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Tin Fish Sunrise

Tin Fish

10053 Sunset Strip
Sunrise FL, 33322
(954) 766-4627
Overall Rating
1.9
Food
Service
Ambiance
Value
Last Review
01/31/2015

Details

Hours: 7 Days 11am-8pm, Fri, Sat Open til 9pm
Attire: Casual
Parking: Private Lot
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Wine and Beer
Outside Dining: Yes

Pros

Clean Decor
Interesting Concept

Cons

Disappointing Food
Slow, Indifferent Service

Insider Tips

Long John Silver's is Cheaper.

Critic's Review

I'm not sure why I wanted to go to Tin Fish. It's not in the normal coverage area. There aren't any planned for Fort Lauderdale, as far as I know. But there was something catchy about it. To me, "Tin Fish" is fish that comes in a tin, like Sardines or Tuna Fish. But this seems to be something different.

While it's officially in Sunrise, it's just about a mile off of 595. So on a Saturday afternoon it was a pretty quick trip; about 20 minutes. However once you "arrive", the shopping center where it's located has a parking lot that's a disaster. Clearly designed by an idiot, I had 4 near accidents before finding the place in the rear next to Doris Market.

I expected something else; I don't know why. It's a small storefront place that looks like a retrofitted fast food joint. I grabbed a table and took a look at the menu.

Tin Fish Sunrise Interior

A middle aged dude came by and I ordered an iced tea. The "tin" here is somewhat contrived; sugar comes in a "tin" and the menus have some metal on them. That's all that I could figure out.

Tin Fish Ice Tea

The first sign of trouble was that the cup wasn't filled up. It was a big cup. All of their "platters" are breaded and fried, so the only other "fish" choices are the Grilled Plates. A major disappointment is they don't have any fish here than you can't get in every other restaurant. Shrimp, Salmon, Tilapia, Mahi, Ugh. Their "Famous" fish sandwich has "Alaskan Whitefish", which is probably Pollock, so I passed on that. They make their Fish & Chips with it too.

I went for a Red Snapper plate and a cup of their "Award Winning" New England clam chowder. The menu says that they make "Fresh Soups Daily at Market Prices" but no specials were offered to me.

Music is Styx and more Styx; apparently the owner likes Styx? Could be worse. The soup came out almost immediately.

Tin Fish Clam Chowder

The first impression was that it was very thick and creamy. I took a taste, and it was way too sweet. There's no sugar in Clam Chowder; the sweetness overpowered the clam juice taste which is the entire point of the soup. Mostly potatoes and minced clams (probably from a tin); I find it hard to believe that anyone who'd ever had NE clam chowder before would give this an award. I Googled and couldn't find an actual award, so I surmise that they made their awards up.

Tin Fish Clam Chowder

I had to wait a while for the "entree"; I listened to a couple of Styx tunes while waiting. They have this thing on the wall; I couldn't figure out what it was. I was thinking that it would be pretty Rad if they could get the Super Bowl on that thing.

Tin Fish Wall Thing

Finally, the "chef" brought out the Snapper. I almost snickered when I saw this. What was that it was sitting on, plain shredded cabbage? There was also a yellowing kale leaf as garnish; isn't garnish supposed to make the plate look more attractive?

Tin Fish Grilled Snapper Plate

Before tasting anything, I just kept thinking why wouldn't they just give you more cole slaw rather than useless and inedible cabbage? Nobody eats raw cabbage; it just got in the way of eating the fish. After tasting the cole slaw, the idea became moot, because it was too sweet, mayo-less and awful.

Tin Fish Cole Slaw

A closer inspection of their menu shows that if you want the fish on a bed of "slaw" instead of raw cabbage, they charge an extra $1. And you can't get Snapper. Don't do it.

The fish itself was just grilled; it appeared to be grilled dry without any seasoning or fat. "Healthy", maybe, "Tasteless", definitely. What's fairly entertaining is that while they don't cook the fish with butter or oil, which would make it taste infinitely better, they do serve it with Tartar Sauce. More like a mayo, it reminded me of the Tartar Sauce I had the other day at the Tilted Kilt in Boca.

Tin Fish Grilled Snapper

While I was eating, some people gouging themselves on fish tacos who were clearly uber regulars, showed one of the owners a glowing review on their cell phone. All I could think about was how damaging this was to society in general; if ever there was a restaurant in need of stern criticism it's this restaurant.

I was going to ask the Dude about the Wall Thing, but he never came by to check on anything; or to refill my iced tea. I finally got his attention and signaled that I wanted my check. I asked him if this was a franchise operation (which would explain many things); but apparently these are some sort of showcase restaurants that they're attempting to license or franchise. I wasn't tempted.

Conclusion

Tin Fish is a restaurant created by people who create cookie-cutter restaurants and who know nothing about the preparation of good food. Everything I had was devoid of culinary skill, from the too sweet soup and cole slaw to the bad tartar sauce and dry-cooked fish. Presentation isn't a strong point either.

$20 for fish might not seem bad, but I'd rather have a tuna fish sandwich than this.

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