| If I was to own a restaurant
Joe Fortes' would be the kind of place
that would suit me. We visited it a
couple of years ago and had a wonderful
experience. The place was busy and
everyone was having a good time then and
the same was true for this trip. For starters we
shared a very large cold seafood platter.
There were dungeness crab meat, oysters
on the half shell, shrimp meat, prawns,
scallops, mussels, clams, salmon lox and
a variety of dipping sauces. The
ingredients were very fresh and they were
prepared perfectly. Nothing was
overcooked nor overstated. The texture of
the seafood and the delicate application
of spices were really excellent. I would
say it was some of the best seafood I
had.
One of
their specialties and the only item from
their original menu was the cedar planked
B.C. salmon. I had a taste of it. It
would be fair to say that if you enjoy
salmon you will not be disappoint with
this dish. It has to be the top salmon
dish we've had in a restaurant.
Succulent, delicate, and sheer perfection
would be some of the words to describe
this dish.
My wife
had two appetizers for her dinner. The
tomato, mozzarella, basil, balsamic
vinegar salad was fine. The supposedly
fried spicy calamari came out tasting
like a Kentucky Fried squid and the
absence of spiciness (hot). It was good
although not near what was anticipated.
My seafood
linguini had chunks of salmon and halibut
and several shrimps in the shell. The
."fresh tomato sauce" was not
the fresh as I imagined it but it was
okay. The linguini was very well prepared
and the dish came together nicely.
The
disappointment was in the Fresh Fish
Trio. It was one of the specials for the
evening and was recommended by our
waiter. It had salmon, halibut and seared
albacore tuna. All three pieces were
overcooked. It wasn't too bad for the
halibut, worse for the salmon but it was
tragic for the albacore.
The lesson
here is perhaps one should always asked
how the dish is prepared.
The
service was cordial but not very
attentive. Our waiter must be responsible
for too many tables. We recollected that
this was the same situation the last time
we visited. The total package for this
restaurant was still really quite good.
Dinner for five with three beers and a
grand hors d'eouvers (1-tier seafood
platter $50) came to $207 Canadian.
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