I work in a tiny suburb of Philadelphia called Conshohocken. There seems to be an abundance of sandwich and pizza shops, but a serious lack of alternative dining choices. I often eat out at lunch, so the chance to dine somewhere new is truly a special treat. Blackfish is a relatively new restaurant that is headed up by Chef Charles Roman who worked his way up through the ranks at the prestigious Le Beck Fin.

The lunch menu did not have so many choices, but they options all sounded delicious. Comfort kind of foods like French onion soup and chicken pot pie, but dressed up. I ended up taking both the soup du jour and the fish du jour—a spicy carrot soup, and a pan seared salmon over fennel. The waitress warned me that the soup had quite a kick to it—which it did not, but it was still a successful dish. I like to sweat when I eat spicy food and it fell quite a bit short of that. It leaned more towards a stock then a cream base.

The salmon… I have to admit the salmon was amazing. It was perfectly cooked on the inside and had the most fantastic crust on the outside. My friend Andrew who joined me had the chicken pot pie. I liked the presentation of his dish. It had the elements of the pot pie in a bowl, with puff pastry on top, insuring a flakey crust, and simultaneously molten liquid interior. I think I may have to steal that one from the chef; it’s a fantastic way to dress up a really rustic hearty dish like pot pie.

February 4th, 2008 by John (Cho-Tabetai)