Little Fish

I've had plenty of Thai-styled mussels before, for example, but his Blue Bay beauties basked in a panang coconut-milk curry that was vivid with lemongrass and ginger. A beautiful steak of opah, seared rare and shingled over pureed white beans, matched the tunalike meatiness of the Hawaiian fish with the Provencale spark of picholine olive vinaigrette and fennel marmalade. A thick fillet of crisped mahimahi, meanwhile, posed with juicy pears and peppery watercress over sweet potato puree and a sauce of Madras curry, whose delicate yellow cream whispered exotic without overwhelming the fish.

Dishes like these remind why Little Fish often exemplifies some of the best traits of the Philly BYOB - where surprising culinary ambition is presented in the warm ambience of an unpretentious neighborhood nook, and the dining experience is all about the food and company.

Of course, at $27 or so an entree on the regular menu, there isn't much room for mistakes in such an unvarnished setting. So it's little wonder the bargain Sunday tasting menus - five courses for $28! - are booked weeks in advance.

With service, too, Little Fish is hard not to like. It's not often a server is as informed and as genuinely enthusiastic as Natalie Sweet, the much-tattooed and spunky waitress who kept the dinners happily flowing on each of my visits.

And yet, there are plenty of moments when Little Fish also shows the limitations of such a tiny bistro. Not only in the cramped table spacing, noisy din, and low-maintenance nondecor, but also in a kitchen that sometimes appears hamstrung by the lack of equipment and storage from producing a broader expression of what seafood cookery can be, other than these myriad variations of seared fish over pureed starch.

It will certainly be worth watching as Stollenwerk, one of our notable young talents, trolls for the additional venue he's planned this year to serve that vision in grander digs.

As I tried to fall asleep after my dinner at Little Fish, with Desire the cat hungrily licking at my wrists, I could only hope the new place at least includes some ventilation.