Fresh Off the Boat Fish Grill
Fusing American, Mexican, and Middle Eastern cuisines together with mixed results
For us, the most surprising thing about Fresh Off The Boat Fish Grill isn’t its unusual and frankly super compelling concept of fusing Mediterranean, Mexican, and American items together on the same menu. It’s the fact that there are now at least three Orange County locations, and they’re all pretty well-rated on Yelp.
On a positive note, Fresh Off The Board enables picky family members to sit down together at one restaurant and choose between fish tacos, lamb gyros, “baja bowls,” and grilled fish. Want to start your meal with chips and salsa? Hummus and a pita? or a Greek salad? Those are all options here, and you can finish with a tiramisu dessert or baklava.
The problem in our experience was that literally nothing we ordered here tasted great – every item was a mediocre version of something we’d had much better before at many other places. Everything looked fine at first, but some of the food (including shrimp ceviche served on a tostada) was weirdly creamy and actively hard to eat.
It’s possible that this experience was atypical, but our impression of Fresh Off The Boat is that it’s catering to audiences looking more for inexpensive, quickly served food than particularly excellent renditions of either Mediterranean or Mexican cuisines. We don’t plan to return.
Stats
Price: $$
Service: Counter
Open Since: 2018
Addresses
17582 17th St. Suite 105
Tustin, CA 92780
714.544.1900
Additional locations in Placentia + Santa Ana
Instagram: @freshofftheboatfishgrill