Fishbone Kitchen + Grill

Came down to Fishbone Kitchen and Grill for a business lunch. It’s light, airy and beautifully decorated. The hostess and server were very nice and sat us promptly. We ordered a variety of things, and the general consensus was positive. I ordered the lamb bolognese, and it was delicious and filling.
It did take a bit of time for the food to come out, and since we didn’t order apps or special drinks, we just talked with an empty table. Perhaps the experience would have been different if we ordered wine or something. Price is probably closer to $$$ than $$$$.

This is one of those reviews where even as I type I’m thinking… I think my experience was 4 star? Maybe not though? It’s really hard to pin this one down for me.
I guess this is a Portuguese influence. All the wines are Portuguese and the décor reflects that as well. I also can’t tell if this is a fancy restaurant, or kinda hipster — you can get away with jeans and converse, type of place. It’s very light, bright and clean in the restaurant. It’s very white, with nice big white leather chairs, lots of widows to let sunlight in. So it’s definitely modern.
They offer great deals Monday-​Thursday (I forget exactly) along the lines of paella night, 6 oysters for $ 10 if you buy an entrée, 3 course for $ 30 menu. Those sounds awesome, and are very smart ways of bringing a crowd that wouldn’t eat out during the week. I like their creativity.
We got our server, a gent with a very impressive tapered moustache, and he was extremely knowledgable and very nice. He helped with recommendations, gave extra info about which wines you could get in the LCBO, and just chatted with us about almost anything! Two appetizers were shared — baby octopus and the shrimp tacos. The octopus came on a bed of hummus, and it was so meaty in texture that the combination really didn’t do it for me. The shrimp tacos were so small (you get 3) that I only had a bite. But they were really fresh tasting!
Our mains were two whole fish, and two shrimp and asparagus fettuccine (not very diverse, I know). They whole fish came just as it sounds, heads and tail included. So the server deboned it right at the table. It was a neat thing to witness. It came with a few accompaniments like rapini, fennel salad, and some garlic/​tomato relish thing. But it came with absolutely zero carbs. The people who ordered the fish left hungry after that. I got the pasta, and it was in a lemon/​oil/​white wine? sauce. 5 shrimp, maybe two stocks of asparagus, and a few tiny bay scallops. It was warm, the shrimp were cooked well, but it was really way more oily than I would have liked. But at least I wasn’t hungry!
I feel it was a good experience, but I rarely finish my portions of food in a restaurant as I am a petite woman and I was able to at this place. It’s pricey when you consider that.
But it’s unique, it’s all relatively fresh and pretty local from what I gathered, so I have a feeling it will do fairly well in Aurora!

Good, quality, fine dining in Aurora. Very nice restaurant. Service was friendly and professional. Seafood was good quality, food came out in a timely manner, lots of good food being brought out. I should of bought an appetizer as I could of still eaten more after my main course. Normally, an entrée should be enough food for me so this was my only disappointment. I had the salmon on risotto and my date had the seafood linguine. I would definitely come back to this restaurant though, it’s a great place for a date. I like the décor, I like that it’s close. Nothing on the menu really made my eyes go wide… is just a good, decent restaurant with good, decent service.

Went for the first time tonight and it was great! Our server was great and we had to be out by a certain time since there was a reservation coming in but we never felt rushed.
I had the caesar salad and shrimp taco, both amazing!
Will definitely be going back.

First time at this place since its changed hands from chinook. Really really good. Finally a good restaurant in the area. Admittedly, we went on Valentine’s Day for dinner (which tests any establishment) but apart from the slow start with service, the food was pretty amazing.
Oysters were fresh and tasty. My rule is if I see duck confit on the menu — i have to have it — and it didn’t disappoint. My table mates ordered steak and cod. All were pretty happy with everything.
This place would have no problem rubbing elbows with the big boys in the city for sure. I’m glad they’re here though. Great interior — décor — food speaks for itself. Thanks for the fun night!

