Grill Fish Cafe - Restaurant Review

Grill Fish Café
814 South 47th St
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Neighborhood: Cedar Park

The younger sibling to Vietnam Cafe, Grill Fish Cafe occupies a very small but comfortable space.   Every time I've walked by Grill Fish Cafe there's either never been anyone in the restaurant or just one table seated.  As such, I've found myself quite hesitant to try out the spot.  But, since it's in the neighborhood, I finally had to try it out.  Not surprisingly, there was only one other table there.  Then again, it was 9PM on a Thursday night in West Philly.  

I had the Hanoi Fish (tilapia in a simmering broth with mint, bell peppers...and other good things).  The fish came out on a burner with the noodles on a different plate.   I have to be honest, I wasn't sure how to eat this.  I tried out various methods and nothing came to satisfaction.  If I ate the noodles separately, they were too bland.  If I put them in the broth, they were too difficult to pick up with chopsticks.  Since the spoon was metal and the broth was simmering, using the metal spoon meant burning my tongue.  I thought the fish itself tasted okay - nothing that blew me away, but there was enough flavor in it that I wasn't entirely disappointed. 

Service was good and the waitress was attentive.  I like that the table water is not iced, it was slightly colder than room temperature.  I know most people probably don't prefer this, but I'm weird and I do.

As an FYI, the menu here is more expansive than what's on the restaurant's website - at least as of today.  Also, if you have AT&T, there is absolutely no service in here so you better like whoever you're sitting with as there's no checking your email, browsing on your phone, and all those bad manners we've picked up in this digital age :)