The deal: RM39 for RM80 cash voucher for food and drinks at Fisherman's Cove
What we got:
It isn't very often that we dine at Starhill Gallery, having only been to Jogoya several times and Gonbei San once. My dining partner, however, had eaten at Fisherman's Cove before and was keen for a return visit. No objections here; I get to try out a new F&B outlet and we got a pretty good discount for it, so what's not to like?
Fisherman's Cove is located on the Feast floor of Starhill Gallery, next door to Jake's. The restaurant was modeled after a boathouse, and had an open-concept kitchen with tanks of sea creatures still alive and swimmin'--you can't get seafood any fresher than that! They had an upstairs area too, but we didn't think to go exploring and sat on the ground floor instead.
Pipi clam chowder with liaison (RM28)
We started off with a soup- pipi clam chowder. It was good as far as chowders go; smooth and creamy with good flavours from the clam. It came with a slice of baguette richly topped with garlic herb butter, which complemented the soup really well. There was, however, an aspect of the soup we didn't really enjoy--the fact that bits of corn came with it. While the corn may have been used to sweeten the soup, it was a little bit strange biting into it as we felt the taste of the kernels didn't quite gel well with the chowder. Then again, this is just a matter of preference.
Pan-fried fillet of coral grouper with pipi clams and lemon-butter sauce (RM86)
Side of vegetables that came with the grouper
Mains were fish and chips for him and coral grouper for me. As someone who barely eats fish (because I cannot stand the fishiness when they're not fresh or done well), I must say, the grouper was absolutely delicious. The fish was soft enough without being flaky, and there was no fishy taste at all. The lemon-butter sauce, light with just a tinge of sour, went very well with the fish and the clams; we detected hints of white wine in it and confirmed this with the waitress. The small bowl of vegetables, which consisted of mushrooms, carrots, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, broccoli, cucumbers and zucchinis, proved to be fresh and juicy.
Englishmen fish and chips, classic apple cider vinaigrette and tartar sauce (RM68)
The fish and chips came with 3 pieces of fish, fries, wedges and a small side of salad with vinaigrette dressing. The portion was considerable and likely more than enough for an average diner, which truth be told, came as a bit of a surprise because we were expecting fine-dining sizes. The batter was a little thicker than we'd like, but it was a good fish-to-batter ratio nonetheless. The tartar sauce was pretty good too; we suspect it isn't your run-of-the-mill, squeezed-from-the-bottle sauce, because the taste was rather (nicely) pronounced. Between the pan-fried grouper and the fish and chips, there was no competition--the former won hands down, despite the portion being smaller.
Warm lava pudding served with vanilla gelato (RM28)
When asked for dessert recommendation, we were pointed in the direction of the lava pudding. The molten chocolate was a little sweeter than I'd like, but my partner found it all right. No complains here, t'was a good dessert.
Pricing was above average and a little bit steep, but you do get what you pay for at Fisherman's Cove. Thank goodness for these vouchers; not only did we get a 50% discount, but we also got a RM10 discount off each voucher, so we actually only paid RM29 for a RM80 cash voucher. On a related note, I don't know if it was because we were using the vouchers (they knew because they asked upfront), but our waitress was rather curt and standoffish, so service could've been better.
Tax: Service charge of 10% and government tax of 6%
How much we paid: RM90.60
