Two rooms form this seafood place on the beach, pleasantly filled with original paintings and plants. Service is cheerful and quick. Small free
sampler dishes of the house favorite, rock shrimp tempura, come to the table once you are seated. House filtered water is also gratis as is the complementary slice of flan at the end of the meal. A local free diver paddles out to spear gun hog snapper and grouper and bring in spiny lobsters fresh from the ocean each day. Can’t get much fresher. Dishes are simple but flavorful with Japanese and Latin flavors. Try tuna sashimi in miso ponzu sauce with a touch of brown sugar or hog snapper grilled in olive oil or steamed and served in ponzu reduction with red onions and scallions. There’s also oysters, scallops, soft shell crab and stone crab in season plus steaks and grilled chicken.
Nelson and Mayneth Sanchez throw a party every day and hope guests will show up. Many who have discovered Fifis Place return often for the happening vibe and fish and lobsters that are often just hours out of the ocean.
A Cuban American who grew up in New York and Miami, Nelson ran nightclubs for a number of years. Five years ago, he met his Venezuelan wife, better known as Fifi. A natural cook, she perfected her skills watching the Food Network and cooking for family get-togethers.
A year and a half ago, the couple saw a need in their North Beach neighborhood and filled it with their small restaurant. The place is not fancy, but original paintings and plants add ambience.
Many dishes have a Japanese twist, while others are solidly Latin. Every table gets a small sampler of rock shrimp tempura in spicy mayo sauce to start, and meals end with a complimentary slice of homemade flan. The water is filtered in-house and free.
A key to the Sanchezes' success is their supply network, which includes Yunieski Gonzalez, a former Cuban free-diving champ. Almost every day, the 28-year-old surfer paddles a mile out into the ocean and dives to spear hog snapper and grouper and, in season, to collect lobster.
Rich Nichols of Port Royal Trading Co., west of the airport, supplies Alaskan black cod, blue fin tuna, Prince Edwards Island Malpec oysters, soft-shell crab and more. Nichols buys stone crabs from the Keys, and Fifi's cooks them daily -- most with the coveted "pink butter" (crab fat).
Fifi's house specialties include Nova Scotia scallops baked in the shell in a creamy mayo sauce with sautéed mushrooms; black cod marinated and baked in a mixture of miso, mirin and sugar; and hog snapper sashimi in yuzu and soy sauce with fried chips of elephant ear garlic. (The snapper is also served whole and as fillets.)
Lunch specials consist mostly of sandwiches, salads and pastas. Theres also a choice of grilled chicken breast, fish fillet or New York strip steak served with brown rice and salad.
Dinner specials come with rice and black beans or mashed potato with salad. A few, like the seafood paella and mixed seafood parrillada (grill), are for two.
Blue fin toro (tuna belly) comes baked in miso with jalapeño salsa or grilled. Florida lobster is cut into chunks, grilled, tossed in a spicy mayo sauce and stuffed back in the shell.
Turf lovers can enjoy aged USDA prime steak and grilled free-range chicken breast. But it is the fresh-from-the-ocean catch -- displayed on ice in big coolers near the kitchen -- that lures most customers to the party that unfolds here each day.
