Dining and drinking review: Johnny's, soon to be "The Fish Peddler"

Review and photos by Kurt Kwon

Johnny's Seafood, soon to be rebranded as "The Fish Peddler," is located immediately north of The Esplanade

Johnny’s Bistro has been open for over a year now. Amazing how time flies and how many changes they’ve had. Johnny’s has been a great neighbor to The Esplanade, hosting a fully-paid private party for us last year. I’ve been here several times and consider myself a regular. But, they have had their fair share of growing pains as a new restaurant; their food quality and selection has at times been par at best, and at other times been great.  Consistency is key to earn this reviewer’s high praise. As a new restaurant they’ve strived for greatness, but have missed the mark on occasion.

The key to having a successful meal at Johnny’s is figuring out what to order. I’ve found that the fresh selections are best. Order the mussels, clams, or fisherman’s stew. Those menu items use the freshest ingredients available. The quantity of food is quite generous, especially at the prices they charge. How do they charge so little for these items compared to other restaurants?  More on that later…

My least favorite is the fish and chips. I just don’t think it is fresh. I thought they used previously-cooked and frozen fish filets, but I found out from a reliable source that they use fresh fish when in season, or they thaw out frozen fish. Nevertheless, I found it to be fairly tasteless and the batter uninspiring. At the price point for these fish and chips it wasn’t worthwhile to me. The pricing with Johnny’s seems all over the board. Fish and chips are one of the highest priced items, while the fresh oysters, clams, mussels are really cheap for the quantity. Why? Part of the answer is that Johnny’s is owned by Pacific Seafood and they basically get their fish at wholesale prices. They pass that on to us at a great savings. Perhaps the fish and chips are higher priced because they feel they can charge it at that price point because of the demand? Skip the fish and chips and order the fisherman’s stew: great value and great flavor. The stew includes a couple claws of Dungeness crab and one claw of snow crab, along with a variety of other seafood. You’ll have to work at it, but it is worthwhile.

So is it Johnny’s Bistro? Pacific Seafood? Johnny’s Dock's little brother? I always thought they were part of Johnny’s Dock, but apparently they have nothing to do with them. At one time, long ago, there was an affiliation with them, but not anymore….they just took on the Johnny’s part of the name for some name recognition. In addition to sometimes being confused with Johnny's Dock, Johnny’s Bistro has had a bit of an identity crisis as well. Are they a restaurant with a seafood market or are they a seafood market that happens to be a restaurant? Well, they have realized this is a problem, and you heard it here first…soon they will update their menu along with a new name: “The Fish Peddler” will replace all the confusion. If you haven’t been there for a while, they’ve updated some interior elements to section off the fish market. There are plans to update the bar area to a real bar. Exciting times ahead for "The Fish Peddler!"

Regardless of their name, hopefully they continue to give Esplanade residents 10% off (not on happy hour prices or alcohol).  If you haven’t been there for a while, give them a shot again. They’ve nailed down the service with a core of three quality waiters. Most of them are from fine dining backgrounds, so they do provide quality service.