Do you like to read good restaurant reviews? What makes a good restaurant review? Long-time restaurant reviewer Hanna Raskin has written “Yelp Help.” Her book is for the writer who wants to write better reviews and for anyone interested in dining out. “Yelp Help” starts with a description of the workings of a typical restaurant. “Every restaurant is split in two…” here referred to as the duties of Front of the House (FOH) employees and Back of the House (BOH) employees. Basically how to assign responsibility to breakdowns in service or how to assess what is working well.
A good reviewer should avoid the pitfalls of a badly written review: inaccuracy, cliches, superlatives that mean nothing, one-sided, emotional and egotistical. I have taken what I learned and reviewed a restaurant with lots of buzz in Astoria: Bowpicker on Yelp. I hope Hanna Raskin will give me a passing grade.
The four of us read the rave reviews: Bowpicker had some of the “best fish & chips anywhere.” Food & Wine picked Bowpicker as one of the best summer restaurants in America. The previous afternoon, we’d dined at the San Dune Pub in Manzanita. I ordered the Fish And Chips lightly battered cod fillets with fries, tarter and lemon for $12.95. The fish broke apart easily with my fork and it tasted like the fish and chips I was used to. I’ve had fish and chips many times made with halibut or cod. I’ve even tried salmon fillets once when the restaurant substituted salmon for hHalibut. It had a pungent flavor and while I love salmon, it wasn’t my favorite way to eat battered fillets.
The owners of Bowpicker make their dish with Oregon caught Albacore Tuna. I was nervous about fish and chips using Albacore Tuna. Our group was nervous when we saw the Columbia River Gillnet boat, a bowpicker, high and dry above a gravel parking lot in Astoria around the corner from the looming bridge connecting Oregon to Washington across the mighty Columbia River.
There was a line on this warm, sunny day. Always a good sign to me! All the customers for fish and chips raved and offered us advice on how to order. The choices were the large serving, five pieces of tuna and fries for $10, or three pieces and fries for $8. Couples suggested buying the large portion and splitting it or for another $2, order an extra piece. We walked the plank to the serving ladies who took our order for the large portion and the diet cokes kept in coolers under a tree. It was an assembly line. The first woman took the fish from the oil, the second woman drained and put the fish on a bed of fries and added the lids of sauces. Finally, the last person took our money and gave us the bounty in exchange.
All four of us sat on a picnic bench and helped ourselves to fish that was firm and white and lightly battered. Surprisingly, the batter was salted. The fries were more like steak fries, crispy outside and soft in the middle. We picked up the fillets with our fingers and dipped the fish in our choice of tartar sauce or ketchup. If you like your fish flakey you might not care for the firmness of Albacore, but the taste is better than your average fish and chips. Now, I’m working on an excuse to travel from Portland to Astoria for more. I wonder if they deliver.
Located across from the Columbia River Maritime Museum, in the converted gillnet boat.
Corner of 17th & Duane St. Astoria, OR 97103
phone 503.791.2942
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