Big Fish – Princeton

Been here twice in two weeks. Both times the food was good, and the service was excellent. The bar area is a bit odd, but opens up to a natural light filled open space dining room.

Was in the mood for a casual dining experience and was in the area so we dropped in for a quick bite.
Location was easy to access. We didn’t have a reservation on a Sunday late afternoon but was seated quickly.
I love the portions of our dishes. Shared a Tuna Tartare and seared Ahi as apps, then I had the Sirloin as main dish. My brother had the Seafood Jambalaya and he could not finish due to the large portion. Very flavorful. Not sure if the onions in the scalloped potatoes worked, but the asparagus was good.
Every staff member was friendly and courteous. Christina was our server and she was attentive and personable. Staff bringing the dishes from the kitchen were also personable so that really sparked the interest for us to revisit.
If I had to pick on anything that future diners should be aware of, it would be the tables in the middle of the restaurant. There is not a walkway, so if you are sitting in the 2-​person tables along the middle, people will constantly walk by and brush up against you. And if you are at the first table, people will actually need to scoot past you because chairs against the table for four behind you is flush against your back.
I like this place and will recommend to anyone in the mood for some fresh seafood and positive experience.

We arrive for our reservations and the place is half empty. We get seated and it is almost 10 min until anyone comes over about drinks. We had been just about ready to walk out right when he showed up. Drinks take a while to come back and he then takes another 10 min till he takes food order. I order Gazpacho and a main course and the other 3 order just a main course. Over 20 min goes by and no Gazpacho. My wife catches him and asks and he said it would be right out. He leaves and then part of our dinner comes with things that weren’t ours.
My Plank Salmon is put down and then he gives me the gazpacho which I say I don’t want if my dinner is there. He starts blaming the chef saying he didn’t know why he sent out part of it so early before appetizers. It wasn’t that the chef sent it early, he forgot about my Gazpacho! He takes the Salmon away even though I said I didn’t want it to go sit under a heat lamp. About 7 min later they comes with all the food and my Salmon.
The Salmon was getting dried out obviously after sitting waiting.
We just finished and didn’t even get desert. Such poor service when the place was quiet.
Too many better places around, even in that mall.
We will never go back.

Been here a few times, great food. Service is good, great bread basket with drinks. I would prefer to do lunch v/​s dinner to skip the overcrowded bar/​dinner crowd specially on the weekends. Sunday brunches are good! Love the Tuna Tartar (east meets west) and of course the Firecracker shrimp. Baked Oysters with creole crawfish was fresh and succulent.

décor was a little over-​the-​top, but the service was great and the food was pretty much spot on (ordered the crab cake sandwich, something that’s a bit hard to find). it wasn’t 4 stars worthy, but i’d like to go back.

It was A-​OK. The best part was that I, by surprise found a very cool mall that is attached where you can walk out the restaurant into the hall facing bookstore but what you may not see is once you go out past bookstore you’re in the mall.

I normally come to this place for lunch but this was the first time I came for dinner. It was a Friday night and the place was completely full. Had to wait for a table which is understandable on a Friday.
When we got seated, the waitress came right up to us and got us drinks and bread. The bread is amazing by the way. I ordered the broiled seafood platter which was really really good. The scallops and potatoes were my favorite on the plate but everything else was great as well.

I returned to this restaurant after years of being away from the Princeton area. The ambience and décor are nice without being over the top.
Catch if the Day is still my favorite despite an expansive menu of choice seafood dishes. I loved the Rainbow Trout prepared Lemon Pepper style, grilled. The trout was nicely cooked and not overdone. Very satisfying. The vegetables were colorful and flavorful but perhaps a touch too wilted. They were missing their snap after having been cooked a little too long.
Service was attentive and it was an overall enjoyable dinner.

I have been to Big Fish numerous times, and usually just go to the bar.
The good things about Big Fish bar is the endless happy hour. Very reasonable and yummy cocktails (spicy cucumber martini=yummy) and the tasty small plates make Big Fish a good deal.
The bad, and there is nothing they can do about this, is that the bar is right by the mall entrance. Not my favorite feature.

Big Fish has a nice ambiance and starts off the experience with a solid bread basket. Th warm rolls melt in your mouth. They have a large selection of items for both lunch and dinner. I have had a few cocktails as well — they were good but nothing to write home or on Unilocal about. I would give Big Fish five stars, but it is slightly pricey for what you get, and the wait staff has been hit or miss. You may have to wait a while before someone gets to you even if the place is empty, and we’ve had a couple new staff members that really weren’t sure of what they were doing or recommending. Overall though, we enjoy hitting up this spot every so often.

