Two Fish Bistro

One of my favorite spots in Columbus! Best fish tacos and great pasta dishes. Didn’t realize it closed until I was in Columbus for Thanksgiving and was going to stop in. Sad, but was never busy when we went in at dinner prime time.

They have started off with 4 stars. We were greeted by a very pleasant young man who explained they had some various groupon and living social deals going on and wanted us to clear about the rules. He did a great job of explaining things. They got to keep their 4 stars throughout the meal.

Horrible food… tasted like it was prepared days ago. Fish was not fresh and sushi rice tasted like kroger… just hard, al dente, brick like. Calamari was cheap Asian style. It’s the rubbery crap from China that you can see the purple skin rather than high-​quality European style ones. I felt like crap next day because of the expired food they dished out.
Wasabi made from powder was diluted so much that you can literally eat it and not even get a nose burn.
Nice décor and that’s all. I would ask them to just please shut down, but another crappy restaurant would just take it’s place.

I wish I could write a review on their food. I wish I could even write a review on their drinks. But after sitting at our table for about 45 minutes without even receiving our drinks and having our waiter ask us more than once what we had ordered we gave up & went somewhere else (and the place was not even close to full). I can only recommend this place if you really enjoy water & you’re in no hurry whatsoever to eat. This place is an embarrassment to the otherwise great Short North. Hopefully someone who deserves to be there takes over this space soon!

The restaurant is located on the bustling High St. in the short north. The large open windows only purpose is to remind you of all the places you could have eaten and enjoyed. As you sit with your partner gazing at the scene outside you will soon realize that no groupon is worth the amount of time spent here. Observing the fun and merry making occurring outside will only sharpen the contrast. If you are depressed and want to lower your mood even more, please come here.

I heard from one of my coworkers that another restaurant just a couple doors down was very, very good. So I decided to give it a try and bought a Groupon.
A little pricey… even at happy hour. The special of the day, crab cake was awesome. I got the seafood pasta and it had the biggest mussels I have ever had (and I have to both coasts). My man got the shrimp and grits, he enjoyed his meal very much.
Still no complaints after a second visit. This time we didn’t get an appetizer to share. I got the twice baked salmon with cilantro rice served over a portabella and topped with mozzarella… yummy.
My man got the crab cake appetizer which was large enough to be his meal. It was lightly breaded with panko and drizzled with spicy aioli. It was delicious.
We will be back again, but due to the economy we will have to wait until I can get another Groupon.

Ever get to a restaurant and sit down and read the reviews and go «crap»? That’s kinda how I was feeling post drink order. I didn’t chose the place, a friend did that I was meeting here.
Upon walking in the hostess was alright, not super friendly but not rude either. I sat at the bar and ordered the sangria lemonade written on the chalkboard. I thought this would have been something already made up but she made it on the fly in a small glass. I wish I would have read the tips on foursquare to avoid it but — too late. It was just a little too something. Burn my mouth something. My friend «kinda» liked it as she likes spicy stuff. I left half the glass there.
Food wise we ordered a couple of rolls and the fish tacos. The fish tacos aren’t really tacos. They are in a little edible bowl. They were ok. We ordered the Columbus roll and Spider roll. They were ok but … Imitation crab? Huh?
A few people came while we were there but it never got super busy. For being a busy part of town and half price rolls (until 10, every day), that should tell you maybe it shouldn’t be your first choice.

A three star rating would normally be for a dining experience that was average. However in this case, Two Fish gets the rating for being absolutely excellent in some aspects, and absolutely dismal in others.
The food:
+ Mahi Mahi was out of this world. The spicy-​yet-​savory mix of flavor and aroma was mouth watering. I would come back just for this!
— The sushi left a lot to be desired. For instance, the cucumber completely overwhelmed the other ingredients so much so that it tasted like I ordered cucumber roll. Odd.
Service:
+ the waiter was very friendly, attentive, etc.
— one dish arrived 15 minutes before the other! My guest was completely done eating before I even got my food. Not acceptable.
Ambiance:
+ good location in Short North, lots of space and nice decorating
— Maybe I’m not much of a looker, but they stuck us all the way back in another empty wing of the restaurant! I got the impression they were trying to make the place look more full than it really was.
Overall, average — but not an average place. Worth a try, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to stop back sometime to see if Two Fish has improved.

I’ve eaten here twice, the first time the food was delivered incredibly slow (like others have mentioned), but the second time everything went smoothly (I’m sure they’ve been improving) I’ve only eaten the sushi and the chocolate cake here, but what I’ve had has been delicious. The bartenders are very chatty and friendly and the waiters are nice too. I’ll be back

Needlessly slow service to be seated, bland menu options which include the bourbon chicken which tasted like some minute rice with chicken broth.
Then we saw a giant roach behind me. We alerted a passing by waitress who was not surprised as she killed the thing. We asked for the manager and were offered sake shots and a lame dessert. Beware of this place kids!

