Scott’s Seafood

(Incremental update July-​30:) Scott’s in M. V. is CLOSED («hours» shown here are wrong, and I flagged the closure to Unilocal a couple of days ago). Last day was Saturday July 26 — as reported in advance by local newspapers. It closed for a makeover and update to a new style of restaurant, Mixx, in the same facilities and with many of Scott’s current staff:
The more complete story is in the PA Daily Post (print edition) of Thursday July 24. July 26 also was the last day in MV for affable general manager Marc Buhagiar (a familiar presence), who will move on to Scott’s in San José.
Originally opened 2003 under a longer name that included Scott’s but was usually shortened to «Cantankerous Fish,» then expanded in size in 2007 when it absorbed an adjacent retail space to make a bar and banquet area (which was also when I began writing about it on Unilocal), this restaurant’s name was simplified in 2012 in the course of an interior remodel, and reopened as Scott’s, but remained essentially still Cantankerous Fish, same menu etc. (contrary to misconceptions of a few people, and even journalists, who weren’t regulars).
I’ve reported about both its seafood fine dining and pioneering small-​plates Happy Hour bar menu
(started mainly by then-​chef Ryan Fillhardt as I wrote here in 2007). I dropped in twice during the final week, for both another well-​garnished grilled-​fish lunch and a final happy-​hour bar dinner. Hordes of regulars are sure to return when Mixx opens.
The Berkowitz family that operates the Max’s Opera Café group recently joined this restaurant as an investor. After closing Sunday July 27 for remodeling, the place is scheduled to reopen in September as Mixx, a more casual restaurant with a variety of cuisines. New chef Ryan Shelton (who has cooked at Chez TJ and Baumé) is due to join current executive chef Ramon Nava and plan the new restaurant’s menu.
Comments to press before the closure were that traditional US-​style seafood fine dining had fallen in popularity, and the owners want to better align this capable facility with contemporary diner preferences in the now very busy downtown-​MV restaurant row.
There’s still plenty of good fresh seafood in this neighborhood — it’s at places like Sushi Tomi, Kappo Nami Nami, and Fiesta Del Mar Too.

Sea bass and swordfish were tasty but not impressive with fair price. Place was enjoyable and comfortable for seating and atmosphere. Appetizer for Calamari can’t go wrong but not crispy either. However, vanilla crème brûlée was awful that I am not sure why it can be so wrong that we can’t finish and didn’t want to finish it (the worst I ever had in the bay area). Guess maybe just wrong chef that day. But for group or lunch, it shall be good to enjoy the feeling and chit chat with decent food. And the waiter was a little weird to ask questions. When we asked for dessert menu (party 2), most restaurants will give you 2 menus. Our server asked how many menu do you need? Well… 2… awkward. (my friend joked maybe we shall ask for 10 and see how it was)“
So, service: 3 star, food 3 star (average and eatable), parking: 3 star (it’s in Mountain View Friday night. fight for parking)

Great food, killer happy hour, better service. The sliders are a great compliment to a beer as they have multiple kinds. I’m definately a variety kind of person. Marc is a and Andrew is a great team to have as our hosts.
We even brought our one year old daughter and as a fancier place it was ok due to the openess and spacing of the restaurant.

This review is for happy hour only. We ended up at this place because Cascal was too crowded. Overall, it worked out just fine.
They have bar and outdoor seating for happy hour. The drink menu is solid, a few draft beers as well.
They have several food items for 6 bucks.
We liked the calamari and the quesadilla. It filled us up.
The outdoor seating was good because the weather was nice.
Our waiter was good to go as well.

This place is hit and miss. Thursday night, mostly empty, less than average food with slow service. Previous visits have been 4 stars with great food…

First time eating here and I couldn’t be more pleased! The restaurant is so nice and a little quiet for lunch time.
I orderd the fish tacos with salmon and avocado and it was delicious :) And the chocolate pot de crème was spectacular!

Scott’s Seafood is okay /​decent.
I stopped by with a couple friends for Happy Hour last night, and we ordered a dozen oysters, calamari provencal, steamed mussels, cantankerous nachos, bruschetta, Mediterranean olives and cheese, and the lamb sliders.
Nothing was really that great.
The oysters were probably the best out the choices made, but they were just okay. A little too small, and not very flavorful.
The calamari however, as well the mussels, nachos, bruschetta, olives and feta cheese, and the lamb sliders, were all sub par.
Overall, I just wasn’t that impressed by anything. And it definitely didn’t help that the dishes and silverware seemed dirty. (Water spots on everything.)
I probably won’t be back. .. the Unilocalers before me were spot on with the 3 star rating.

I really liked this place! We went there last night because we got a reservation off of Open Table, and I was super excited because I love seafood and I have never been here before.
I was stoked to see that they had red snapper on the menu; I had not had it since my trip to Mexico and have seriously been craving it. It was excellent! Served with a delicious salsa, potatoes and salad, it had me in a food coma! My boyfriend got the calamari appetizer and mahi-​mahi, and that was also great. I think it had a mango salsa on it. Our server was excellent. Tip: don’t fill up on the delicious bread at first; save room for the entrée.
And with a check in from Unilocal,with 2 entrees you get a free dessert. We got the sorbet sampler and it is highly recommended! I felt very heavy walking to the car but so worth it!

