Garage Fish

NASTY.
Do not be fooled by the 4 star rating.
Had the sashimi bowl and calamari.
The ginger smelled and tasted like a rag.
The quality of the seafood was meh…
Calamari too salty.
Took about 30 minutes to get our food.
The place also looked dirty…

The cook was really nice and happy to serve us. It took a little while to get our food out, but everything was delicious! Tried the poké (salmon and tuna) with tortilla chips and the garage fish tacos. Honestly the BEST fish taco I have ever had. Definitely coming back!

The BEST fish tacos. Unique. The fish tacos were breaded with panko and the tortilla was made from scratch. The fresh veggies that topped off the tacos just made it all come together. I was pleasantly surprised we had this type of restaurant so close to where we live.

I was looking for a unique place to have seafood and found this place on Unilocal.As I walked in I noticed the extreme heat slapping me in the face. I have to assume that their A/​C is having issues. Being my first time there I was having a hard time deciding what to choose, so the gentleman behind the counter suggested a few best selling items. I went with the poke tacos. Wow, wow, wow, they were amazing. Fresh tortillas and awesome flavored poke. I hope the next time I go their A/​C is working.

This is an extraordinary restaurant. With a super friendly staff and amazing fresh food. And the prices were so reasonable. I will with out a doubt be back.
Tammie and Leo

Just happened to be in the area, and found this place. A bit of a hole in the wall spot, but the food was superb! Had some oysters on a shell and they were giant! and so fresh! I was very surprised. (see pic) The Wife had grilled fish tacos on some of the best tortillas I’ve ever tasted! and that’s saying something! (see pic) She raved about the tacos! I had the tuna Poke bowl, and again I was surprised at how fresh and flavorful it was. Just the right spiciness and saltiness. The wasabi ball that came with it was pretty weak strength but luckily the poke bowl didn’t need it at all. Had a tall Sapporo to go with it, and left stuffed and happy.
The guy running the place was super cool and the food was ready pretty fast.
I’ll be trying the burrito next time, and some of the hand rolls. :-)
For sure worth it if you’re hungry and in the area.
I seriously did not expect it to be anywhere near as good as it is!

A little worried walking up on a sat night, and there was no one inside. The guy said it was packed and people just left. Hmmm. Anyways, So I got the fish tacos. They were pretty decent. The guy working was friendly, and kept checking on us. Im in no hurry to go back, A little too far to drive for just ok food.

This is already maybe my 5^th time here and I am never disappointed. The guy who works here runs the joint by himself. Everything here is pretty good, made fresh everyday. Even the tortillas for the tacos are hand made. (With the exception of the free taco when you check in, pre made tortillas) BUT still amazing. They also sell beer.
I am not sure about the bad reviews recently, the man who runs the place is a cool cat. Very friendly and outgoing.
He mentioned that he will be adding new things to his menu over time to so keep an eye out.
The decorations is pretty hip and so is the music. Best of all its clean here! Real important for me since fresh fish is involved.

Awesome fish tacos! Fresh to order. Good selection of Japanese beer. Service was friendly and there was plenty of other tasty options!
Must try this place.

Don’t come here for poke.
LOCATION: The service kind of sucked, whoever was working that day (Middle aged Korean man), wasn’t very friendly and made feel like I was being rushed to order.
POKE BOWL: SUCKED. It was just edible, and very bland tasting. The fish did not taste fresh. Basically I’d rate it at 1 out of 10, especially since there are so many yummy poke places very close to this location! Also over priced for a small portion :/​$ 9.95 is the most I’ve ever paid for this size of poke…
GARAGE FISH BURRITO: It was a bit pricy at $ 8 for a medium burrito but very yummy! The fish to rice portion was perfect, and the fish was really tasty and crispy :-)
I’d still rate this place a 2 even though the burrito was great :/​service was not worth.

