No Fish Go Fish

This was my favorite place in Portland for a casual, healthy, DELICIOUS, yet inexpensive meal, so sad it closed. Sean & John make a brilliant team! I hope they do something again in the future.

Sad day. it appears as though No Fish! Go Fish! has closed and turned into a joint called Bird Dog. So long, tasty fish-​shaped sandwiches and macaroni and cheese soup. You will be missed.
RIP.

Delicious soup and adorable fish shaped waffle sandwiches that are also quite tasty. Savory or sweet this place has got you covered.

I’m really sad to write this review… I have been eating here for years
they had a little cart set up near the bus mall downtown and i would enjoy a few on my way home from class as PSU.
It has been years since I have been there, so when I drove by it today I was excited and pulled over!
I got a ream cheese and pepperchini and a bean and salsa one. I started with the bean one and that was good.
But then I tried the the cream cheese one. I’m sorry to report it tasted like what a dirty sponge smells like. I hope it was just a fluke…
I will try again… but it will be a while

The following is the content of the email I just fired off to NFGF after having lunch there: «OMG! Beef stroganoff soup today was killer. Thanks so much for being you. Places like NFGF are what make Portland, Portland, and they are why I HAD to come back home. *Thank you!*»
Seriously. I don’t even LIKE beef stroganoff. There is a reason they call it Soup of the Gods… and their little fishies are the best, weirdest sammiches in town. My personal faves are the olive/​basil/​garlic and the turkey & cheese. I hear the Nutella one is awesome but I’m afraid to try it because I will get addicted.

Great memories made here! Do They still have Naked Jeopardy? During college my group of friends would go here on Friday nights for the great drinks, good food, and live Jeopardy game that with every wrong answer a piece of clothing would be removed. The contestants were public volunteers, so it was extra entertaining! The place was packed. Good times!

In February it will be
My snowman’s anniversary
With cake for him and soup for me
Happy once, happy twice
Happy chicken soup with rice.
OK, no snow in Portland, but delicious soup. The star off only because they don’t take plastic, but are happy to point you to the ATM in the restaurant that charges an additional $ 3 surcharge. Lame. Otherwise delicious.

Once you get past the confusing name and figure out that the place doesn’t have anything to do with fish –aside from the fish shaped «sandwiches” — you can beguine enjoying. I understand that they may offer a variety of things however I wouldn’t know. It’s all about their soup and sandwich lunch special for me. They seem to cycle through a lot of different soups. Most of of their soups are really good and I’ve yet to have a bad one.
The fish shaped «sandwiches» are tasty and novel. If you haven’t tried one you should.
For a while I pretty much lived across the street from No Fish. Moving away form this place was one of the drawbacks to moving across town. (By across town I mean «Portland across town» i.e. the Clinton neighborhood.)

MMmm!!! A really great place to eat a fish-​shaped sandwich! I told the pretty lady «surprise me with cheddar and bacon» and she got my order right! The best thing is that since these sandwiches are fish-​shaped you can have a fun time imagining them swimming around inside your stomach doing jumps and having fun. I loved this place so much that I rented a movie called «GO FISH» which I will review later. Thanks again guys, there’s nothing fishy about this place except the food!

The soup (bean) was okay. Nothing extra special about it, nothing special at all. A plain bean soup. A tiny bit of potato in there. Something I hope herb-​like that was floating in there that looked green-​ish. It was hot.
Got a couple of the appetizers. Mistake. Obviously frozen pot stickers and egg rolls (mistakenly called spring rolls) served (oh no) slathered with plum sauce! PLUM SAUCE??? Ew. It was a train wreck. They were all overdone and tasted just plain awful. Nothing good. The little salad that was «adorning» the plate looked like old cabbage slaw that had sat out for hours. It was just noon. I could not eat it after one bite — jarred, thick, sweet, slimy plum sauce — all over them! And the whole plate was swimming in plum sauce! omg
The little «fishes» are obviously what helped my husband decide he likes it here. They are cute. They look like fish. They are small. Some kind of fish grill pan makes them, and in the middle of lunch, the grill got overheated and this horrid, acrid, burned-​grill smell filled the place up with odor. I had to leave immediately.
I’m happy hubby liked it. The soup, again, was fine. The rest of it was a mess. Hoping it’s an off day and maybe will be better next time. Hubby wanna go back — men!