Let me begin by telling you that this was my first and last visit to Scott’s! Had my day not been as great and their drinks not as strong, my Valentine’s day would have been completely ruined.
Here are all the things that went wrong:
–When my husband and I got seated and removed the napkins, we discovered that the tablecloth had food stains left behind from previous patrons. At first we assumed that it was an oversight by the busboy, due to a packed restaurant. But then we saw him pat down the food stain saturated table cloth on the table next to us and place silverware. Maybe they didn’t have sufficient red tablecloths, but I surely do not want to begin my evening by laying my arms on some left over food.
–Our waitress brought me the wrong drink and didn’t seem to want to be there that night. She was not friendly, but I wouldn’t call her rude either. The ONLY time when she actually gave us a smile was when she had delivered our check (sorry honey, this won’t help you get a better tip).
–And here is what ruined our dining experience completely: when I told the waitress that I wanted to take my leftovers home, she took the plate that contained a good third of my steak, placed other DIRTY dishes into my leftover plate and took it to the kitchen. WHO DOES THAT? Needless to say, I left my doggy bag at the table.
The food is not bad and the bartender is awesome, but based on the above experience, I would not recommend this place to anyone!!!

Here’s what I loved about our girls night at Scott’s. We started out on the patio around the fire put. It was charming. We shared lots of happy hour bar snacks. Salmon sliders were the highlight for me.
When it got chilly we went to a semi private room in the back for salad and dessert. The watermelon arugula salad was amazing. The honey vinaigrette was the perfect compliment to the peppery arugula.
I had the sorbet sampler. The apple and passion fruit flavor a we’re amazing! We had a great time, we’re never rushed, and received excellent service.
With holding 5 th star since this was my first time there and the entrée prices were a little high.

I came here for a holiday christmas dinner with my coworkers… oh boy the food here is not great for the price! You would think the food would look pretty good when they serve it to you but I was wrong… We ordered a bunch of drinks before hand and the service was pretty good. The issue is the food. My steak looked so sad! Something you would get at Dennys… you know that color of steak where its pale looking. Don’t waste your money here!!!

Whatever good. Not going back.
Fish is okay. Steak sucks.
Went with 15 people all will agree with me.
BTW their Crab Cakes sucks. It’s full of veggies.

Came here for dinner while in the Moutainview area. As it was getting late and this place was less crowded than the first place I passed, I decided to give this a try. After being seated I decided to check the Unilocal reviews and began to think I had made a bad choice. Since I was too tired to look for another place I stayed.
And thankfully, I did not regret staying. I ordered the Grilled Salmon Scampi which was very flavorful. More importantly, because the place was not that busy my order came fairly quickly.
Service was great; my server was just attentive enough. The ambiance wasn’t the best primarily because the place was fairly empty.
Tasty food and great service; I will definitely visit Scott’s again.

I haven’t been to any Scott’s in a while and the Jambalaya reminded me why. The first bite should have raised a red flag; it was supposed to a white fish and honest to God, I could not tell what it was, the texture and flavor (despite the sauce) were all wrong. If anything can be called «chicken of the sea» this was it!
My friend’s daily special fish was quite good though. And the service was excellent. But for me, this was a forgettable experience and there’s plenty of fishes on Castro.

Came here for a lunch meeting at around 1215pm on a Wednesday. I was surprised to see how empty this place was as compared to Cascal which was next door and brimming with customers.
Nonetheless, due to the relatively fewer number of customers, the restaurant was pretty quiet, making it a great setting for business discussions in a less formal setting. The service here was impeccable, drinks were refilled promptly and the server was friendly and polite.
Tomato Bisque soup of the day — This soup was tomato based so it is definitely healthier than the cream-​based tomato bisques which probably has loads more calories: P It was quite thick, but I found it a little too sour and it didnt go very well with the bread. Clam chowder would probably have been a better (albeit less healthy) choice: P
Seared Ahi Salad — The dish was visually stunning with the seared ahi tuna sitting on top of a bed of mixed greens topped with mango strips, crispy wonton and three leaves of napa cabbage. I wish I took a picture! The fish was fresh and nicely seared, and the sesame onion vinaigrette tasty. However, I felt that the napa cabbage and red/​purple cabbage didnt go too well with the ensemble since the former was bland while the latter had a stronger taste which didnt go well with the dressing.
Would probably come here again for business lunch meetings since it is pretty difficult to find a quiet and less crowded restaurant on Castro St.