Service was beyond awful… I mean embarrassingly bad. We had a table of 3 on November 16^th, and a 7 o’clock reservation. We received appetizers and entrees at the same time, at 8 o’clock. Our waitress never returned for a follow up, to get drink refills and forgot to bring the soy sauce and dishes for sushi. I then asked a manager to help us with that, who in turn brought us dirty dishes to use! When I said, «oh, these are dirty» she said «they’re fine, just not polished!» Haha like I said, embarrassingly bad… We then had to wait 45 minutes for a bill that never came until I went and asked for the third time… All the while, nothing was cleaned up from the table, nor any other drinks received. We left extremely disappointed around 9 o’clock.
This is the 3^rd time I’ve gone and received this kind of service and for the price and food, it most certainly is NOT worth it!

We visited Two Fish on a Sunday afternoon. There were only 2 tables other than ourselves and 2 servers. We began with sushi and had the red roll and the Sakura roll. They were both good. However, the red roll was listed as being only 4 pieces, but when it came it was only 3 pieces and an end. The end had no shrimp, crab or veggies in it. It was simply a roll of rice with a piece of salmon on top. We brought this to the attention of our server who simply acted like «these things happen when it’s made sometimes.» When paying $ 13 for 4 pieces, I expect to get 4 pieces.
For the meal, we shared the short ribs which were extremely fatty. They were served with asparagus and «mashed potatoes». The asparagus was great. The potatoes were not at all impressive. There were lots of large chunks and lots of broth poured all over it. It also had some crispy fried greens with it that added a nice touch.
The service here is lacking to put it nicely. Our server was in no hurry to get us anything with lots of flirting with the rest of the staff to be done. We had to ask for everything, from refills to plates for sharing (Never did get any with the sushi). My wife’s glass had lipstick on it and when brought to the servers attention was again no big deal to her.
We won’t be visiting here again! Lots of improvement needs to be made with the service and food!

I’m a big sushi fan and am always looking for new sushi places to try.
I came into Two Fish Bistro after exploring High street for a good place to stop. Given the fact that I was on a tight schedule, I didn’t get to order as much as I typically would have, but given the short time I was there, I had a pretty good experience.
My server was very gracious and patient with me as I struggled to figure out what sushi I wanted to order (50% off sushi? Hell yea!). They had a pretty good sized menu and to be honest, I still don’t know what I ordered that day. All I know is that it was gone within 10 minutes after the plate was set down in front of me. I also enjoyed a nice bottle of sake, which was okay, but I still consider myself more of a wino though!
Overall, great service, great atmosphere, and great sushi. Definitely will be back!

Can I get a what what???
I originally walked in from ComFest with the intent to steal an outlet to charge my dead phone, but the ambiance and the wafting delicacies from the kitchen convinced me to eat a meal at the bar while I stole electricity for my dying phone. :)
I had the Crispy Spicy Tuna Roll… I said to myself what the hell it’s Sunday you have to go back to your shitty job tomorrow and it’s ComFest try something different!
I asked the hostess her opinion and it wasn’t really much of one just that a lot of people enjoyed it. She stated that she had not had it before.
This is unlike your normal run of the mill Whole Foods-​Giant Eagle sushi. This Crispy Spicy Tuna Roll created in the heavens by the ultimate foodie is sushi on Crack/​Coacine. Talk about flava. This dish is DEEP-​FRIED! Yes people DEEP-​FRIED Sushi it is good and filling and I felt very dirty and yet so good at the same time. Definitely a must try for the Sushi lover.
DEEP-​FRIED Sushi??? Why Not???

Went here with a Groupon and, based on the other reviews on this site, expected to be kind of underwhelmed. However, I actually found the place rather enjoyable, and will be returning in the future.
The service was excellent (despite the place being packed due to half-​price sushi AND the Groupon event), and our food came out less than 10 minutes after ordering. I had the twice-​baked salmon, and though the flavor wasn’t very adventurous, it hit all the right notes. My girlfriend had the Cajun pasta, which was extremely spicy (as we were warned) and pretty good. The Cajun flavoring did kind of overwhelm the other flavors in the dish, but that’s to be expected with that style of food.
The one drawback is that I’m not sure the quality of the food is quite worth the price, especially with places like Nida’s nearby with similar price points. That said, we will be returning for half-​price sushi in the near future.

not bad at all
Had a groupon for this restaurant and went on a rainy Sunday Night. there weren’t many patrons inside so it was peaceful and cozy. The food was okay (had scallops and risotto) not bad but nothing to rave about. Would try again for sure, but it is in quite the competitive dining area of town.

