Ortega Fish Shack

 

Rating: 0/10 Complaints - Seafood, Delicious, Considerate, Espresso Martini, Fish, Oysters, Sashimi, Cheese 

Once again we ventured out, this time to Ortega Fish Shack for a friend's birthday party. Another first for me. The restaurant was excellent, which is just as well since I turned up at dinner very late, having had the most hectic day and not exactly in the best state (getting up at 3.30am will do that). To tell that story, I have to tell this story.

So had a work event that I had to catch a 6am flight for, the same day as the birthday dinner. Because I live at least an hour from the airport, this necessitated both me and the long suffering Mr Karenson getting up at 3.30am in order to make it to the airport before 5.30am, and still somehow managing to be late. That's the odd thing I've noticed about time as it pertains to airports - it seems to slow down and turn to treacle but you are still either late or 7 hours early, and there will always be a line and a very stressful series of boarding calls. The air is somehow thinner than usual inside the airport, and everything smells vaguely of plastic and perhaps jet fuel. Everything costs twice as much too apart from the duty free, which is strange. 

All I wanted was a nice comforting cup of coffee but was too late to even think about stopping to get one. There was a snaking line at security even though it was only 5.30am and what seemed to be an entire extended family milling about, so it took forever to make it to the bag scanner. They then made me remove my shoes to go through the metal detector (SERIOUSLY?) and discovered about 15 lighters in my handbag that I'd forgotten I even had, which was a bit embarrassing but not as awkward as the security dude also spilling all my tampons out of the box. Because I'd been up since 3.30am, my patience was as thin as the sandwich fillings at New World and it took every ounce of my willpower not to lose my temper going through that queue. I feel like I might have been visibly cranky by this stage as one of the airport staff was giving me funny looks.

I laced up my boots, got on the plane and drank the most disgusting, thin, watery but somehow grainy, bitter cup of scaldingly hot Air NZ coffee, instantly regretting my choice. The flight was fine, got to watch the sun rise over the clouds like a peach and gold watercolour painting, but there's something deeply exhausting about reaching the destination already worn out and stressed, then realising it's still only 7am and you have an entire long day of intensive work training ahead of you with 20 bright and cheery salespeople. 

The flight home didn't touch down in Wellington until 8pm, by which time I was already late for the second time that day, as the dinner was booked for 7. As soon as I arrived at the restaurant, my terrible mood was lifted by the sight of our friends, Mr Karenson and the espresso martinis he'd gone ahead and ordered for us both. 

Ortega does a set menu with options for group dining such as this, which makes for easy ordering and a stress free night. It's not really that expensive when you consider the quality of the food on offer and the variety of the seafood, I think we paid about $100 per person for the set menu. 

For the entree, the choice was between duck liver pate and kingfish sashimi. Because of the nature of the group dining setting, you can try your friends' food and vice versa so I'm pretty sure I got a little bite of everything. The pate was smooth, creamy and everything you need in a dish of pate, while the sashimi resembled the peach and golden clouds from my morning flight cascading in translucent slices. 

I love seafood so much. I'd recommend it for humans, felines and everyone else for good moods, good skin and good dining. Even though I'd turned up late and thought I might have missed out on the oysters, the staff nonetheless brought me a dish of these too, one fresh one fried, and they were amazing. 

For the main course, I had the pan fried snapper while Mr Karenson, true to form, ordered a big beautiful steak. The snapper was very fresh, very good and I could have eaten it twice had I not already had pate and oysters. Because of the martinis, I can't recall what sort of sides it came with, but I do remember eating some incredible duck fat roasted spuds that were the texture of toothpaste on the inside with a crisp, crackling exterior.  I pretend not to like spuds but I think it's because I was raised on a steady stream of them boiled till scalding without seasoning at every meal, these were a completely different matter.

At this restaurant there was a dessert. I'm always the one at the dinner who gets so disappointed when the dessert menu comes out and everyone else dismisses it - I like to finish with something sweet because I am a bit of a piglet with a wicked sugar addiction   sweet tooth. This was a selection of sorbets, crunchy bits and chocolatey bits as well as a thoroughly sophisticated cheese platter, both of which were quickly smashed by us all. Finishing with cheese as well as sweets is another favourite of mine as you sometimes want to sit and nibble for a while after having such a beautiful dinner and linger over the experience, plus as I said I'm a piglet. I once finished an entire block of brown cheese on my own between drinks at a party and have no intention of stopping this behaviour.

No complaints for Ortega Fish Shack, I reserve those for the airport which will be fully reviewed at a later date. I just wish it was possible to bring cats to restaurants, as my cat would have loved the seafood dinner too and I missed her.