Shady Island Seafood Bar and Grill

I have lived in Vancouver for over sixteen years now which means that it gets harder to find new and exciting things to do when my Mom comes to town. Some things we repeat, the Granville Island market is a favorite, and some things I will never do. I am talking to you, suspended bridge of doom. This visit was our first trip to Steveston. For living here so long, Steveston is still new to me. My first trip there was earlier this year for BBQ. This time we were there for the fish and chips.

Big M, surprisingly, decided to opt out of the trip to Steveston to poke around in the little shops and awesome Farmer's Market. So it was just Mommo and I as we hit the boardwalk in search of food. It was an amazingly beautiful Sunday so every place we saw was packed.  We randomly chose a restaurant which turned out to be Shady Island Seafood Bar and Grill.



It was a beautiful day so the ample patio seating was full. Happily we had a very short wait.



The inside of the place was empty. Mainly because why would you sit inside on such a beautiful day, (we've had so few) but I think the horrifying carpet may have had something to do with it. Yikes. The carpet was black and kind of sticky. The carpet leading to the bathroom was not pleasant. The bathroom was very clean, happily. I was worried on the walk up there.

Service was pretty slow and fairly erratic. The waitress said that they did not have any bussers on shift. On a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. Mistake. They did have unlimited refills on ice tea.



Mom went with one of the specials of the day, Cod Bites.



I thought the bread crumb crust was a nice change from a beer batter. It made the bites crunchy without a thick coat of batter. The chipotle and tatar sauces were nice, but I would guess they came from a big bucket of pre-made sauce instead of a fresh, homemade sauce. Mom ordered salad so I thought the inclusion of ketchup was a bit strange. Probably preset on the plates in the kitchen. She liked them, they were fine.

I went with a pretty traditional choice, one piece of cod with fries.



It has been a while since I ordered fish and chips and I forgot that it would most likely come with the dreaded coleslaw. I am not sure what coleslaw did to me in a former life, but I can't stand it. I try to remember to ask for no slaw when applicable because I hate wasting food, but I still won't eat it if it is on my plate. The batter was good, crunch but not overly thick and it was a generous size portion of fish. The texture of fish was lacking. It was, cream? Thick? Not flaky? Hard to describe but not entirely pleasant.

It took forever to get our bill and get out. You would think that clearing us out would be a top priority with the line of people waiting.

I have since learned that Pajo's is the place to go on the boardwalk. Had we turned right instead of left, we would have ended up there. Maybe we will try again when the in laws come to town. Another thing I learned is that you can play "Dust in the Wind", "Sound of Silence", the theme from Kill Bill and "We are the World" on pan flute.