that were placed on top.
A piece of fresh white fish was coated in a panko crust and deep fried to a golden perfection. Each fish was fried to order which maximized the freshness of the dish. The texture of the fried fish was crunchy and crispy. The taste was clean without any sort of greasy flavors that you often find with other deep fried foods.
On top of the fish was a simple mix of shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and a spicy tomato sauce that tasted like a mixture of tartar sauce and thousand island. The sauce worked well with the fish, cabbage, and pico de gallo.
Though a little on the pricey side, the Garage Fish Taco was great considering the taco was made to order using fresh and high quality ingredients.
Just a heads up, if you choose to take advantage of the Yelp free taco offer, your taco will be served with a premade tortilla instead of the home made version. But for free, I guess no reason to complain.
Next up was the Salmon Roll ($8.50). The roll consisted of 8 pieces of sushi wrapped with salmon, avocado, and seaweed served with wasbi, ginger, and soy sauce.
The salmon and other ingredients were fresh. The rice was cooked well but there was maybe a little too much rice for my liking. The rice, which was topped with crunchy sesame seeds, gave the illusion that the roll was much larger than it was.
The salmon roll served at Garage fish was good, but no different from any other sushi joint. Nothing fancy, just fresh.
If you are planning to share the sushi, make sure to ask for another plate.
Wanting to change it up, next up was the Garage Fish Plate ($8.00) The dish was served on a paper plate with panko crusted fried fish, steamed vegetables, rice, salad, and a macaroni salad.
Just as with the taco, a fresh white fish was panko crusted and lightly fried to a perfect golden color. The fish had a great crunchy texture without any greasy flavors. For the price, you get a lot of fish for your money.
Once again the rice was cooked well and, just like the sushi, was topped with sesame seeds and seaweed which gave each bite a little extra crunch.
The salad was quite basic with a light vinaigrette dressing. Nothing to write home about. Same with the steamed vegetables.
The macaroni salad was a little on the odd side. It tasted more like a mixture of a mac salad and an egg salad, thanks in part to the small pieces of egg mixed in.
On the side in a plastic container was more of that spicy tomato sauce that tasted like a mixture tartar sauce and thousand island.
In the end, the fish plate was fresh and seemed like a great value. It’s definitely a great option if you are trying to eat healthy.
Pros
- Food was fresh and made to order
- Fish used in plates was fresh
- Home made tortilla was great
- Good selection of beers
Cons
- Odd restaurant location
- Prices are a little expensive especially the taco
- 40 cent charge for bills using credit cards under $10