The Little Mermaid - Homer

After a sightseeing boat trip out to Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, we docked on the Homer Spit and visited The Little Mermaid for lunch. We'd heard it was small and had long wait times, so we caught it early and were able to get a seat right away. It is rated no. 1 on Trip Advisor in Homer, but we seriously considered several other places to eat, particularly a place that was advertising halibut fish and chips across the street from where we'd watched salmon and halibut being filleted the day before. One of my partners said he'd had halibut fish and chips in Alaska and they were the best he'd ever had. Homer is sometimes billed as the "halibut fishing capital of the world," so I figured that Homer would be a good place to try it. 

It was overcast and rainy. Our flight to see brown bears that morning was canceled due to the bad weather. 

I liked the restaurant itself, lots of mermaid tie-ins which are fun, many more than I photographed. It is particularly effective being right off the pier. 

One benefit of the name is that lots of tie-ins are available. 

I ordered the halibut fish and chips which were horribly expensive. It was $21.00 for rockfish and $30.00 for halibut. I never eat halibut, it is too bland for me. But given where we were and my partner's recommendation, I had to try it. Despite the location and context, the halibut was still too bland for me, even coated in batter and deep fried. Fortunately I had tartar sauce and dipped the fish in it liberally. I prefer stronger tasting fish in fish and chips. The fries were good. 

Judy did a much better job of ordering. She got a rice bowl with jasmine rice, grilled vegetables, wakame seaweed and grilled local rockfish. The vegetables were broccoli and white beans, it also had marinated onions and some nice strong dressing and was a great Japanese inspired dish with lots of flavor. I would go back for it - very good and very healthy. 

We ordered a side of grilled veggies which were more broccoli and white beans. We ordered grilled vegetables at virtually every opportunity and I think broccoli never failed to be included. Fortunately, we were listening to a book on good health and were attuned to the wonderful properties of broccoli and were fine to eat lots of it. The white beans were a nice addition, the only time we had them on our trip. 

The Little Mermaid is also a bakery and we ordered a couple of things to go. I wanted a chocolate ginger cookie and Judy got a chocolate brownie. The cookie was very, very gingery and the brownie was okay.