Passionfish
Berk Guvenc bought this room in July 2024 and wanted bream on the menu. Bream is not on the fully sustainable list, so it is not on the menu. Ted and Cindy Walter cooked to that rule here for 27 years before him.
Why go
Guvenc is 38 and had never owned a restaurant. He saw a listing with no name and no address on it, asked his agent, and heard back Passionfish. His answer, to Dave Faries: Whatever they are asking, we'll do it.
He kept the cooks, the servers and the managers, started going to the same farmers markets Ted Walter went to, and called the same suppliers. Then he ran into bream, which he likes and which did not clear the sourcing test, and his line on that is the whole kitchen in a sentence: If there's a question mark, that's a definite no.
The plates behind that rule are not plain fish. Faries describes a kitchen that dresses rainbow trout in cardamom syrup and slowly cooks lamb breast so tender that it falls to the tip of a spoon.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the rainbow trout with cardamom, the lamb breast, and the fritters of black bean and goat cheese. The wine list was half of this room's reputation long before the sale.1
- Avoid: expecting the menu frozen. Guvenc's family is Turkish and he is adding Mediterranean plates alongside Walter's.1
What locals & experts say
- Monterey County Weekly (Dave Faries, 6 June 2024): Ted and Cindy Walter
made Passionfish a leader in sustainable cuisine known for a well considered wine list, as well as one of the finest kitchens in Monterey County.
2 - Berk Guvenc, on why he changed nothing:
If I wanted to change things, I wouldn't have bought this restaurant.
1 - Guvenc, on what he is after:
I thought the restaurant had a Michelin star, because it's so good. Maybe not right away, but that's my goal.
1
Good to know
- Ownership: the sale closed in July 2024 to Charbar LLC, named for Guvenc's children Charlotte and Baran. Fishwife down the road belongs to his parents and is a separate business, which he had to say out loud because the rumour ran the other way.1
- Booking: worth doing. It fills on a Friday.
- Getting there: Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove, around the point from Cannery Row.
Verdict
should-visit — Twenty-nine years of turning away fish with a question mark on it, and the rule survived the sale. Ted and Cindy Walter built it over 27 years into what Dave Faries called one of the finest kitchens in Monterey County, and Berk Guvenc bought it in July 2024 and left the dishes alone. The cooking is not timid about sugar and spice on fish, which is what dressing rainbow trout in cardamom syrup means. On Jeff's own Monterey list.