The Fish Man: Chinese seafood restaurant in Richmond
The Fish Man is a seafood and Chinese BBQ restaurant located in Richmond. We came here with a larger group of 7 people and 2 dogs.
Patio seating
Because we had the dogs, we had to wait for a patio seat. Even though we came on a Monday night, it was quite busy and we had to wait awhile before they had a large enough table to fit all of us. The patio is under cover but not very large, if you have a group of 4 or less you can probably be seated much faster.
The interior was very loud, it seems like sound travels quite well (maybe because of higher ceilings). Definitely a bustling atmosphere with lots of people chatting, drinking and eating.
Food
We order everything to share between 7 people.
Cucumber salad ($6)
This is one of my favourite appetizers at Chinese bbq restaurants. The salad is mostly comprised of cucumbers and peanuts in a sometimes sour, sometimes spicy vinaigrette. It is a nice cold, refreshing little appetizer.
Sichuan chicken ($9)
This is my friend’s favourite dish (he has been here before). Again, it is a cold dish and we have chicken meat marinated in this sour and spicy sauce. Like the cucumber salad, it is refreshing and stimulates your appetite.
Green salad ($7)
This is a house special salad that also contains peanuts. In general, it is a pretty decent salad – flavourful and refreshing.
Sichuan style jelly ($7)
My boyfriend chose this dish because it is similar to the mung bean noodles from Happy Tree House BBQ. The jelly is soft and quite a thick cut so it’s not really like a noodle. Again, it is sitting in a bowl of cold spicy sauce, giving it flavour because the jelly itself doesn’t have that much flavour.
Sour cabbage fish hot pot ($70)
This item arrives in one of the biggest bowls I have EVER seen. It is crazy how big the bowl is. Inside this hot pot, we have ultra thin-slice fish fillet and side veggies in a sour cabbage mild spicy soup base.
The fish is very tender and they give you a lot in this giant bowl. The soup base is quite good – not too spicy or salty – has a tinge of sourness because of the sour cabbage. I wouldn’t drink it like a soup but you definitely can if you want to.
Spicy stir-fry Manila clam ($20)
Next, we have an order of wok-fried manila clam with spicy sauce. The quality of the clams are good and the spicy sauce is not too spicy either. Portion size is generous.
Stir-fry geoduck clam ($38)
Geoduck clam is more of a delicacy so I can’t say I eat this often, therefore I think this dish is quite unique. The geoduck clams are lightly poached slices, dressed in hot ginger and green onion oil. I found that the spiciness of this dish built up over time, so it can get pretty spicy! But the geoduck clam itself was delicious and had a great texture.
Razor clams
I don’t remember seeing this on the menu so perhaps it was on special, but the razor clams dish was probably my favourite dish of the night. All the meat is actually already removed from the shell so it’s more just a decoration, but I found the clam meat to be delicious and perfectly seasoned.
Lobster with sticky rice ($68-88)
Price range depends on if you want 1.5lb or 2lb of lobster. Since we have 7 people, we opted for the 2 lbs.
The lobster sticky rice had a mouth-watering presentation. There were lots of lobster meat (some pieces easier to eat than others) and a lot of sticky rice underneath. The pairing itself is quite traditional in Chinese cuisine, but I’ve definitely had lobster sticky rice for a cheaper price at other Chinese restaurants.
Grilled lingcod ($70)
Lastly, we have the grilled fish, which comes in a giant sizzling platter. How the menu works at The Fish Man is that you get to choose your fish, and then choose your flavour. We originally wanted rockfish but it was no longer available so we went with lingcod instead. For flavours, you can choose from spicy (numb or savoury), siracha, pickled hot pepper, sour cabbage, black bean, sweet & sour, or fermented soybean. For our lingcod, we selected the black bean.
Similar to the hot pot, the fish was nice and flaky. Presentation was very colourful and fun and the black bean flavour was not spicy (I can’t eat spicy so I think that’s why we didn’t go with any of the Sichuan flavours).
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญโญโญโญ
To my surprise, we actually finished all the food we ordered. This is crazy because there was just. so. much. food. Like when that grilled fish platter came near the end of our meal, I was like NO WAY how can we fit more food but we did it. Leave it to the hungry boys.
Even though The Fish Man is also a Chinese BBQ restaurant, we didn’t order any BBQ items like the skewers, so I can’t review any of those items. But, I was quite impressed by the selection of seafood The Fish Man offers and how many different ways they can prepare it. My favourite dishes were the razor clam, geoduck, and the cabbage hot pot or the grilled fish. I think these are a MUST order because it is what they are known for. I also really liked all of our cold appetizers as well, they were all delicious and refreshing, perfect for a summer night.
I cannot eat things that are too spicy so I was worried when I realized The Fish Man is a Sichuan restaurant (they are known to eat things hella spicy), but luckily there are a lot of options for non-spicy flavours so that was great.
Price-wise, the entrees seemed expensive ($60+ for the lobster sticky rice and the fish) but split between so many people, it actually ended up not being that expensive considering the variety and quality of seafood we had.
I definitely recommend you to come to the Fish Man with at least 4 people, because honestly the size of these fish dishes are crazy. I really think it makes more sense to come with 6+ if you want to order a variety of items (or if you don’t mind packing the leftover fish home).
Sincerely, Loewe