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Restaurant review

Wild Fish looks like a keeper

The restaurant on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor is dishing out flavors not often seen in these parts.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published December 8, 2005

	[Times photo: Scott Keeler]
	Wild Fish’s menu relies on Latin and Caribbean styles. Clockwise from front: clams and chorizo, pork tenderloin, and banana-leaf-wrapped golden tile fish Veracruz style.

Imagine my surprise to find a taste of Florida on U.S. 19, a solid bite of good ol' amberjack and nuevo tuna con cilantro and fennel.

Yes, that 19 - the one that once led people to a land of sunshine and relaxation and now paves over it - has a good new restaurant. The location is even more ironic: It's at that low spot in the road that was once home to Bill Irle's and Kissin' Cuzzin' and more recently tried to stumble upscale as St. Andrew's Steakhouse and Belly Timbers.

The newest incarnation, Wild Fish, is the most elaborate and successful so far with tropical woods, natural colors and a patio shaded by potted palms and chrome-leafed heat lamps, Florida's other tree. The big-city cooking of Mario Garland is far more than a remodeling, not just fish and diced fruit but major new constructions of classic Latin tastes in ambitious contemporary presentations. Vaca frita, the familiar fried shredded beef, is redone with pork, fried-up citrus and cumin on spinach stacked in a bowl of pureed boniato. Boniato is a great island vegetable that looks like mashed potatoes but is actually a yam that's as sweet as gingerbread.

The cooking here stays happily in Latin and Caribbean spheres, elevating their flavors and traditional ingredients, rather than fusion confusions. Okay, there's a black bean polenta, but cornmeal is American not Italian, dadgummit, and also salmon on a plank, which has gone from trendy to cliched in record time.

And in two months, some temptingly authentic dishes have been scuttled by Pinellas-ization. Mofongo, the stuffed plantain confection that is a signature of Puerto Rico and here was stuffed with shrimp, was too much for local tastes. It had been revised as a stack of shrimp and tostones, fried unripe plantains. Not bad, but not the same. No luck with the heads-on shrimp either. Now the offering is closer to yet another coconut shrimp although the lemongrass coconut sauce and swiss chard gave extra zest.

What's left, however, is plenty. The center of the menu appropriately is fresh grilled fish, grouper to line-caught salmon to mix-and-match with Latin accompaniments. Sauces include mojo butter, a curry, tomatillos and chimichurri, plus yuca fries, black beans and boniato and a yam hash.

Best of all, the fish offerings include amberjack, one of our not-for-tourists fish, one that's rich and fatty and, yes, tastes like fish. A snapper special couldn't come close to a nice slab of grilled amberjack. Add tamarind sauce, tart-sweet and earthy, and yuca fries and you'd have Cracker steak et frites. Skip the chayote ragout; I like this squash by any other name, christophine or mirliton, but it was just too hard. The amberjack in a banana leaf with sweet potato strings is on my list for the next visit.

The one place amberjack failed me was in a ceviche with pineapple, avocado and mint. All great flavors but the fish was too soft. There are many other good choices among the appetizers. Clams and chorizo bring together two of the best flavors on the Iberian coast; bring on the bread. Wild Fish also has a real cheese plate you can trust and enjoy, a mild mahon, a gutsy manchego and a smoky San Simon, with serrano ham, Cantimpalo chorizo and a soppressata plus olives. And there's more here for next time too: fish taco, pincho skewers, mussels in escabeche with hummus and ceviche of mushrooms and olives.

The finish is classic too: good espresso and a slice of tres leches cake, the wickedly sweet dessert of Nicaragua. Bread is traditional Cuban, the wine list is sharply selected and priced well. The staff knows its way around a challenging menu with pride and helpfulness.

Wild Fish diners need not steer far from home - there's chicken and beef, too, and a vegetarian entree (you can trust this too, as the kitchen is full of vegetables and treats them well). Even the most landlocked taste buds will appreciate Cabrales, one of Spain's blue cheeses, in the mashed potatoes. While I wish that Wild Fish had a bolder name and fresh-from-sea shrimp, heads and all, it has the courage to go beyond more timid seafood outfits. The cooking and thinking here celebrate Tampa Bay's catch and Spanish heritage with robust flavor and contemporary cooking.

Creative Latin cooking, a signature of South Florida for 15 years, is still rare on either side of Tampa Bay; no one will mistake mid Pinellas for South Beach.

Yet U.S. 19 now leads some place wild.

- Chris Sherman dines anonymously and unannounced. The St. Petersburg Times pays for all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for a review or the assessment of its quality. Sherman can be reached at 727 893-8585 or sherman@sptimes.com

28910 U.S. 19 N

Clearwater

(727) 239-7700

Hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 4 to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday

Details: Reservations suggested, full bar available, outdoor seating

Prices: $5.70 to $20.50

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 10:49:56]