Food was just alright but SERVICE?! I left so irritated I can’t imagine going back
1) Granted the man was working the night shift by himself, but not acknowledging my presence & making me stand at the counter for 10 minutes to order is a little excessive. Not only that, after I asked for help he still made me wait a few minutes!
2) I bought the Unilocal deal online before arriving but upon paying he said the deal was for dine in only and that I should ask Unilocal for a refund (although no where on the deal does it state that and the deal even says owners cannot add restrictions at time of redemption)
3) the poke bowl is advertised as a spring mix but they used iceburg lettuce! You can get better poke at the millions of other new places that let you customize
4) I almost spilled all my food into the plastic carrying bag because they use cheap plastic tops for their styrofoam bowls that come off very easily
NOTE: the check in offer is also dine in only

Part of my work involved being in the field. I rely on Unilocal when I am in an area I don’t frequent much. After reading the reviews, I went to this place with a coworker who’s a dietitian. We ordered the Garage Fish tacos and was blown away. Not only was it good, it tasted fresh and home made. Wish we could come back but the job was done the following day and had to go back to home base.
It was well worth the price… I will definitely be back.

I’ve been back here a couple of times and this place never disappoint. I usually get the poki bowl and fish tacos and it’s great everytime.
I tried the garage fish plate and I was amazed! I wish I took a picture of the plate but I was too hungry haha!
I literally love this restaurant. I would come more often if I could. But they close at 10 pm now, so I think I will be coming here more.
For the service and quality of food, I would give more than 5 stars if I could. The owner being so nice deserves another 5 stars!

Garage Fish puts together a decent fish taco in Anaheim.
I should probably kick this review off with the acknowledgment that the name Garage Fish is perhaps the worst I can recall in recent memory. Serving sushi in a garage just doesn’t appeal to me much. That being said, it is one of the newer eateries in the area and they offer hand rolls, sushi rolls and fish tacos in a quirky atmosphere devoid of air conditioning. The prices are relatively reasonable and they offer a free (but abbreviated) fish taco with a Unilocal check in. The down side is they charge you for any card transactions under $ 10.00.
I wasn’t going to gamble with raw sushi at a place named Garage Fish and decided to go with their fish tacos. The tortilla is handmade which is both good and bad. Naturally it is fresh, but you will wait 15 – 20 minutes to get it. I was not a huge fan of the mouthfeel of the tortilla itself which seemed to be a greasy, mealy and — in places — hard experience, so I went at them with a fork and knife. Garage Fish employs a panko breading on the fish rather than the typical batter which is lighter and when grilled, wonderfully crispy. It pairs perfectly with the cabbage/​pico topping and aioli that covers the fish. Not a bad rendition, at all.
Good fish, bad tortilla.
Cost of admission is $ 3.00 a piece and the parking was pretty tight on a Wednesday afternoon. Worth a return visit? Possibly. There isn’t much else in the local area to get excited about.

Worth the price. the owner is really nice and accommodating:)
I came by that little plaza for a haircut one day and noticed this place. Immediately, I was a bit concerned on whether or not this place would serve great food. I mean getting fresh seafood is kinda hard when youre in Anaheim. But I decided to give this place a try. As soon as I walked in, the owner greeted me and welcomed me in. He showed me around and told me it was his dream to open up a restaurant someday. So I decided to try their lunch plate, which is your choice of fish, brown or white rice, and a salad. It was kinda pricey but hey, its seafood so you can’t really complain.
I got my food and was pleasantly surprised at how fresh it tasted. The owner was the only one there so he made the meal himself. The fish was seasoned and cooked to perfection and the salad was crisp. Since it was newly opened he gave me a free fish taco and my god. That was literally the best fish taco I have had in my entire life. The corn tortilla was just pressed and the swai fish was absolutely perfect. To top it off he gave me watermelon shaved ice to end such a great meal.
This place doesn’t get enough visits and I encourage everyone to come by and try it. Ask for the owner, super cool guy with Japanese origins and an America. Dream.

