Fishbowl Bistro and Bar Restaurant Review

The balancing act between bar and restaurant is often a tricky tightrope for new businesses. Say you have a vision of a happening bar where young, attractive people get together, sip on fruity cocktails and let out squeals when a song from their favorite pop star pumps into the speakers.

You could have all the pieces in place to make this happen, but then there’s the food. Virginia law says you have to sell a certain amount in order to make your bar dream come true, so you’re left trying to figure out what type of food might serve your vision.

We could name scores of establishments who’ve successfully offered good food in addition to the fun, party vibes, but The Fish Bowl Bistro and Bar just didn’t offer anything for our tastes in the food department.

The atmosphere has the kitschy feel of an Outer Banks watering hole with the bright teal walls and underwater motif. If Spongebob Squarepants had a bar in Bikini Bottom, this is probably what it would look like. Plush red booths and a large, open floor plan give a lounge feel to the space, and two ample bars serve the main dining area as well as the outdoor patio. The music was surely meant to add to the island feel, but the reggae version of Pink Floyd was a bit much.

It’s not often that bars extend their happy hour specials as late as 9 p.m.; when we walked in around 8:30 on a Friday, we saw why. Save for a guy or two checking out some NBA action at the bar, we had the entire bar to ourselves. Despite the empty room, our server wasn’t quite on top of things as we had to flag him down several times for drink refills.

We started out with a couple of appetizers. The coconut shrimp ($8.99) was serviceable, though the crispiness was more due to a serious fry-job than an abundance of coconut. One of the six shrimp must have gotten lost in the fryer for awhile as it came out charred while the others were a more suitable golden brown. The mango sauce on the side was good, but the dish offered nothing to make up for the inconsistent execution.

The chicken wings ($7.99 for 6; $11.99 for 12) were a hair better than what you might find in the freezer section of the grocery, but were woefully lacking in the crispy department. The meat was tough, which didn’t help the sogginess and the drenching of buffalo sauce added to the lack of freshness.

The Fish Bowl’s menu offers your typical bar options along with a few paninis and entrees. The turkey panini on sourdough with cranberry aioli, provolone, roma tomatoes and spinach ($7.99) sounded like a good choice with the plethora of ingredients.

Sourdough seemed an interesting choice for a panini, but this unexpected choice became the downfall. The bread just wasn’t crispy enough to hold onto the fillings inside and the sandwich continuously slipped out of the bread and back onto the plate. The aioli was the dominant flavor, which was a blessing as the turkey was no better than the cold cuts you’d find in a plastic tub at the grocery store.

The alla andouille ($15.99), a penne pasta with andouille sausage, crab meat, roasted red peppers in a garlic cream sauce had no spark. The sausage tasted more like kielbasa as opposed to andouille, the crab was undetectable, and the garlic cream sauce tasted more like canned alfredo. It tasted more like something a young man would make at home to impress a date than a dish to crave from a restaurant.

Concluding by now that the Fish Bowl is more of a place to enjoy drinks with friends, we tried one of the specialty cocktails, the Serendipity ($8). The menu advertised just the amaretto and Grand Marnier, but we detected a bit of pineapple and other fruity mixes. It certainly was a well-mixed drink, reminiscent of a liquid version of Nerds candy.

While the Fish Bowl Bistro and Bar is trying to mix the worlds of bar and dining, it seems the focus is on creating a fun environment to enjoy drinks with friends and perhaps make new ones. However, with the current setup and menu, it’s not likely to become a new dining destination for the Bottom.

Jon and Leah Nelson, like most married couples, can’t agree on how the dishwasher should be loaded, so they eat out a lot so someone else can worry about the dishes. As RVA natives, they have had plenty of practice checking out what the city has to offer.