A perfect spot for up-and-coming Conshohocken

Much fuss has been made about the adventurous, surprisingly avant-garde cooking at Blackfish, the much-lauded, pint-sized BYOB in Conshohocken, and justifiably so. A quick look at its menu makes it clear that this is no run-of-the-mill neighborhood spot. Dishes like red snapper with daikon and rhubarb purée and verjus bubbles, and a surf and turf featuring grilled prawns and braised pork belly are undoubtedly modern and forward thinking in their conception.

But there’s another side of Blackfish—lunch. So I set off to see what one of the area’s newest dining darlings was like in broad daylight.

Turns out it’s actually a very pleasant lunch spot. And while the culinary fireworks weren’t so much in evidence in the middle of the day, there was enough of a balance between the everyday and the unexpected to make even the most curmudgeonly guest happy.

The Cobb salad ($8), for example, was as classic an assembly as I’ve seen. Not that I’ve seen it much, mind you; it seems as if this salad has, of late, been relegated to the far reaches of our collective gustatory mind, and is often left off local menus to make room for hipper salads, like those featuring whatever the newest overpriced micro-leaves du jour happen to be. But there it was, as straightforward and carefully considered as it was fresh: haricots verts and wax beans, grape tomatoes and chunks of Maytag blue cheese, roasted beets and fennel, a straightforward mix of spring greens, all of it served with a side of rich, subtle hazelnut vinaigrette. It was striking in its simplicity, and its refusal to resort to gimmicks, and all the better for it.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was the chilled soup du jour ($5), a straightforward, butter-rich purée of English peas, velvety in texture, livened up with the addition of tomato oil. Surprisingly—and perhaps counterintuitively—the soup was even more subtle than the cobb salad. But each bite revealed a different, unexpected layer of flavor, depending upon how much of that oil found its way onto the spoon.

The space itself is as simple as can be, and the combination of bright ambient light coming through the front windows and blissfully uncluttered white walls made me feel like I was miles away, culturally speaking. That’s the nature of the region’s dining scene these days; there’s always something new, something unexpected, and the neighborhood stereotypes of yesterday don’t necessarily have any sort of relevance today. Thank goodness!

Both entrées fit perfectly with the ambience, though in very different ways. The hamburger ($9) played more to the casual aspect. Though the meat could have been a bit more aggressively seasoned, it was, indeed, one tasty burger: nine ounces of black angus nicely done in a cast iron pan, sandwiched between two halves of brioche and topped with any or all of the menu’s high-end versions of the classic accouterments (three kinds of cheese, caramelized onions, applewood smoked bacon, trumpet mushrooms) free of charge (what a concept!).

The ravioli, on the other hand, made the restaurant seem a bit more upscale: Blissfully thin, delicate pasta was filled with a mixture of wild mushrooms, chicken and foie gras, and framed with a simple Madeira-vermouth-butter sauce that was given further richness by the addition of more pieces of mushroom.

Desserts were a bit less consistent. The espresso crème brûlée suffered from too thick a layer of caramelized sugar on the top, which threatened to overwhelm the crème beneath it. But the vanilla beignets with a spiced crème anglaise were spot on: Doughy and unabashedly rich, they were like the grown up version of Dunkin’ Donuts’ munchkins. And the generous hit of nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and allspice in the crème anglaise was unexpected and, surprisingly, the linchpin of the dish – a subtly spicy sparkplug firing away with every bite.

The fact that Conshohocken is now home to a restaurant like Blackfish says as much about the expanding regional dining scene as any other spot to have opened recently. Blackfish provides the kind of experience that’s likely to make us all reconsider what we thought we knew about an area that’s been in culinary shadows for far too long. We should all be grateful for that.

Blackfish is located at 119 Fayette St. in Conshohocken and can be reached by phone at (610) 397-0888. Visit Blackfish online at www.blackfishrestaurant.com .