Garage Fish is setup in a strange location but the food is fantastic. Once you enter, peruse the menu, walk up to the counter, and order from a board filled with seafood-​centric appetizers, tacos, burritos, salads, and sushi.
My favorites:
–Garage Fish Taco: tortillas crafted in-​house, panko crusted fish, sour cream, cabbage, fresh pico de gallo, and their own house sauce. Top with a little lemon juice for acidity and you have an explosion of flavors.
–Garage Shrimp Taco: same classic ingredients as the Garage Fish Taco but substitute the fish with your choice of grilled or deep fried shrimp. Absolutely delicious and the freshest tacos in Anaheim.
–Poki Bowl: half salmon and half tuna or you can choose one or the other; topped with ginger, wasabi, sesame seeds, and furikake. Tender pieces of fresh fish marinated in a soy vinaigrette atop of a bed of rice. Add avocado to round off the bowl.
–3 pcs Handroll: imitation crab, spicy tuna, salmon skin. The imitation crab is routine but the spicy tuna and salmon skin are seasoned well and fresh.
One of the perks (depending on how you look at it) of dining at family owned restaurant is that almost everything is made fresh and in-​house. Normally, we order take out about 15 – 20 minutes in advance because it takes them a while to prepare everything. I’m sure they catch the fish from a fish tank in the back room when you order your meal because the wait can be excruciating if you’re hungry. However, the establishment is modest and the price point reflects the high quality of the ingredients used in each of their dishes.

Go off the beaten path, and you may find something good.
We were in search of some Poke within the Garden Grove and Anaheim area, a quick Unilocal search revealed Garage Fish. Ok lets see.
We ordered their Poke, Fish Tacos, and Salmon Skin Salad.
I thought their Fish tacos were the winner for me, the tortillas were fresh and soaked up the flavor from the fish tacos perfectly.
I would give their Poke a below average rating, while fresh I thought it was overpowered by spice and had a little too much soys sauce for my taste. I wouldn’t come back here for the Poke to be honest.
The salmon skin salad was good, large pieces of crisp salmon skin and the dressing was rather surprising as well.
We tried their shaved ice and it was just average, nothing to write home about.
I have a dilemma with this place, is it trying to be a Sushi, Taco, or Poke spot? You can’t do all three great. If your really in a pinch for Poke then give it a try, but I would say stick to the Tacos.

First thing you need to know: If you’re not expecting it, you may get upset at how long it takes for the food to come out…
The place is kinda dive in a kinda sketch strip mall, but relatively clean on the inside. If you’re familiar with Spencer’s Bistro and the area that it’s in, then you’ll feel right at home here too. Like Spencer’s who isn’t open real late, Garage Fish is only open til 900pm and closed Sundays…
This place is basically a one man operation in the kitchen and he makes everything to order one at a time. There were three people total including the main guy who I assume is the owner behind the counter, but the other two guys are mainly manning the register, helping out, and/​or being trained. We got there after 800pm on a Saturday and during that time there were maybe a half dozen other parties of onesy’s or twosy’s that came in at a steady pace, some to eat there some to take-​out, and that was enough to put him at a hurried pace for the whole time we were there…
I don’t know how long the promotion lasts but we decided to try a Garage Fish Taco and take advantage of the BOGO second taco offer on Unilocal.The kid behind the register told us right away the that second taco uses a ready made tortilla but so what, it’s free right? The first taco, the Garage Fish was nicely made using a grilled white fish as the protein, I thought the ingredients were in a fairly good ratio to the fish. The tortilla was warmed and soft, and had a bit more fresh «give» to it than the second and subsequent taco. They brought our food out one order at a time as I’m describing which is why I made the comment earlier about waiting…
The we got our two raw Pacific Oysters on a half shell which were very impressive and substantial, much bigger even than any Cowboy/​Cowgirl oysters that we have enjoyed at other places, particularly for $ 3 each. Dressed with a ponzu sauce and green onions, there was no sign of any radishes that were mentioned on the menu but I didn’t miss them. I gave it a spritz of the lemon provided before downing one of the oysters and it was like hnnnnnnngggg! I think three of these with a nice cold bottle of brew would be really nice, I understand that they got these in a day or two earlier but it may depend on the supplier as far as what kind of oysters they have on hand so they may not always be Pacific’s…
The Poki Bowl was pretty simple in makeup offering little beyond the lightly marinated tuna and salmon half and half I ordered, and that’s even after I asked for avocado extra. Definitely had that sriracha spicy tuna like kick to the fish but it needed more ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ soy/​sesame oil wetness to it for my liking, some Hawaiian salt would be great too. Maybe that was it – it felt more like a cubed fish chirashi topped with avocado than an incorporated poki bowl, I usually like the avocado tossed with the protein. Didn’t like the gari ginger or wasabi, felt like I didn’t need it in my poki, I prefer ogo over nori in my poki bowl too. That said, it’s not a terrible bowl, the ingredients were fresh and balanced, and you can have brown rice instead of white if you like…
Our freebie taco came out next and I had no complaints. The difference was that the tortilla wasn’t homemade and the fish was grilled salmon which was actually nice. The owner also made us a complementary shaved ice, something we weren’t expecting but was a nice gesture. It was a very basic sno-​cone in a cup with flavored syrup poured over it, pretty traditional and basic, nothing too fancy…
Probably a 3 or a 4 food-​wise, we really liked our oysters and she liked the fish tacos. The Poki Bowl was somewhere between decent and ok, but the hospitality that we received was much appreciated. I would probably go back, but not if I was only in the mood for poki…

