Warm and welcoming, Pinefish is more than seafood

Saying steak is the best dish at a seafood restaurant is hard to do without sounding like you’re throwing shade.

So I’ll start with this, instead: The namesake fish dishes at Pinefish in Center City Philadelphia are generally excellent. They’re mostly small plates, too, so you can get many on one visit.

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Pan-seared salmon shimmers pink beneath crisped skin, almost as creamy as the parmesan sauce beneath it ($8). Fork-tender octopus is sweet as they come, but also bursting with savory from a harissa dry rub ($13). Sake-poached shrimp are just shy of translucent, piqued by a ginger-sharpened avocado mousse ($13).

No real surprise, since chef David Ansill has more than proven his mettle over the past three decades.

The Cheltenham, Pa., native has wowed palates at Judy’s Cafe, The Rittenhouse, Tangerine, Pif, Ansill and Bar Ferdinand, among others, sliding easily from American to French to Spanish and back. Most recently, he was knocking Provencal out of the park at the Good King Tavern before veteran restaurateur Peter Dissin scooped him up to consult — and then run full-time — the kitchen at his new venture on the corner of 12th and Pine.

Dissin has been in the game a long time. He started back in the ‘70s, working for his father, Henry, who ran several South Jersey spots as well as few in the city that were considered part of Philadelphia’s first “restaurant renaissance.”

But he hasn’t been in the game recently, not on a sophisticated fine-dining level. That’s obvious from the low prices on his wine list, which is full of interesting varietals for around $30-$40 a bottle.

It’s also apparent from the way he talks about Ansill’s food.

Like the wonderful sliced sirloin steak ($14), which I described as one of the best pieces of meat I’d had all year, gushing about how its ultra-flavorful charred edges cradled perfect medium-rare centers.

After launching into an in-depth explanation of how the glutamates in the dry rub of shiitake mushroom and garlic add “something called umami” (that “fifth taste” that’s mentioned in every other Yelp review or food blog nowadays), Dissin tries to school me on the cooking method.

“You see, we get much better consistency by raising the internal temperature of the meat, instead of trying to do it from the outside, so we — ”

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“You cook it sous-vide?” I can’t help but interrupt. Yes, he says, a bit surprised I’m familiar with the process.

“It’s unusual to find a place that doesn’t cook sous-vide these days,” I say.

The same is true with fried cauliflower, I note — it’s on menus everywhere — but Pinefish’s version is now solidly in my top three ($7). The florets browned from a quick deep-fry, then tossed with anchovy paste and sherry-soaked raisins are as addictive as potato chips.

“When Ansill gave me that recipe, I thought, oh god, how am I gonna sell fried cauliflower?” Dissin says. It’s now the restaurant’s best-seller.

Not everything on the menu is a win. The scallops with a sweet-and-sour chile-garlic sauce were so sweet they almost hurt my teeth. Slow-roasted tomatoes covered in breadcrumbs had a metallic tang, something Dissin attributed later to an overabundance of rosemary. The crust on the fried oysters fell off on first touch.

At dessert, housemade chocolate-caramel semi freddo ($6) was luxuriously creamy but hardly chocolatey. The key lime trifle, a pie deconstructed into a parfait, was better, though at the end of my meal, I found myself regretting I’d skipped the decadence of seared tuna topped with foie gras and luxardo jus. What was I thinking?

Possibly I was distracted by the decor.

The disconnect Dissin has with modern restaurant mores extends to the dining room — but here in a delightful way. Thanks to the help of Su Rudy Designs, a profusion of color buries the overdone hipster urban vibe in soft edges. Instead of monotone metals, exposed cement and caged edison bulbs, there’s orange walls and turquoise upholstery, fuschia ottomans and golden cushions.

It’s reminiscent of Astral Plane or Knave of Hearts, old Philadelphia classics, but it doesn’t feel dated. It just feels ... comfortable.

“When I grew up, most people ate at the table,” Dissin says. “Now kids eat on the couch, doing their phone thing. I just wanted to bring back the living room. This is a neighborhood place.”

If you’re lucky, that neighborhood is yours.

Danya Henninger reviews New Jersey restaurants for the Courier-Post. She is a former New Yorker who was happy to discover the wonders of South Jersey when she moved there 19 years ago. She now lives in Philadelphia with her A/V-writer husband, where she is culture editor for Billy Penn and writes about beer. Reach her at danyahenninger@gmail.com with questions, tips or comments.

Dining review

Pinefish

1138 Pine St., Philadelphia

pinefish.fish or (267) 519-2850

Cuisine: Modern American seafood and small plates

Food: ★★★★

Atmosphere: ★★★½ 

Service:★★★​​

Value: ★★★★

Overall: ★★★★

Recommended dishes: Sliced sirloin steak, grilled octopus, fried cauliflower, sake-poached shrimp

Hours: 4:30.-10 p.m., Sun.-Wed.; 4:30-11 p.m., Thurs.; 4:30 p.m.-12 a.m., Sun.

Small plates: $6-$16

Large plates: $14-$28

Late night: No

Brunch: Starting soon

BYOB: No

Outdoor dining: No

Live entertainment: No

Wheelchairs: No

Parking: Street

What the stars mean: Five stars is excellent; four stars is very good; three stars is good; two stars is fair and one star is poor.