Ever since my friend moved to Portland, she had been hyping this place up like crazy. I am a big fan of the soup and sandwich combo. The fact that the sandwiches are cut into the shape of a fish meant that I needed to buy a plane ticket and go there right away.
The fish shaped sandwich was just as cute as I thought it might be. But the taste? Bleh. There really wasn’t any taste to it. I really couldn’t tell which fish was my ham & cheese and which was the peanut butter. Sucky! I was really wanting to be «wow wow wow!!», but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I like the ambiance and the idea is cleaver, but I need more flavor to my food. Bummer.

I was on special assignment on week and got to be at our downtown store. During lunch break I called my bf to walk towards me & we’d meet in the middle. Until then, I stopped at every food cart that seemed interesting and bought a little something so we could fake picnic.
This little food cart on 5^th and Yamhill was luckily one of my stops on this cold day. There were a few options, but the friendly guy said that the sopa de frijoles was the only one ready. I opted for that, a tomato cheddar and an olive fishy. The guy was very chipper for standing outside in the cold. I excitedly grabbed the mysterious brown bag and power walked towards the bf. (See pics of bag contents.)
The sopa de frijoles was awesome and topped with chips and salsa. It was creamy and thickened, I believe, naturally just by mashing the beans. It was perfect with his suggested flavor fishys. The fish were cornmeal based and like a nicely flavored cornbread.
I’d def head back or maybe to their Hawthorne joint.

Pretty tasty.
Though I have to admit I’m not sure what the concept is. I’m pretty sure that their is a Korean dish in the shape of a fish, which is why No Fish Go Fish sandwiches are in the shape of a fish… but nothing on the menu has fish in it. So it’s a restaurant for fish-​haters, you ask? Apparently not, because I love fish, but, as I said, this place is pretty tasty.
All of the fish-​shaped sandwiches are off the chain (bacon-​chedder, pepperoncini & cream cheese — they even have a burrito sandwich!!) but the soups are what really have me coming back. And the panini’s. The panini’s are really just blocks of cheese, veggies or meats, grilled between two slices of Ciabatta. Literally blocks of cheese. Warm, dripping cheese…
Cheese.
The end!

I got the lunch special which is a perfect price. I ordered the tomato and basil soup, tomato and mozzarella sandwich, and a turkey and cheese. The soup was pretty tasty, but just a little too salty for me. For the sandwiches I was expecting them to be actual sandwiches, you know with two slices of bread and goodies in the middle. Not quite. They have these pressed and sealed sandwiches in the shapes of fish! Suuuuuper cute, but the bread they use is very very salty. My tomato and mozzarella was more like Prego with a little bit of grated cheese (I was expecting a nice thick slice of tomato and slice of cheese between some non-​salty bread), pretty mediocre. The turkey and cheese was alright, but the saltiness of the bread definitely made it impossible to taste what was inside.
I’m the kind of person that doesn’t eat much salt, so this place isn’t a good fit for me. They did give us a free can of their Dal soup, which I had at home with rice and it was mmm mmm good! Not really salty at all!

Let me preface this by saying I am a very strange person. I really dislike onions [in large doses], which often makes it difficult to eat out.
Looking at the menu online, I saw that out of their enormous list of soups, only THREE do not contain onions, and two of those three are chilled watermelon soups. Surely I’m not the only onion-​hater in this town? Only three options?
When I went, I ordered the split pea and just avoided the big onion chunks in there, which was pretty easy. Decent flavor. Of the two sandwiches I got, one was absolutely fantastic (garlic parmesan) while the other was very meh (tomato mozzarella). I was expecting the latter to actually have tomatoes rather than sauce, so part of the disappointment was just not realizing that, but it also got burnt.
They have such a huge variety that I’d definitely go back and try some new things. Great prices, too! Recommended.