We, a group of people from a company, had a dinner in this place. Here are my reviews:
1– the appetizer was delicious and the drink was good
2– the diner was delicious, I would say 4 out of 5
3– I am just complaining about the cleaning. We found a long hair in their food and I am disgusted of this in my food
If the hair problem was not there I would have given 4 stars instead of 2!

This place is super dead on the weekends. We stopped for happy hour. A few small, very small bites on the HH menu. Nothing with tons of flavor. fish tacos were okkkkk. I would not recommend this place nor will I return. I can see why noone is ever there.

Came for happy hour on a Tuesday at 5:30pm. It was pretty empty. I ordered a mango mojito and my mom ordered a margarita. We also ordered the East Coast tuna tartare.
Drinks came first. My mojito was very light handed with the alcohol, I almost didn’t taste ANY.
The tuna tartare took a while to come out. It was under seasoned and we had to ask the bartender for salt&pepper. Even she mentioned that she had to season her own food here… The food was fresh and fit with the theme of the restaurant but definitely lacked in flavor.
I wish my first happy hour experience at Big Fish matched up to the hype :/

I’m not sure why I give it one star, it does not deserve any…
This is the worst eating experience I’ve had since I moved to Jersey 13 months ago.
The server in this half full restaurant ignored us for more than 10 minutes after we sat down. And I mean ignored, no drinks order and then ignore, just never came to our table… When we finally managed to call him to come over he said that he «didn’t want to disturb us».This was lunch for 6 people that was there during their lunch break, not a romantic dinner for 2…
The service continued in this vein. It was so bad that I really do not want to relive every issue, just take it from me, it was pathetic.
On top of the inattentive and inaccurate service, he tried to up sell us on everything, something that really, really gets me. I’m spending $ 50 per person on lunch and that should be enough to buy me the right to get what I ordered without being harassed to get the «cold pressed ice tea» at $ 6 a bottle…
The food, well it was bad, that’s it. Not worth eating. 4 of the 6 in our party did not bother to finish their food despite the tiny portions they serve. And that is besides the food that wasn’t eaten due to the hair that was found in it.
This restaurant is just not worth wasting the time on to describe every fiasco on a plate at our table but let me share mine with you:
The lobster bisque (only available in a bowl at $ 8.50 each) was cold and coagulated with a teaspoonful of slivered tasteless lobster-​like protein in the middle surrounded by a shallow sea of béchamel sauce flavored with ketchup.
Oh yes, did I mention that they gave me a teaspoon to eat it with? They had ran out of soup spoons. They also did not have any of the dishes with eggplant — the truck did not come… You can’t find egg plant at the supermarket around the corner? Finally, half the fish on the menu was not available — probably lost on the same truck that hijacked the eggplant.
The salad I had as entrée was described as follow:
red leaf, bibb, pine nuts, blue cheese,
red onion; maple-​raspberry vinaigrette
Red leaf bibb (not red leave comma bibb as it is on the menu.) is a butter lettuce with a reddish color and a buttery flavor. My leaves were definitely green, badly wilted and looked suspiciously like regular green leaf lettuce… There was nearly enough of them on my plate to cover ⁷⁄₈^th of a regular lunch plate. The 3 pine nuts played hide and seek with the less than a teaspoon worth of very soft (it happens after a few hours outside a fridge) blue cheese. Crowning this was 2 rings of red onion. Really, just 2 rings… The vinaigrette was ok, probably from a bottle — which was why it was palatable I assume.
The only reason why you would go to the big fish would be because you want to be seen going there. It really has no redeeming features. No, I lie. The décor is actually quite nice in a minimalist post modern kind of way.
This is a pretentious, overpriced and badly run establishment which need to loose money long enough to bankrupt the owners so he/​she/​they will not be able to visit the world with such an abomination ever again.
Stay away. Get 2 mc doubles at the Golden Arches and give the cashier a $ 40 tip. It will cost you less and be far better than lunch at this hell hole…

This review is for happy hour at the bar only…
The good: Easy parking right outside, kewl deep-​sea-​inspired décor, cheap drink & appetizer prices at happy hour (4−7pm).
The not so good: Margaritas that taste like they’re made with a mix? Please. Bartenders work hard here but BF is clearly understaffed to serve large crowds. Food is okay, but none of my friends who ate remarked that the food was anything above «okay» or «good».
I used to dine here quite often, but there is so much competition on Route 1 these days among bars & restaurants that I really think BF will have to try a little harder to rise above. Not bad, and the décor really lends a nice ambience, but it will take a little more work for this place to become a standout.

