A Solid Dinner at Fish Tale Grill in Cape Coral

wholesale/retail business since 1991.

The restaurant started off with a few tables in their seafood market, eventually opening FTG. The wholesale end of this business supplies over 250 restaurants in the area. D

My dining companion had heard very good things about FTG. Although Cape Coral is sort of terra Incognita to me, I agreed to go for Dinner. One of the pleasures of dining at an establishment such as this is discovering something really good that gets forgotten about in a sea of newer dining establishments. 

Initially, as everyone is, we were brought a serving of bread with sun-dried tomato butter. I don’t know about you, but I never buy bread to eat at home, only consuming it when out. This makes it that much better. This was exceptionally good however, the in house prepared butter a perfect accompaniment.

We added on to our main and ordered a cup of lobster bisque. Taste-wise, it was very good with pronounced sherry and seafood notes and plenty of lobster meat. The texture was unusual, almost gelatinous, which was due to the flour added to thicken the bisque. It, as the next dish, was a trade-off. For a very traditional (and labor-intensive) lobster bisque recipe go Here.

The grilled Portuguese octopus was a salad of grilled octopus, grilled onion, arugula and bacon. I have eaten a lot of octopus, and this was some of the most tender and generous portion of octopus I have had at a restaurant. Unfortunately, the dish had little flavor and fell flat. Again, another trade-off. I think with a bit of re-engineering, this could be a fantastic starter.

We then moved onto the seafood Cobb salad.

Pictured is a split portion of their version of their Cobb salad. The old acronym, Eat Cobb (egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon and blue cheese) was loosely followed here. Nonetheless, the salad was very good and as to be expected from an establishment that supplies seafood to so many wholesale clients, the seafood was fresh as fresh can be.

We finished with a seafood platter, which comes broiled, blackened or fried. We ordered the platter blackened and my dining

companion asked what exactly this was. This was a cooking technique made famous by Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme in the 1980’s. Typically, the seafood is dipped in butter, coated with a variety of spices like thyme, oregano, onion and garlic powder and cooked in a cast-iron skillet.

The darkened appearance of the cooked seafood is due to the browning of the butter used in the dish. The seafood platter came with a generous portion of grouper and 4 shrimp and scallops. It was perfect for sharing. Instead of fries, coleslaw or sweet potato fries, we decided on the vegetable option. It was a very nice mix of stir-fried snow peas, carrots, broccoli and bok choy. The in-house-made tartar sauce and cocktail sauce was just (literally) gravy on a wonderful take of the restaurant’s seafood which was fresh and delicious.

The food sampled at FTG was on the whole very good. Any perceived faults on my part in the preparation of the menu items were overcome by the seafood. The food served at FTG is solid, built on a base of seafood of exceptional quality and will have you coming back for more. For seafood in Cape Coral, FTG is most recommended.

Fish Tale Grill

1229 SE 47th Terrace

Cape Coral, FL 33904

(239)257-3167

All major credit cards accepted; Open Monday-Saturday 11AM-9PM, Sunday 11AM-8PM.