I’m packing in two (!!!) co*cktail reviews in one post. Shocking!
Restaurant: Mrs. Fish
Location: Downtown Los Angeles
Overall Drink Rating for Yuki: 9.9/10
Overall Drink Rating for Otonano Amasa: 2/10
Presentation on both drinks: 8/10. I actually liked the presentation better for the Otonano Amasa – it came in a little bird-shaped co*cktail glass. The Yuki co*cktail came in a bowl of ice which was interesting…
Yuki Taste: 10/10 – Honestly, I would come back and sit at the bar for this drink alone
Otonano Amasa Taste: 1/10 – ummm… I should have returned my drink
Atmosphere: 2/10. My Neighbor Nicole™ was really excited to put this dinner together with her friends and unfortunately it did not live up to the hype
Yeeeeeeeeesh! This’ll be my most nuanced review yet because I had one of the best drinks I’ve ever reviewed on the blog and also the WORST drink I’ve reviewed on the blog.
My Neighbor Nicole™ who is now a good friend of mine was very excited to put together a nice dinner with her friends Lindsay, Skye and Sean. I had met Nicole’s bestie Skye before and had been spamming her on Instagram nonstop when Prime’s Fallout TV show premiered, because she produced it.
Skye’s a badass. She is the type of person who can command a room when she enters it, which is a really rare and powerful trait. Her husband, Sean, is the sweetest and they have a really wonderful relationship. Their friend Lindsay was also extremely easy to get along with. Yay to intergenerational friendships!! Brian and I ended up having a really great night even with the meal and 90% of the co*cktails at Mrs. Fish being rather disappointing.
Our reservation at Mrs. Fish was at 7:15 PM, but all of us had arrived by 7 PM and were seated pretty immediately. Really cool vibes inside, there was a giant fish tank, a whiskey bar on an upper level, and a DJ that came on at 9 PM. Nicole immediately noted that she was not a fan of the DJ, but that she did appreciate the music! Upon seating, it took us almost 15 minutes to even get water. We ordered our co*cktails at that point and from there on, the service was incredibly slow – especially after we ordered food. Skye and Nicole both kindly talked to management at the restaurant and let them know we did need to leave to meet another reservation at Death & Co. later that night (review to come at some point).
I know, I know – this isn’t a restaurant review blog, but I felt like I had to set up the context of this place before we ordered drinks.
Nicole and I ordered the Yuki (strawberry martini) first. Oh my lanta!!!!!! This was like a strawberry smoothie in a martini glass. The ingredients included awayuki strawberry gin, calpico, strawberry, honey, and lemon. The most prevalent flavors were the calpico, honey and strawberry – there were hints of lemon, but not an overpowering amount. I’m taking the tiniest of points off because it was garnished with what I THOUGHT was a marshmallow (would have been nice), but instead I took a bite and it was actually a firm block of tofu. Listen, I love tofu. But the tofu garnish with the drink was… not it.
After getting our strawberry martinis, I had pretty high expectations for the next drink. I ordered the Otonano Amasa, a matcha co*cktail. This matcha martini was made with haku Japanese vodka, matcha, calpico, yuzu, and green tea. YIKES. This gets a single point solely because of the cute bird glass it came in. However, the bird glass is also what made it so that all of the calpico and matcha powder was actually at the bottom of the glass and unable to be mixed throughout. It was one of the worst mixed drinks I’ve ever had because it actually wasn’t mixed properly at all. Instead, all I was able to taste was the yuzu and Japanese vodka. Very “meh” on its own to say the least. Instead of a tofu garnish, there was an actual marshmallow this time, which is part of the reason why one point was given.
Both Lindsay and I said we would come back and sit at the bar at some point again, but Nicole, Brian, Sean and Skye all said they would never step foot back into Mrs. Fish. I get that too.
So there we have it – Mrs. Fish gave me both the best co*cktail I’ve had in a bit and the worst in a while! I’m kind of on a Japanese food/co*cktail kick though, so I might be checking out Umaya LA next for a lychee martini over there. Special shout-out to Rebecca Roland at Eater LA for the recommendation, your co*cktail articles are my holy grail and it was nice reconnecting with you again!
We didn’t get a chance to get a big photo of the group, but here’s a cute photo of Nicole, me and Brian enjoying our drinks at Death & Co. later that night.