Once upon a time I was a fan. It was when they first opened, more than 10 years ago. At that time they took chances, and had some of the freshest and even some of the most exotic fish in the area. At that time they featured one of the best dining rewards programs I’ve ever seen. A few years ago the program changed, and not for the better. Around that time the menu lost its freshness and some of the more interesting choices. What brings me back here is the bday reward I get every year. Unfortunately no meal that I’ve had in the last few years has been good enough to make me want to come back before my next reward. Today’s lunch was no exception. An app of chicken salad lettuce wraps was ok, not good enough to order again but interesting enough that I will probably make myself as a no cook meal. My first choice of entrée was unavailable so I went with what is usually a standby here, stuffed sole. The fish was either previously frozen or a few days past peak freshness, it was edible but not really enjoyable. The sides are usually reliable here, and this was the case today. Good rice and grilled veggies. Service however was outstanding. My advice to them would be to trim back the menu a bit, and focus on the freshness of their seafood. Their 2 main competitors on route 1 seem to play to their own respective strengths, and in doing so are winning the «fins» race. See you next year BF. 3.25 Unilocal

Great bar even better food.
Service is excellent.
Had the blackened flounder tonight, simply delicious.
Have not had anything here that I didn’t like at Big Fish.

When you walk in you get a great vibe with the larger than life decorations. I thought the giant bubbles hanging from the ceiling were clever. You definitely feel like you are under water. After we sat down and ordered a basket of bread was delivered to the table. It contained two different types of bread, garlic cheddar biscuits and fluffy buttery seasoned roll. Both were very delicious.
We started with a bowl of the Big Fish Chowder which was the best part of the meal. I would come back just for the soup!
I had the Maryland Crab Cake. I was a bit small and it’s taste didn’t stand out as amazing, it was average. The vegetables were cooked perfectly and the Portuguese rice was ok.
My boyfriend had the Tavern Burger. The bun was so big he had to take the top slice off and wrapped the top with lettuce so he could eat it without creating a huge mess. The burger was good. The sauce they put on it was delicious.

I had the calamari and friends platter and a side quasi Cobb salad. It should be calamari and friend, singular. There were rings and tentacles, red peppers, jalapeño slices and ONE shrimp. One friend. It was good until it got cold and then it was just greasy.
Seemed like the crowd here is all of reading glass age; several flashlights were out at tables to see menus. Wouldn’t the restaurant realize they need to turn up the lights for their clientele? Your customers are older and cannot see what you’re offering! The food was expensive and only alright. We only dined here because it was close to work and convenient. I’ve been to Big Fish for happy hour one time prior to s and my impression was the same.

Only reviewing happy hour… and it is probably the worst happy hour spot you will go to in Mercer County. The prices were great and we had high hopes for the food that did not unfold.
Service:
We sat at a table cluttered with dirty glasses and dishes for 20 mins when a server finally approached us. He said he was the only one working that night the entire bar, but despite that seemed very nonchalant and strolled around taking orders with no rush.
Food:
We literally ordered everything on the bar menu that ranged from $ 2 Calamari to $ 3 White Pizza and $ 5 Cinema Shrimp. The only thing on the menu that was good was the White Pizza, nice and large and great flavor. The $ 5 Asian wings were decent too, nice flavor and crunchy, sady luke warm. Actually ALL our food was luke warm. The Cinema shrimp were intriguing, 4 big shrimp battered in popcorn, not as delicious as you would think, more of just a weird combo.
DRINKS:
You come to happy hour for the drinks! I kept it simple with a rum & coke and my friend ordered a Premium Margarita. Our drinks came and were completely alcohol-​LESS. As I ordered a shot to put in my soda, This prompted us to speak to a manager… she took $ 10 off our bill, AND also said that she, «has heard various complaints about the drinks not having enough alcohol. Blue Fish pours a little less than the other restaurants around so [they] suggest ordering an extra shot.» REALLY?! What restaurant EVER suggests ordering an extra shot for ALL their drinks?
Good bye Big Fish, with your cute décor and $ 2 bland calamari… I wish you many 21 year olds at your bar who can’t tell the difference between a good drink and plain old soda.