Saturday, December 5, 2009

Phil's Fish Market - Moss Landing, CA

Veer off Highway 1 past the power plant and pull into the Harbor, there you will find Phil's Fish Market. They pride themselves on their local fresh and flown in seafood. You may recognize Phil's from their frequent coverage on the Food Network from both Bobby Flay's Throwdown and the Dean Brothers. I have been here more than a couple of times and have yet to be impressed... will today be the day?


You walk in the restaurant and order at the counter and get a number. It was a cool day and so my Mom elected to stay inside the heated room. Most of the time it is enjoyable to sit outside, when the weather is nice.

Blah, blah, blah, blah! Disappointing clam chowder. Not a lot of flavor there. Pepper, Tabasco and Oyster crackers improved it greatly. There was enough clams, not too many poatoes - my pet peeve. But it just tasted like they used too much flour or cornstarch to thicken it. Paste like...

So this was the main event... the Cioppino. Mom and I tested it out as a potential Christmas Day meal - trying to make it easy since we will be out of town. Take out is always nice, we can all relax! We will not be having this cioppino, it tasted like a big bowl of unsalted tomato juice! Yikes. Not exactly Flavor Town, USA. The seafood was plenty, calamari a tad chewy but everything else was good. I have no idea how this cioppino beat anything Bobby Flay could make! Have you seen that episode on Throwdown?

Two drinks, 2 small cups of clam chowder, a bowl of cioppino to share - $31. Well, we experienced what we needed to experience. I am not a fan of this version of cioppino but to the restaurant's defense, there were a lot of people there ordering it - and they looked like return visitors! Glad, I tried it - try it for yourself!

1 comment:

JustinM said...

I have been to dozens of places featured on the Food Network, and there are only a couple of them that I think are any good. I think that's just the kind of places they like to feature. Popular, but not necessarily good.

What kind of camera do you use? Just curious. I'm considering getting a new one and your pictures are always really nice.

-Justin