✨ Dining Experience at Gone Fishing – Tuesday, 8/4
Gone Fishing, the Japanese-style seafood rice bowl spot in Mira Mesa, recently reopened after a brief closure. My friend and I had been looking forward to trying it for quite a while, so we made plans to come check it out.
We arrived just before 5 PM, and there was already a long line outside. They were taking handwritten names for the waitlist. We didn’t dare go too far in case we missed our name being called. My friend even joked that it would be much more convenient if they could take down our phone number and text us when our table was ready. We finally got seated at around 6:30 PM — over an hour of waiting.
The restaurant itself is pretty small, which honestly isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There were about five or six people working in the kitchen, plus two servers, but the overall food service was still quite slow.
Once we sat down, we ordered right away. The menu is very simple, with only three seafood rice bowl options. A few of us all chose the second option, which had the widest variety of seafood, and we also added a bowl of uni noodles.
6:36 PM — Ordered
6:56 PM — Food arrived
⏰ 20-minute wait
🙋♀️ A little hiccup along the way
One of my friends doesn’t eat shrimp, so we asked if the shrimp could be replaced with another seafood item of equal value. The server checked with the kitchen and confirmed that it was possible, so they replaced the shrimp with an equivalent amount of uni.
However, when the bowl arrived, there was almost no sashimi in it — just one extra piece of uni. We also weren’t informed beforehand that the substitution would be handled this way, and the receipt showed an additional $6 charge.
We had to go back and forth with the staff to get the issue sorted out, which definitely took away from the overall dining experience.
I guess this is one of the downsides of the soft-opening stage — when the staff is overwhelmed, little mistakes and miscommunications can easily happen.
🍣 Overall taste
The seafood was fresh, and the combination of fresh seafood rice wrapped in seaweed was definitely enjoyable when eaten in big bites. But honestly, it wasn’t particularly impressive or mind-blowing.
After waiting that long, I probably won’t be coming back anytime soon. If you’re craving seafood, you can definitely find some good alternatives at poke bowl spots or other restaurants without having to wait nearly as long.
