The Brewster Fish House: Very good food and drink, with incredible lobster chowder
Overall rating: 90
Food rating: 90
I'd heard about The Brewster Fish House from the same friend who had recommended Fin. The Brewster Fish House doesn't take reservations, though, and is typically very busy, so we hadn't tried it. However, this week is back to school for some locales, so Cape Cod is much quieter than usual for a pre-Labor Day week and thus we made it in early to a nearly empty restaurant.
The location is small but the tables are not crowded together, however it was overly air conditioned. The wait staff were welcoming and helpful with recommendations.
I tried two mixed drinks both of which were very good and both of which were unusual flavors. Not the sort of thing that everyone would necessarily like, and this foreshadowed much of the meal.
For appetizers, I ordered an odd seared foie gras preparation that included herring and white peaches. It was very good but not incredible. My wife ordered a sashimi special that she felt similarly about. However, the waitress had said people go out of their way to get their lobster bisque, and so we also shared a bowl of the bisque. Although I love lobster, I'm nearly always disappointed in lobster bisque. Not so at The Brewster Fish House. Their lobster bisque was one of the more wonderful foods I've eaten, creamy with chunks of lobster, but not overly heavy or improperly seasoned. I'm not sure how better to describe it, but it's worth eating there just for the bisque. I also tried some of someone else's fish chowder, and this was very good.
For mains, my wife got lobster prepared out of the shell with pain perdue, mushrooms, tomatoes, fennel, and some beef bone marrow. This was very good. I had fluke with couscous served with brown butter dashi poured into the bowl. The fluke was delicious, though the skin was a bit tougher and/or less crispy than it might have been. The flavor combination was unusual.
For dessert, I got an odd plate of panna cotta served with a topping of whipped cream, some fresh slices of fruit and blueberries in a separate section of the plate, and a third section with olive oil cake topped with peach ice cream. There didn't seem to be much coherence to the dessert. All three parts were good, though the cake/ice cream was best and the panna cotta a bit dull even with the fruit.
Another member of our group got blackberry sorbet (a song by Prince has been running through my head since), and did not like it. However I thought it was really amazingly good though with a very strong and somewhat sour flavor; I'm not a sorbet fan but this was wonderful.
So, reviewing this restaurant is a bit tricky. First, I think the flavors are unusual and this is not an ideal place for people who do not like strong or strange flavors. However, I'm mainly focused on this because the group included people who were less-than-thrilled with such foods, and usually we're out on our own where I wouldn't be commenting on this. Second, and more central to the issue, is that much of the food was very good but not great, the drinks were excellent and strange, and the lobster bisque was so incredibly good that we would be eating here again no matter what the rest of the meal was like.
So the 90 rating needs some explanation as it overrates the overall food a bit, and dramatically underrates the lobster bisque. That said, The Brewster Fish House is one of the very best places I've eaten on Cape Cod.
