Don’t look now, but it’s DineLA Week in Pasadena, and it begins today. Dine LA Restaurant Week takes place twice a year showcasing the diversity of culinary experiences Pasadena and, of course, Los Angeles, have to offer. No tickets or passes are required for Dine LA Restaurant Week. Simply dine out at a participating restaurant and ask for the Dine LA menu.
Lunches and Dinners will range from $15- $65 and above, depending on where you visit. We’re gonna be featuring restaurants all this week into next week, kinda, if we don’t explode. Let’s begin, shall we?
We began the week at Fishwives, a surprisingly busy seafood restaurant on Fair Oaks just north of Colorado. Okay, seriously, who knew? This unimposing spot, is already right now, as I’m typing this, one of the very best seafood restaurants I’ve ever visited, and I ‘ve been to my share. Frankly, I was startled at how fresh and delicious everything was, right off the bat. Or maybe, right off the boat.
As I mentioned, it was very busy Saturday night, and Fishwives was one of the few Old Pasadena eateries with a line outside. Give credit to owner Tim Tang’s grandma and great-grandmother.
As he told us before we ordered, “Back in Taiwan, where my family is from, my grandma, and my great grandma, they were involved in selling fish, because my great grandma was widowed at a young age, had a lot of kids to raise.
“So her and my grandma would go at the crack of dawn, buy fish from the harbor island, in Taipei,” said Tang, “bring it back into the city and sell it, literally right from the guys in the boats, which also made my grandma a really tough woman, dealing with sailors and fishermen. And you’ve got to sell the fish the day of, so you got to be loud, you got to be rambunctious. So the name Fishwives fits perfectly. A woman who is rambunctious and a little bit hard headed and also just a woman, so I felt like the name fit.”
FYI, a Fishwife is described as “a coarse-mannered woman who is prone to shouting” or a “woman who sells fish.” Tang’s moms had both covered.
And that background paid off for Tang, who always saw Pasadena as his ultimate restaurant town goal.
“When I was a little kid, my mom would have business trips on the East Coast all the time,” he recalled. “And so she took me there ever since I was, say, seven years old on my first trip there. And we would eat in the restaurants, like crab cakes, clam chowder and all that stuff. And I’d say to myself, “Wow, I don’t get this quality of seafood and this style,” out in California.”
Thus his mission was set.
Opened in 2017, he weathered the pandemic (remember that?) with deliveries, and felt he was truly ready when doors opened again.
“We don’t have a lot of social media, so everything is by word of mouth,” he explained. Clearly it’s a pretty big mouth.
The DineLA Week menu begins with an “amuse” of Oysters and Peruvian Shrimp, as well as a large, meaty oyster. These were all obviously swimming happily in the Pacific yesterday.
This was followed by a starter of Yellowtail Carpaccio or grilled octopus. No fans of octopus, we went with the Carpaccio. The thin slices were fresh, tart and tangy, and we could have easily downed three times as many.
For sides, there is a choice of Lobster Bisque, or Clam Chowder. We love both, but never turn down Lobster. Ever. And Tang’s bisque is spectacular.
Fishwives’ version of Lobster Bisque is sweet and creamy with chunks of lobster drowning at the bottom of the bowl, which is topped with, I believe, a swirl of creme fraiche. I ate the bisque in slow motion, but I realized even in my slow motion, my arm never stopped moving. I lowered my spoon, raised it, swooned, and repeated. And repeated.
You’ll come here just for the bisque after reading this.
And now it’s confession time: I really don’t know what I was thinking, but I actually ordered fish and chips as my main entree (I blame myself)! And then, while waiting for it, I saw Miso Black Cod being delivered to the table next to me. They were kind enough to change my order, and suddenly the whole universe changed.
The Black Miso Cod at Fishwives is easily as good as any seafood restaurant you’ll find anywhere in Los Angeles, and I’m willing to expand those horizons as well. From the perfectly crunchy crust to the puffy and airy fish itself, this dish is a tiny miracle. I could go on, but I will assume you get the idea. Just miraculous.
Dessert was chocolate ice cream and even that was better than average.
Let’s make this clear. It’s DineLA Week in Pasadena, and Fishwives is great. If you only visited one, this would be a terrific choice. And, the weeks have just begun.
We are off to a great start. Be hungry, stay hungry.
FishWives is at 88 North Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena, CA. (626) 219-6199. Www.fishwives.com.