On my journey to find the best Poke around, I find myself here, but I don’t find what i am looking, rather I find a tremendously tasty fish taco.
When I checked in, I am offered a free fish taco. Along with the free taco, I also ordered what is their specialty Garage Fish Taco and of course a Salmon Poke Bowl. The fish tacos came first. They were quite the treat for a fish taco and I dont normally order fish tacos. What make this taco just elegant was the freshness of fish and the sauce. The taco included shredded lettuce, tomatoes and various herbs. The sauce that was used was similar to a thousand island tartar sauce and it just had the right amount for the taste. The free taco and the Garage Taco was just as good even though the owner exaggerated on the Garage Taco. The only difference I can tell was the tortilla it was prepared on. I can’t complain since it was so delicious.
The Poke bowl, the item I came here for, did not exactly come up to snuff to the standards from all the poke places I have gone to, which are north shore, bear flag, poke district, pokinometry, oke poke, and many more. The poke obviously was not the priority on the menu since it was in the far corner and only has one flavor and just a bowl as an option. As I received the bowl, I noticed that the poke was just one layer and a huge layer (or the whole bowl) of rice. Many other restaurant offer much more and even at a cheaper price. As for the flavor, being shoyu based, it was good, though it was run of the mill, nothing new to bring to my taste buds.
Despite my disappointment of the Poke, this place has many to offer other than that. The comparison would be to Bear Flag Fish company, but would be in a minor league to their Poke and offerings. The layout is like a market and it is in a difficult location to receive clientele. I wish them well and would pass by again sometime.

Sushi from a Garage? Really? Believe it folks !!
This is a new fast food sushi restaurant and it shows.
They were still training their staff. Every time I had a question, they still had to ask the owner. The guy serving us was on his first day, he looked overwhelmed lol.
Here’s the rundown:
Oysters Half Shell — Fanny Bay Oysters — These were delicious, Yum! They had ponzu, raddish & green onions on them. The draw back, the price ($ 3 each) ouch.
Seafood Salad (Chef’s choice of 5 fish on Spring Mix Greens and white onions) — Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, White Fish and (I could not tell what the last one was) were the fish on this salad. It was just okay, nothing special.
$ 1 Taco Tuesday — This was okay. The fish was small, but what do you expect from a dollar, lol. The 3 tacos did fill me up =)
Service was fast food style. Place your order at the counter, pay and wait for your food to come out.
The place is bare bones décor wise. Nothing fancy here. They had a flat screen (playing noon time soup opera programming, really? sorry, not my cup of tea)
The main draw back IMO would be the price. It is on the high side. I think they are trying to do high quality food at a low quality location /​ambiance. Their pricing is comparable to a mid to high end sushi joint and this is not even close to a mid level sushi place.
Try it out for yourself and decide.
2015 Review #32