I’ve been to the San Jose location of Scott’s and was pleased with the food and service. So I was pleasantly surprised that my husband chose this location for Mother’s Day. It was quite packed, and I had hoped for good food and service like the other location. We had a reservation so we were seated immediately with a red rose for me (thank you!). It was off to a good start until I realized that they were only serving buffet for lunch. I looked at the buffet spread and was disappointed. It was mainly breakfast foods comparable to Embassy Suites complementary breakfast with addition of chicken breasts with BBQ sauce, fish, clam chowder, raviolis, and prime ribs. I think at that point maybe I should’ve tried to call around to see if we can find another restaurant although I knew it may be difficult at the last minute on Mother’s Day.
Our waitress didn’t explain anything about what’s included with our meal. I thought it was standard that they don’t explain anything until I heard another waitress explain to another table. She asked me if I wanted a drink, but I didn’t think drinks were included. Apparently, it was since we were expecting to pay for our 3 year old’s milk and didn’t.
My 3 year old definitely didn’t have too much interest in the food except for fruit. I didn’t like most of my food and ended up wasting most of it. The star of the menu were the customized omelette and prime rib. They also had chocolate-​dipped strawberries, but they ran out! How can they only make so little when they obviously had so many tables filled during lunch? I didn’t think about hoarding the strawberries thinking that they’d have more in the back. They brought out only one big tray. Other berries were gone, too. I only got melons, grapes, barely any pineapples, and then watermelon at the end when they finally brought more food out.
So these were my biggest gripes.
1. Our waitress barely checked up on us. There were plenty of staff to wait tables, but I guess we weren’t priority until it was time for us to pay.
2. Since buffet was the only option, the single buffet area of about 10 to 15 max items were packed. Knowing how many people were going to show up, they should’ve set up 2 buffet areas to reduce congestion. It looked like a cafeteria. Space was a major issue as they tried to pack in maximal number of people. The tables were also too close together.
3. The price was $ 32!!! For such small selection and quality, it really isn’t worth $ 32 unless they brought out alcohol with the menu. If it was included, our waitress obviously didn’t tell us. She just gave us a drink menu, so we assumed no drinks were covered.
My husband being generous still gave them 15% tip, but I would’ve lowered it for running out of food, poor table management and service, and not training our waitress well. I was disappointed with our lunch but met some nice patrons which made up somewhat for a sad lunch. I hope management takes notice of these criticisms and fix them if they should decide to do same thing for Father’s Day… that’s if they want to avoid another disaster.

I’ve visited Scott’s Seafood many times, but mainly at the bar. The bartenders, Andrew and Alberto, are super great! They are friendly, easy to chat with, and make really good drinks. They remember the regulars and their drinks of choice!
Scott’s Seafood is likely one of my favorite HH spots on Castro Street. Happy hour from 4:30 — 6:30 daily (yes, even weekends!) $ 4 well drinks and ½ off on appetizers.

Five of us, stopped in here to eat dinner! This used to be Cankerous Fish and it got bought out by Scott’s Seafood. Ok, this location’s food is different from downtown San Jose, just in case if people are wondering. Next door is the Spanish tapas place called Cascal. Too be honest, I think the fish and the other dishes’ tastes are pretty decent. The prices of drinks and food are average priced. Staff is friendly too. The last two times I have been there on a week night and on a weekend, the place is quite empty.
Just a suggestion to this location: Maybe you should offer happy hour specials! In Mountain View, you’re competing with many restaurants that offer happy hour prices at certain times. Also, maybe some music should be playing. I think this will help advertise and bring in more people! I hate not to share such an awesome place to people!

Dinner, Saturday night, with a close personal friend. Unlike my previous visit, service was excellent, well timed, and attentive, as we were served by Julio (recommend you ask for him).
BT Babich Sauvignon Blanc
Grilled prawn salad
Bacon Scallops
Halibut
Key lime pie
Coffee
Wine, appetizers, and entrees were well seasoned and quite delicious. We knew we were having a much better than usual experience, and were quite pleased.
I recommend Scott’s Seafood, Mountain View.
Bön appetit!

This is by far the worse seafood restaurant I’ve ever been to (well at least this location) I haven’t been to other locations yet. Everything on the menu is OVERPRICED and food quality isn’t even close to decent in my opinion.
I came to this place expecting it to be good. Once I saw there was hardly any customers in the restaurants, I was thinking to myself that this place isn’t gonna be good. I would have went somewhere else but I was hungry and it was getting late so I just want to get dinner out of the way. The menu doesn’t have that much seafood stuff on it. They don’t have the seafood salad like the menu that I saw in San Jose. Oh and only 1 page of food menu. There isn’t a variety of food to choose from.
I ordered half a dozen of oysters and it was some tiny oysters. I expected it to be fresh and the best since it is a seafood restaurant. Well I was disappointed. Oysters didn’t taste that fresh. It had a little stinky after taste on some oysters. Also there was bunch of tiny little oyster shells on the oysters so I keep biting into it because I couldn’t see it. And the sauteed seafood that I ordered wasn’t great either. I admit the rice was cooked perfectly. Nice and soft. But the seafood was very salty. I feel like if it didn’t taste salty, the food would have tasted very bland. But either way, I don’t like any of the food I ordered here.
Their water is served in a wine looking like glass with a lot of ice (which I like) and with lemon. It taste really refreshing.
The sourdough bread they give to you for free is HARD and just don’t taste good.
Our waiter was really good and he was friendly. But sorry, this isn’t enough to have me come back to this restaurant.
And the parking is a real b***h.