My husband made reservations at Fishbone on a Friday night 7:30, for my birthday dinner. We arrived on time and were told by the host to wait 3 minutes, for our table was being cleared. We stood there for 15 minutes in a doorway, while the host ignored us repeatedly, not once saying sorry for the wait etc. Nevertheless, we stayed positive because we wanted to enjoy our rare evening out. We were brought to our table and it was under a speaker and against a wall that was very dirty. Ew. My husband has broad shoulders so he was pretty disgusted to have to sit uncomfortably the entire time. But again we tried to stay positive. The music was loud so it was difficult conversing. Our waitress came and took our drink order and told us the specials. We decided to order a bunch of appetizers for our meal, a couple salads, sausages, crabcakes, soups, Frites etc. We told our waitress that we wanted apps and our main to be apps as well. She said because it was a Friday night and busy it would be best to order all the apps now and they would come in succession. So we went with her suggestion.
We received our salads, and my ceaser was good but my husbands beets salad barely had any beets. Which he was disappointed. While we were eating our salads, the sausages and crab cakes came. So our small table was and completely covered with our food. Crab cakes were okay and sausages were dried out and overcooked because they came on a fire lit pottery pig. My thoughts were they were trying to be trendy/​different. Then the wait staff came with our soups. It was obvious there wasn’t any room on our table, yet they tried to place them on an edge. My husband stopped them and told them that we weren’t ready for the soup since our table was full. They asked; didn’t we order them and we told them we did but was told by our waitress we would not receive them all at once. They left and then our waitress came and asked us, in a challenging way why we sent back the soups since we ordered them. We told her that she suggested to us to order all our meal at once and that we wouldn’t receive everything all at once. She reluctantly said that it was on her. We then received our frites and they were over salted to the point where we were crunching on salt. I told our waitress that the frites were way over-​salted and that my lips were burning could she bring a batch unsalted. She argued with me saying perhaps it was the spicy ketchup but I told her think I would know the difference between salty and spicy. She came back with a ‘new’ batch of frites. Stood there while I tried one. I told her it was fine and she left. The frite I had was still salted but not overly. But after I had a few, I was crunching on salt again. My thoughts were she turned the frites upside down and returned the frites to me. :(I didn’t say anything because of the waitress’ attitude so I just wiped each frite down before I ate it which is not the way I wanted to spend my birthday dinner. Then our soups came and it was obvious that they microwaved the same soups from 20 minutes before. We kept trying to stay positive because it was my birthday but we didn’t bother staying for dessert because frankly we didnt want to stay there another minute. We left still hungry so we went to another restaurant for dessert and coffee.
Overall, food was not good. Service was disorganized and the manager/​host did not even come to us during our entire meal. However, we saw him chatting to other patrons. I believe that if any customer is unhappy with any aspect of their meal the manager should at least see what the issue is.
So, my birthday dinner was a bust! When my friends and family asked what I thought of Fishbone, I mentioned the above. They were appalled at our story and couldn’t believe the lack or basic courtesy and service. I would definitely NOT recommend going to this restaurant.

My wife and I went here last night for Valentines Day dinner. I really like what they did with the place inside and the food was exceptional. We had the fish tacos for an app and they were great. My wife had the scallops for her main and I had the salmon. They were both very good. My only complaint would be that it took a bit long to get our food but that just allowed me to have some more drinks. I still give this restaurant 5 stars.

I have been here 3 times during that last month and have not been disappointed. The atmosphere they have created is great with a nice bar area.
They did have ‘wood-​fired pizzas’ that have been changed on the menu to an appetizer of flatbread and they are delicious.
I love the shrimp tacos as an appetizier. They are very small but delicious and perfect size for an appy (don’t order this as a meal). Comes with a cute tiny bottle of Tobasco sauce.
The Caesar salad was really good as well. I tried the mushroom tagliatelle last time and it was amazing! So flavourful I didn’t want to stop eating it!

I’m a fan of the other locations in Stouffville and Musselman’s Lake so no surprise I like this location also. Full disclosure — The owner is an acquaintance. We showed up without a reservation on a whim (not recommended) and the maitre’d graciously found us some bar seating. A great spot for seeing the kitchen in action. The bartender was a complete card but totally professional and kept us entertained. The wait staff were on the ball and certainly hustle. The food as in the other locations is Portuguese themed and the wine is all from Portugal (Yes, Portugal has some exceptional wine) but the cocktails are completely international. I had the braised octopus on Mediterranean vegetables. Exceptional but probably only for the adventurous at heart. Everyone in our group raved about their selections. The space is quite large and tastefully upscale. I will definitely be back.

No, no. 8:30 pm reservations. Walked-​in at 8:15 pm and never acknowledged till 8:45 pm. No tables ready — no offer to sit at the bar. Never going back. It’s Aurora, ON not New York honey.

We booked for family Christmas dinner and the space was lovely. I was concerned as one in the party was not fond of fish regretfully the only thing on the menu they could eat was pizza. We had hoped for steak but were told it had to be served medium rare and that would not work. The Brussel sprouts appetizer was exceptional! So were the fries. Be sure to order! The service was pretty slow (took us 3 hours for 6 of us). Our main courses were good and the presentation was great. The wine list and beers were all Portuguese. It would have been nice to have more choice.

Just had an amazing dinner at Fishbone. We love the one in Stouffville and this location doesn’t disappoint either. My husband absolutely loves their scallops and this time I ordered the same too. The atmosphere is a bit more hip and happening than the other location. The service is friendly and attentive. It’s great to have a place like this up in this neck of the woods. Can’t wait to go back again soon!

First trip to Aurora location. Food was AMAZING, really. Service was great, and the atmosphere is great too.
However, the wine list is bizarre. My friends and I are not award winning wine critics, but we do have preferences. The wine list is entirely made up of Portuguese wine, which is great if you are a fan, but if you are not, there is literally no other option. The server did his best to relate us to some bottles we might like, at a mid-​price point ($ 65 – 70?) but they weren’t to our tastes.
It would be nice if they offered some standard regional choices like California, Australia or Italy.
Keep up the good work in the kitchen! I hope they do well, we are short of good food like this in the area.

The wine was wonderful that we had with dinner. I’m not a big wine drinker but this was lovely. The food was good. We tried a few different appetizers and enjoyed them.
The brussel sprouts and beer salad were great. I had the halibut which was very good and my husband had the scallops on risotto were very tasty.
So many interesting choices on the menu. We would go back again but for a special occasion it is a bit pricey for Aurora.

Went for lunch with 4 of my girlfriends. We all liked the food but was not impressed with the lunch menu. It is essentially the dinner menu with a couple of appetizers added in. Appetizers are too small for a full lunch. The prices for the entrees for lunch are pricey $ 22 – 30. Soup of the day is $ 8, for lunch! They do not serve bread for lunch but the prices are the same as for dinner. Will not be back for lunch. Better places out there. Felt ripped off.