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Monday, April 28, 2008

King's Fish House Laguna Hills Mall


24001 Avenida de la Carlota
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Tel 949-586-1515

I recently visited King’s Fish House as a party of 7. I called ahead and made a reservation so we wouldn’t have to wait for a table. I made a reservation for 6:45 and showed up right on time. The hostess acknowledged our reservation and said that she would seat us right away. She grabbed some menus and asked us to follow her. Halfway through the restaurant she stopped short. She turns around and says “It will just be a moment while we set up your table." She then walked away. We stood there a little confused. After a couple minutes we started slowly migrating back toward the front of the restaurant. I looked into the restaurant and saw some people making up a big round table. I assumed this table was going to be ours. After the table was made up, I figured that the hostess would come back and get us right away. She didn’t. We waited for another 10-15 minutes while a bunch of other people got seated. Finally she walked up to us and told us that our table was ready. She sat us at the table that I had seen them make up 15 minutes earlier.

We all sat down around the large, round table and looked over our menus. They had swordfish on their menu as their special fresh catch of the month. It was confusing to me though because we were at the restaurant in April, and there were banners all over the restaurant that stated “Enjoy Swordfish! Oct 5-Jan 31.”

Ok. I know I’m starting off this review with a lot of complaints, but don’t get me wrong. I love this restaurant. Whenever I think of going out for seafood, King’s Fish House is on my short list of places to go. This visit just started out a little weird for me.

After looking over the menu I decided to start off my meal with a Lump Crab and Bay Shrimp Cocktail ($10.95). C decided to get a cup of Smoked Salmon and White Bean Soup ($3.95) as an appetizer and S decided to start her meal off with some Salmon Sushi ($4.25). V, D and S all decided to get Milky Way Martinis as well ($8.95).

My crab and shrimp cocktail arrived, and while it was very good, I was disappointed with the size. The majority of the glass was filled up with shredded iceberg lettuce. On top of the lettuce was a very small portion of crab and about 6-8 small bay shrimp. For $10.95, I think they could have at least been a little more generous with the shrimp. I think I’ll stick to 99-cent shrimp cocktails in Vegas from now on.

C said his soup was pretty good and ate it all up.

S also enjoyed her sushi.

V, D and S all seemed to love their martinis. D had ordered it before and stated that it was one of her favorite drinks. The martini was made with Stoli Vanil Vodka, Crème De Cacao and Bailey’s Irish Crème.

After a wait that wasn’t too long, our entrees arrived. I ordered the King Crab Legs ($42.95) with corn and rosemary potatoes as my side dishes. The crab was absolutely fantastic. It was perfectly steamed and delicious. The potatoes were pan fried with rosemary, but didn’t taste that good to me. I wish they would have had a stronger rosemary flavor. They were a little bland. The corn was freshly cut off the cob, so it still had a lot of corn silk and little bits of the cob in it. It was ok, but I probably would pick a different side next time.

V ordered the Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi ($20.95). She liked it very much. She said that the coating on the fish was so delicious, it made her want to peel it all off and eat it by itself. V ordered the Vegetable Ratatouille and Spinach as her sides. She said that the ratatouille was pretty good, but also really greasy. She enjoyed her spinach as well.

R ordered the Parmesan Crusted Sand Dabs ($17.95). He had a baked potato and corn as his sides. He didn’t say much about his meal, but he has ordered this before so he must like it.

J ordered the Swordfish Picatta ($23.95). She chose the rosemary potatoes and the ratatouille as her sides. She really liked the ratatouille but was disappointed that she didn’t get much eggplant.

C ordered the Tilapia ($16.95). He ordered the spinach and white rice as his sides. I guess he’s trying to eat healthy or something. I think I heard him mention that he thought the spinach had too much garlic in it.

D ordered the Crab Cakes ($18.95) and a Caesar Salad ($3.95) for her dinner. She ordered corn and mashed potatoes as her sides. She seemed to like everything that she got.


S ordered the Swordfish Brochette ($19.75) with mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese as her sides. She really liked the mac and cheese. V stole some from her plate and confirmed that it was really good.

Overall, everyone seemed to be happy with their food. I really enjoyed my meal and I look forward to returning to King’s again. I just wouldn’t order that crab and shrimp cocktail again though.

King's Fish House on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

Bill said...

I've been to the Bella Terra location and thought the portion were a little on the small side and haven't been back ever since but the pictures you took is a different story. I might head back when I'm craving for seafood.

Thanks

ChristianZ said...

It was pretty good the one time I went. Didn't notice a problem with the portions being too small.

Anonymous said...

Good restaurant, for a chain, but very over priced. For the kind of money charged at Kings, I can go to a real fish restaurant. Portions are stingy where they need not be. Why get cheap with farm-raised Chinese raised shrimp? Or crab fresh from a tin can,imported from Thailand?

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