Fishtales
1621
SE Bybee Blvd., 239-5796
Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. Children welcome.
Expensive.
Picks: Lobster bisque, filet of mullet, sea bass in crispy
potato crust, hake in white-wine sauce
Time was when it sufficed for a neighborhood to be
anchored by a friendly tavern or two; these days any respectable
part of town boasts a veritable flotilla of fine restaurants.
In Sellwood, the latest contender for flagship dining spot
hoists colors with flying fish painted upon its walls. Fishtales
is the brainchild of Laotian-French chef Serge Selbe and his
Spanish wife, Regina, who runs the front of the house. Serving
"New Mediterranean" cuisine, the couple has launched an ambitious
project: Most of the restaurant's fish is shipped in daily
from Spanish waters. So devoted is their commitment to imported
marine life that even razor clams, those quintessential Oregon
bivalves, must make their way across the Atlantic. The Spanish
variety, with its narrow, 9-inch shell, is far more tender
than the local crop.
There is considerable good news at Fishtales: Several species
of seafood new to Portland show up on the ambitious menu;
preparations are often beautifully conceived; and a concern
for composition is evident in the presentation. But there
are times when a lapse of attention keeps things from reaching
a standard to warrant the prices (starters at $12, $13,
even $19, and main courses at $22). Some dishes are not
served piping hot, some lack compelling flavors, and several
seem generally uninspired.
Still, there are many reasons to come here. It's a pleasant
venue, informal yet replete with gracious touches. Bright
yellow walls trimmed with sleek wood, brass fittings, a
portholed door and gleaming white napery render the space
at Fishtales entirely sympathetic. How many other restaurants
provide fish knives as a matter of course?
While you contemplate the menu, be sure to sample one of
the antojitos or "cravings," such as a tapas of gobies
or quick-fried anchovies. Gobies are tiny smelt-like creatures,
not much bigger than a fingernail, and even a half order
will deliver scores of them to dip in a pungent aioli. You
can nibble at these addictive mini-fish for a long while.
Among the starters proper, two stand out. The lobster bisque
is a deeply flavored cream soup garnished with a luscious,
floppy ravioli. Stuffed with oyster-mushroom meat and a
shaving of truffle, the ravioli lends a woodsy taste that
contrasts nicely with the unctuous and elegant bisque. A
filet of red mullet is perfectly pan-seared and served on
a bed of wild greens. It is slathered with a sharp tapenade
that salts the fairly mild fish. But the appetizer of octopus
slices with new potatoes was, on a recent visit, disappointingly
tasteless and lacked crunch; incongruously, the octopus
was served cold while the plate was piping hot. Pan-seared
scallops, plump and briny, were over-salted. As the French
say about such dishes, "The chef must be in love!"
The most extravagant appetizer is the Mediterranean crustacean
platter, heaped with razor clams, butter clams, mussels,
langoustines and prawns, a generous gathering from the sea
drizzled with garlic and olive oil. The mussels were somewhat
undercooked, however; indeed everything on the plate could
have been bubbling with greater heat.
There's a cluster of meat dishes for the finaphobic, but
since this is a seafood house, the paella is entirely fish-laden.
It's a tad soupy for my taste (fuller cooking is needed
to complete many of the dishes here), but the saffron aromas
come through. Several entrees are wonderful, especially
a gorgeous slab of hake bathed in a parsley and wine sauce.
Hake, related to the cod, is sublimely delicate and marries
well with this deep-green sauce. Few fish become insipid
as quickly as hake, so it must be extremely fresh. That
the taste of the hake is so beautifully vivid and clean
testifies to Fishtales' ability to bring fish rapidly from
Mediterranean waters to Sellwood tables.
The kitchen is at its best with sea bass, a fish whose
skin is among the most delicious of all species. Topped
with a paper-thin crust of browned potato and surrounded
by braised leeks, this dish is a nice change from fish filets
served on top of potatoes. The restaurant's other treatment
of sea bass is less successful. Here the salt-crusted baked
bass is brought to table in a wooden box of salt prior to
being filleted. But despite all the salt, the fish is too
bland; serving it with a white potato cake contributes to
a plate that's simply a paler shade of white.
One catches the chef's Asian origins in his plate of butterflied
and grilled langoustines, giant prawns whose bodies are
shaped like miniature lobsters, complete with minuscule
claws. The meat is delicate and sweet, midway between lobster
and shrimp. Delicate steamed bok choy is scattered around
the crustaceans, and little rolls of sticky rice accompany
them, along with terrific chips of fried ginger. This is
a wonderful combination of intricately blended tastes.
There's a handful of desserts, and the tiramisu is the
most interesting and unusual. The sponge cake is doused
with mocha crème Anglaise and layered with
mascarpone, but in an unorthodox touch it is placed in puff
pastry for a satisfyingly crunchy treatment.
I admire the ambitious undertaking of this restaurant.
Far too often Portlanders' choices of fish are limited to
the old favorites, and the chance to try unfamiliar species
from far-flung seas can only be welcomed. But this establishment
must pay more scrupulous attention to detail. I have hopes
that with concerted fine-tuning, the story emerging from
Fishtales will be more compelling.
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Willamette Week | originally
published May 19, 1999
|
