Village Fish

We’ve been visiting Village Fish for several years. Always enjoyed very fresh simply prepared fish and wonderful pan-​served pasta dishes (very generous with guaranteed left overs!)
Our last two visits were somewhat disappointing. Most recently, the restaurant appeared somewhat warn with plywood panels covering the previously open kitchen. The raw bar was almost empty and made it look like they were going out of business (not to mention that the place at 7:30 on Saturday was almost empty!). The food was fairly good but not quite on par as the past. The previous visit in the spring was a disaster. The place was overbooked and they ran out of a lot of the basics including their famous baked potatoes and even bread! The place has either changed hands or is in desperate need of a sprucing up.
Proceed with caution!

Maybe it was an off night, but we really had an unpleasant experience.
The waitress was apparently new to the work and didn’t know some basics, such as bring salt and pepper together to the table. We had to ask for each separately. There were some other miscues.
We order grilled lobster, which was inedible. The tools at the table were insufficient. Instead of a lobster fork, they gave us a salad tong. We when asked for a proper fork for getting the meat out, the waitress said they didn’t have any. Thus, we had to pry the meat out by hand. The shell was covered in soot, which got all over my hands and the lobster meat. The lobster was overcooked and dried out as well. The whole thing was a mess. We packed it up and ate it as leftovers at home.
The kitchen ran out of baked potatoes. How does that happen? The vegetable of the day which came with all dishes was plain boiled carrots. Yeeecchh!
I could go on, but like I said, maybe it was a just bad night.

Was looking for a good seafood restaurant close to home. Unfortunately, this was NOT it. The server was awful. She didn’t stop long enough to listen or give us a minute to think and ask for something. Well the owner ended up telling us that this would be her last night and and all her other tables were complaining about her. How totally unprofessional to tell us that. Then, my husband’s grilled lobster came out RAW. He cracked the claw and there was mucous_​y Goo on the inside. How utterly disgusting. This is truly one that we will NEVER go to again.

I have edited/​removed this review because The Village Fish has since shut down. I still stand by my original review — but everyone deserves a decent enough shot at a new beginning. Since this business is now closed, I do not feel it necessary to keep this review up since it dealt with some more behind-​the-​scenes type of issues.

Greg, Tony and Sang keep the great fish and pasta coming. And Ellie keeps a great service perspective. When I want great predictable fish and a reasonable bottle of wine, this renaissance of the original «Fish» from Brookline is worth the short drive and easy parking!

I’ve been in the Boston area for two years, but haven’t had a good seafood experience yet. Everything seems to be fried. Thanks to Unilocal,I ventured outside of my suburbia the other week for a try at Village Fish. It’s true what they say — first time’s the charm. Our first visit it was hectic, but the food was simply and very tastefully prepared. Even the fried oysters apps were fantastic. And the swordfish — wow!
I’ve been dreaming of coming back, so took my mom this Sunday for a final meal of her visit. In a word — disastrous! Steak was tough, Sole was beyond bland, and the marina sauce for the seafood diablo was so overpeppered I couldn’t taste the seafood. But the food was ok compared to the service. We got passed from hostess to manager to waitress to waitress to whomever, none of whom save the manager seemed to have any idea of what was going on. I won’t list the many incidents of slipshod, careless, or just plain thoughtless «service», but suffice to say they’ve got serious issues when it comes to staff. Kitchen doesn’t seem much better. I’m normally a generous tipper, but not tonight. It was simply an AWFUL experience. All we could do was smile and endure.
I’ll wait a while before I try this place again.

The Village Fish serves phenomenal, fresh seafood. I’ve been eating at the Village Fish for almost two years now, and I’ve never had a bad meal here.
I almost always order the shrimp over linguine with red sauce. It’s served in a pan. IN A PAN– the servings are enormous. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anywhere else where the shrimp are so plentiful I’m unable to finish them. The shrimp have snap like a good hot dog, and I’m not even sure how that’s possible.
The red sauce is delicious. It requires a little doctoring at the table. They go very light on the seasoning so you need to throw in Parmesan, salt, and pepper at the table but once you do it is phenomenal.
Minus a star for the limp salads and bread which is not the best. Also the hostess/​owner who appears to spend most of her time talking to her friends. But the fish, which is the main event, is spectacular.

It used to knock my socks off when it was in Brookline. Not quite so in Needham, but it’s still solid. Excellent scallops. Scrod usually sounds boring, but theirs is flakey, delicate, and covered in a great crumb topping. Littlenecks Roberto one of the great delicacies in Boston (order it extra hot, extra garlic).
We also saw a rude hostess chewing out servers in front of the clientelle. Poor behavior in my opinion.
Parking good. It’s a popular place, expect to wait.

Meh. I think when the village fish was in Brookline, it was much better. Nothing we had, and we had a lot, was really that great. Granted, it’s far better than legal or skipjacks but pretty unimpressive, somewhat bland creations.
Want some of the good shit? Try great bay or b and g or mare. Yup it’s true they are more expensive but you really get what you pay for.

I don’t understand why there is always a wait here. I mean it’s ok, but personally I don’t think it’s worth the wait.
However, this is one of my parents favorite restaurants so what I think in that situation really doesn’t matter.
Fish is always fresh and I have always had decent service, nothing exceptional, but not as bad as other folks seem to have had. My issue is that I find the sauces and pasta rather bland.