Stay away!
I’ve been there twice now — once last summer, once last weekend. I have exactly the same complaints for both visits.
1. With several of our orders, they said «sorry, we don’t have X» — i.e. fresh basil, cilantro, Yuengling, softshell crab, avocado (I may even be forgetting some of the ingredients they didn’t have). Very awkward and silly that they don’t have such staples (ingredients in so may of their dishes and a very popular beer).
2. Service was okay. Both times we had to wait (first time, afternoon on a weekend, half-​empty place, almost an hour wait for food and way too long for the drinks. Second time, weekend evening, two hour wait for food and the place was not even close to being full). Waiter was apologetic both times, but please. Don’t make excuses («we only have two chefs this evening»), and offer us complementary drinks and food after making us wait for so long.
The group on the table next to us ended up leaving before their food arrived because they made them late for the play they were going to. I felt awful for them having to leave starving.
3. The sushi is good, but the other food is mediocre. Had a tuna tartar salad, and it was a very odd blend of only-​okay fresh tuna, cucumbers, peppers etc. (and maybe a quarter of an avocado — which was supposed to be one of the main ingredients). Not at all as it was described. Friend had a curry-​fish dish and it was overcooked. Other friend had dumplings and they were good.
Sushi is still not good enough to warrant a visit, though.
4. Not a factor, but affects the overall feel of the place: why do they have six million different genres of food? It’s sad and desperate. Pick a type and stay with it.
5. Everything is kind of half-​assed there. The table we sat at had several etchings in it (bored, hungry people waiting for their food?) and check presenters were grimy and had a different restaurant’s logo on them.

I purchased a LivingSocial discount for Two Fish, having already had a mediocre experience at its sister sushi restaurant Red (and likewise, Shoku). I would say the experience at Two Fish was likewise, mediocre.
We went on a snowy Friday night, and the restaurant was basically empty. I’m going to attribute this to the snow rather than to the restaurant itself, as other reviews suggest it is hard to get in on a typical night. The host seated us promptly, and the waitress was likewise attentive. We had fairly decent service as compared to other reviewers, however I will say that our waitress was a tad awkward – it seemed she hadn’t been working there that long, or was perhaps new to the waitressing gig altogether. She repeatedly interrupted our conversations, initially walked away before we could place our orders even though we said we were ready…
The food was ok. There’s no breadbasket or anything, which for the price point ($ 16-​$ 25/​plate) seemed lacking. The portions are rather small – I again ordered a roll off the Red menu, knowing it was going to be mediocre sushi. My partner had twice baked salmon, which he said was delicious but small. I had the salmon carpaccio salad, which was nothing like it was described on the menu. There was raw salmon yes, and greens, but the rest of the listed ingredients (raisins, sunflower seeds, etc) were no where to be found.
I like the idea of the restaurant, asian fusion seafood, however much like the other Treepoint Group Restaurants (Shoku, Red, Madrid, the late Black Olive) that I’ve tried, I’d say you could get more for your money both food and experience wise elsewhere.

Went here for a birthday for a friend. The word was that they made you give a credit card number to hold the reservation… If no one showed, they charged the credit card $ 10 per person. Considering the host of other restaurants in the area without similar requirements, I thought it odd and perhaps indicative of other policies that make this place much less successful than it’s next door neighbors.
We had a big party in an oddly arranged, but beautiful room. Our waitress was very pleasant and efficient dealing with a kind of rowdy crowd, but obviously frazzled even though the place wasn’t particularly busy. I believe this was due in part to the «two fish» concept, where the hot and cold kitchens work independently from one another… It is therefore impossible time orders to come out in the same time if you order from each. The problem with the concept being that (1) it is kind of annoying and (2) there are plenty of other sushi places with a hot kitchen that are able to time the entrees together.
Sushi was good, but average though really cheap because it was half off. Happy hour drink prices were good. Because I am a big fan of Akai Hana and Sapporo Wind with much superior sushi, I can’t say I was particularly impressed.

Recent night out for Gallery Hop led me to check out Two Fish Bistro — some place I’ve wanted to go to for a while.
I actually ate dinner earlier in the evening and stopped in just for a glass of wine and a small bite, so I can’t rate their full menu accurately.
That being said, I wished I had skipped the first restaurant of the evening and just ate here. Everything on the menu looked fantastic, and I was really impressed with the variety of sushi available here. I saw a couple plates come out and everything looked fantastic.
Very nice staff and pleasant environment — definitely coming back to check out the full menu soon,