Sushi place with generic name opens at West Village in Dallas

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — Spinning off from a Houston Asian/sushi place called the Fish comes this new Asian/sushi restaurant to the West Village on McKinney Avenue called The Fish. Interesting name. Minimal, I dare say. Obviously these fellas have never tried to do a Google search for "The Fish". Or maybe they just don't want to be found easily on the WWW. Maybe they know that once people do find their Web site, they'll regret it, as they'll be inundated by repetitive dance music.

The Houston branch has generated lavish raves (and, as is always the case, dissenters, too) as one of the better sushi places in town; hopes are high for the Dallas branch too, as the kitchen is ruled by sushi chef Vu Le who most recently worked at the similarly-lauded Uchi in Austin.

The menu includes appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, sushi, and specialty rolls. An entree, the "rib eye rolls", is described as "thin slices of rib eye rolled with creamy avocados, a house favorite." Their Miso-marinated cod is "silver" (everyone else does BLACK cod); appetizers include "Chicken Karaage, Lightly battered chicken served with lemon sauce." Sounds suspiciously like chicken tenders, no? Wikipedia calls Karaage a "Japanese-style fried meat", while this site speculates that Karaage is Chinese in origin.

As hard as it is to find The Fish online, so it goes in person: The restaurant has little signage on the exterior. "I'm not sure what we're going to do about that," said one employee. Inside, the booths are done in red suede and there's a separate private-party/wine room that seats 12.