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Friday, September 15, 2000
By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
Two couples in front of us were getting into their car as we came out of Mitchell's Fish Market. "That was FUN," one of the women exclaimed as the car door slammed shut.
She's right. Mitchell's is fun. That's one of the reasons it's the hottest restaurant in Pittsburgh right now. People tonight were waiting up to an hour for a table.
Mitchell's also serves fine fish and seafood, it's good looking, well organized, casual, and the service is, well, not perfect, but trying. Diners look like they're relaxed, happy, and yes, having fun.
Mitchell's is one of two restaurants in the Waterfront opened by Cameron Mitchell of Columbus, Ohio. (The other is the nearby Cap City Fine Diner.) He has two Fish Markets in Columbus, very much like the new one here. Chef John Beuter and most of the top management team came in from Columbus to run this restaurant.
The menu is long and is changed and reprinted every day, as it is at other fish houses like the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station in New York City and the Pittsburgh Fish Market, Downtown. The back of the big paper menu has the long wine list.
Everyone who goes to Mitchell's Fish Market should not miss two items: The cedar plank salmon, the house specialty, and the shark fin pie. Cedar plank salmon is, by far, the biggest seller, according to Stacy Mayhew, manager. It's two pieces of salmon filet, grilled and served on the cedar plank, along with garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, mushrooms, and in the center, a salsa-like mix with lots of capers. All eyes from nearby tables followed mine as the server carried it out from the kitchen. The salmon is glossy, a little crisp on the edges and delicious.
Shark fin pie is a spectacular dessert. It contains no shark fin, but is loaded with equally dangerous ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate, a lot of nuts and who-knows-what-else. A big wedge of the pie, standing on the plate, looks like a shark, I swear.
His Honor doesn't see it. "No more wine for you," he says, moving the bottle of 1998 Columbia Crest Estate sauvignon blanc to his side of the table. At $28, it's a good buy, one of six MFM featured wine selections, but who wants wine with dessert anyway?
The initials MFM are on several of the restaurant's specialty items -- the house salad and the mixed grill, for example. The MFM house salad has chopped dates, pine nuts, carrots, cucumbers, tomato and a poppy seed dressing, and it's huge. Share it.
Another salad big enough to share is the Titanic, a big wedge of fresh and crunchy iceberg lettuce, with Thousand Island dressing, chopped bacon and egg. It's like the 1950s all over again.
The MFM mixed grill, one of three combination platters on the menu, has Florida mahi mahi, Atlantic salmon and swordfish, garlic mashed potatoes and crisp green beans with red pepper strips. The cuts of fish are small so they grill quickly, and were a little dry. I found myself putting tartar sauce on the fish to counteract the dryness -- and I don't like tartar sauce.
With large cuts of fish we've had better luck. H.H. had broiled Virginia striped bass, one of the day's catches, one evening, and it was superb. Not overcooked at all.
Each day there is a Chef's Daily Feature, such as Asian grilled grouper with "dragon rub," sticky rice, spinach and ginger scallion butter sauce, plus 10 to 12 catches of the day. These can be ordered grilled or broiled, or steamed Shanghai style with ginger and scallions in a soy and rice wine sauce, served over sauteed spinach and with sticky rice.
The service at Mitchell's Fish Market is still a little uneven. Tonight the salad and appetizer (jumbo lump crab cake with lobster aioli, moist, very little filler and nicely browned) came long before the wine. Then there was a very long wait for our dinners. But the waitress smiled all the while.
Sitting in the bar earlier, waiting for our table, we ordered one each of the featured oysters on the half shell -- a Pearl Point, Canadian Cove, Tatamagouche and Quilcene. They arrived on a mound of ice so big I suspect it was meant for a dozen oysters, and the server rattled off the name of each one. We promptly forgot which was which, and when she came by again she named them again for us. "How can you tell which is which?" I asked. "They're in alphabetical order, from the left," she said. Now why didn't I think of that?
The oysters were a disappointment. The Tatamagouche and the Quilcene (I think) were hardly big enough to taste. Not a good time of year for the oysters, the server said.
As a sign etched on one of the bar windows says, "Good fish is not cheap, and cheap fish is not good." The oysters are $1.50 and $1.75 each. Fish entrees with potatoes and vegetable range from $13.95 to $18.95. Lobster and crab specialties go as high as $31.95.
The bar, incidentally, is completely enclosed, mostly in glass. That's a nice touch for people who don't like to walk through smoke to get to their tables. The rest of the restaurant, except for the patio, is non-smoking.
Beer on tap and by the bottle is available, as well as 19 wines by the glass. The list of wines by the bottle is much longer. H.H. is impressed, particularly since he spotted the 1998 Kistler Sonoma Coast from the Sonoma Valley, which Wine Spectator says is the best chardonnay in California. Dream on, H.H.
Mitchell's Fish Market
Brian Kohler, manager of Mitchell's Fish Market on the Waterfront, presents s four-pound lobster not caught in the Mon. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette) 
185 West Waterfront, Homestead
412-476-8844
Hours: Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sunday, 3-9 p.m.The basics: Fish and shellfish, from around the world, plus a few chicken, steak and salad items for those who don't eat fish; children's menu; seats 256, plus 60 on the patio; smoking only in the bar and the patio; big parking lot; handicapped accessible; major credit cards; reservations.The last word: 3 1/2 stars