Occasionally in my travels I come across food establishments that just need to be mentioned. Usually its a small local eatery that has such amazing food that it should be considered a 'Jewel' in whatever city it resides. Of course there is a flip side to that coin, there's very occasionally a place with food so horrible that I feel its a public service to spread the word. This is the case with Ocean Fish and Chips in Sacramento, CA.
This small little food stop is located on the outskirts of Metro Sacramento, in an area called Arden Arcade. It boasts as its signature meal as London Style Fish & Chips, written across the large window. When you walk in, you'll notice a few customers seemingly enjoying there meals, which will put you slightly at ease after seeing there were no cars in the parking spaces in front. I suppose they live close by and walked in??
The gentleman who takes your order is a very friendly Japanese man, his wife will wave and say hi, and you will feel quite welcome. I decided to try a few different things, and see if this was going to be my 'go to' restaurant in Sacramento. I was served up with my order which consisted of the London Style Fish & Chips, Fried Scallops, and a Teriyaki chicken bowl.
Lets start with the London Style Fish & Chips: The fish was deep fried and it was served with fries, that was as close to London Style that I could see. The batter was plain, and though light and crispy, really had no taste other than the oil it was fried in. The fish itself, I couldn't identify, though I would guess it was pollock which is cheap and commonly used for batter cooked fish. It had a nice flaky texture, but still it didn't really taste like fish. Now usually it's hard to mess up french fries, you drop a string potato in the the grease & fry to a golden brown, remove, drain, season, serve... easy peasy.... or is it?? These fries were obviously frozen, not a terrible thing for a local joint, but these were freezer burned.. and you could taste it. Sadly a little seasoning would of at least covered up the freezer burned taste a little, but they were served without even a pinch of salt.
Next was the Fried Scallops: Now I've met chefs who couldn't properly cook a scallop, and even more customers that have never eaten a properly cooked one. So I really didn't have high expectations or any expectations for that matter, and yet I was still disappointed. First they were overcooked, ok big deal I could live with that. But what really scared me was the taste. Have you ever bitten into something truly rotten, that taste of 'YUCK' that swirls in your mouth and causes you to salivate to point of wanting to vomit. I chewed 3 times and spit it out, nope I wasn't going to take the chance.
I spent a good 5 minutes trying to get the rancid taste out of my mouth. And when most of it was gone, I decided to try the Teriyaki Chicken bowl: I ordered the Teriyaki sauce on the side, to many times I've been burned with a really bad sauce on fairly good meat. Just because someone can make one doesn't mean they can make the other as well.. LOL! The amount of chicken was disappointing considering what I paid for it, about a 1/4 cup of chicken on a large bed of rice with sesame seeds sprinkled on it. I took a bite of chicken and was overpowered by the taste of salt. The same taste you get when eating one of those frozen over proccessed meat-like bags of chicken you buy at Wal Mart. This was not good, but I struggled through and dipped a piece in the teriyaki sauce, which didn't add anything. It was a weak and watery sauce... with barely a hint of teriyaki.
It goes without saying that I didn't finish any of this food, and sadly the only thing with any flavor was the overly salty dark meat chicken. I will ovoid this place every time I'm in town, and I recommend you avoid it to.
