Fish Camp, Seafood That's Off the Hook? - CLOSED

Fish Camp

16600 Pacific Coast Highway

Huntington Beach, CA 92649

It used to be that you could only get fish at fancy restaurants—places with white tablecloths, waiters dressed in bow ties, and prices that you had to take out a second mortgage to afford. At least, that was the way it seemed to me while growing up. The only fish we ever ate when we were young came from the freezer or H. Salt Fish and Chips.

Times have definitely changed. Since starting this blog, I have written about several casual fish restaurants. Slapfish is a casual seafood restaurant and one of my favorite restaurants in OC. Spike's Fish House opened in RSM last year. Boneheads is also a pretty solid fast fish restaurant with a great Peri-Peri sauce. Almost every other shopping center now features a fish taco place to help squelch your fish cravings. We recently became aware of another casual seafood restaurant to try in Huntington Beach,  so we made the trek up to Surf City to try out Fish Camp.

Fish Camp comes to you from the same restaurant group that gives us King's Fish House.  I have always enjoyed my numerous trips to King's Fish House, as you can read here. Fish Camp is King's answer to the casual seafood craze that has taken over lately. Opened in 2010, Fish Camp strives to deliver fresh seafood at more affordable prices. They recently revamped their menu to simplify and allow customers to personalize their dining experience. Customers now pick their favorite fish, select how they want it served (sandwich, salad, plate, or taco), and then choose a preparation style: grilled, crusted, blackened, BBQ spiced rubbed, and a la plancha. All these choices work out to over 700 combinations you can partake in. That is almost two years of dinners before you must have a repeat dinner.

We arrived at Fish Camp at 6pm on a Wednesday night. The restaurant has a cabin feel, lots of wood, and a lovely large patio off the dining area. Right near the registers is a nice-looking fish counter where customers can buy seafood and take it home to cook it themselves. There was a little backup of people at the register, but that is understandable, given that so many choices exist. It also gave me some extra time to figure out what I wanted for dinner. After ordering, guests are given a pager, and the food is brought to their table. Let's see what came out of the kitchen for us.

One of the things we love about King's Fish House is the bread, which is the same bread here. This Half Loaf of Sourdough Bread ($1.25) is a great way to start your meal. This came out warm, with butter packets. I could have eaten this all by myself, but I would have felt bad doing that to Katie.

I am a sucker for crab, so it was natural that we try the Fish Camp Crab Cakes ($7.95). These two crab cakes were good sized for being listed on the small plates section of the menu. They were not greasy, but the crab could have been more prominent in these. These were paired with a cocktail sauce and a tarter sauce. The cocktail sauce was okay, but the tarter sauce was where it was. It went very well with this crab cake.

There was a little chill in the air the night we were here, so some New England Clam Chowder ($2.95) was in order. I like my clam chowder a little thicker, but this flavor was spot on. I crushed up some of the crackers to thicken this soup. There were a good amount of clams in this chowder as well.  The chowder ultimately did its job of warming me up.

Now for the main event, the entrees. Katie had a little trouble deciding what to get here, but she finally settled on the Blackened Mahi Mahi ($16.50) served with a Remoulade sauce. Katie had one issue with this fish: it needed to be cooked thoroughly. The ends were cooked well, but the middle was a little raw. Nonetheless, the blackening seasoning was perfect on this fish, and the portion size here was generous. The fish plates come with two sides. Katie selected the Jasmine Rice and the Stir Fry Veggies. She felt the vegetables were fresh and prepared well, while the jasmine went well with the soy sauce on the table.

Fish Camp offers its Camp Favorites portion of the menu for those who do not want to make too many decisions. Seven items for the people who want to take the easy way out, like me. I was immediately drawn to the Wild Parmesan Crusted Sand Dabs ($12.95) for some reason. This plate came with three pieces of fish, which were fried pretty well. I really liked the flavor of this, and the Parmesan really did not overtake the sand dabs. They could have used more sauce on these, but the capers helped ramp everything up. I had the Cheesy Grits and the Fresh Sauteed Spinach for my two sides. I am not a grits connoisseur, but I found these flavorful, and the texture was right on for me. The sauteed spinach was a tad overcooked but very full of flavor. A good plate of food.

We were full but got talked into having dessert by our food runner. We settled on the Banana Pudding ($4.45). This good-sized dessert featured smooth banana pudding, whipped cream, sliced bananas, and a couple of Nilla wafers. The pudding was a little light on the banana flavor, but the sliced-up bananas made up for that. I would have liked more Nilla wafers in this, but it was a solid dessert.

You can add Fish Camp to the growing list of good casual seafood spots in OC. I really enjoyed our time here. From what I can gather from the menus of Fish Camp versus King's Fish House, you can expect to pay about four to five dollars less per plate at Fish Camp. I did not notice a big difference in the serving sizes of the plates at Fish Camp either. We had a few minor hiccups with the food, but nothing would prevent us from returning if we were in the area. The people at the counter were accommodating in ensuring customers got exactly what they wanted, while the food came out reasonably quickly and with no temperature issues. We left Fish Camp having a good seafood dinner without withdrawing from the bank.

Out of five schools (because fish swim in schools, and the fish probably look forward to going to camp), five being best to zero being worst, Fish Camp gets 3 schools.

To check out the Fish Camp website, click here: http://www.samsfishcamp.com/