I’m really surprised at the negative reviews on here! My advice for anyone going here for their first time is that these guys make hundreds of soups. I’ve had some I was very unimpressed with, and others that I thought were so amazing, I later emailed the chef my compliments. Most of the soups I’ve had have been quite enjoyable. So if you go, and you don’t like your soup, I think you should give it another chance.
My personal favorites are the black bean w/​mole, the coconut curry potato peanut, and the vegan chili.
There are always plenty of vegan options, soup and otherwise. I like some of the noodle bowls a lot. They update their website regularly to show the day’s menu, so it’s not a complete gamble to go there. There is also a food cart downtown (5^th & Yamhill) that is open for lunch on weekdays.
I know the restaurant used to be open late and served cocktails (as it still states on the mural outside). I wish this was still the case. Still, I immensely enjoy the food cart and stop by the restaurant on the occasional weekend.

Solid 3.5 stars. The lunch special is great: $ 5.99 for a big bowl of soup and two small sandwiches. The sandwiches are in the shape of a fish, they are adorable! They are more like mini calzones rather than a traditional sandwich. The sides are sealed up and the ingredients are stuffed inside, it is awesome because you can get one sweet and one savory sandwich. Everyday they have four different soups and the day we went three out of four of them were vegan.
My husband and I both got the lentil soup which was great! The portions were just way too big though, I couldn’t eat even eat half of my meal. For the sandwiches I got a tomato and cheese one and then a chocolate and banana one. Paul got a turkey and cheese one and a chocolate and caramel one. I tried all of them but the turkey and cheese and I loved them. They were so good. I love how the ingredients are warm, the chocolate and banana was great and the chocolate and the caramel one was just about the best sandwich I have ever had in my life. Sadly, the tomato and cheese one was burnt, all you really tasted was the burnt brad rather than the ingredients.
Such a fun place! I was so excited when they put the sandwiches in front of us and they were in the shape of a fish! Fun! My husband wasn’t super impressed with the soup, he said it was good but he got sick of it pretty quickly. He mentioned that when we go back he will probably just order a bunch of the mini sandwiches, which I can totally picture. Service is a bit slow, be prepared to take a long lunch!

Dr. Snell from the Hawthorne Wellness Clinic next door told me that this is the place that he normally goes for lunch around the area — and I can see why. I totally loved it — I had pizza soup (seriously — way better for you, and it tasted like pizza which is my love in life), and a tomato and mozzarella fish sandwich (those things are so damn cute). I finished off with the banana and chocolate fish sandwich. My favorite thing, by far, was the chocolate-​laden item — as chocolate is my very most favorite thing in the world — and it also reminded me of the crepes that you can get on the streets in France. And I received all these items for a wonderful lunch special price of just $ 5.99.
Everything was very flavorful, and the service was excellent. The guy had a great sense of humor, and even brought me a taste of their white bean soup that was vegan but somehow tasted a little bit like it had bacon in it — and here we go again with food items that I find to be what make my life worth living… Mmmm… bacon. Pizza, bacon, and chocolate. Plus, I got to sit outside on a beautiful day and enjoy all these things. My life rocks.

Years ago, when I told my friend from work that I was going to visit Portland, he recommended No Fish Go Fish to me. Finally, this past fall break, the crush asked me where I wanted to eat, and after some thought, I realized that was the perfect opportunity to try it out.
Him: «So where do you want to go?»
Me: «Ooh, No Fish Go Fish! My friend knows the owner!»
Him: «What’s it like?»
Me: «I don’t know… I guess they have fish.»
So we headed out, armed with the address and a GPS that kept taking us to roads under construction, so my crush basically had to find the place on his own anyway. I was a little surprised to find it in such a residential-​looking area, as part of a set of businesses along the street, all in one building. We parked a few blocks away, which made for a romantic walk there, in the crisp dampness of Oregon in early October.
When we sat down and took a look at the menu, we found, wonder of wonders, that it wasn’t a fish place at all. As other people have said, they have fish shaped fried sandwiches with a huge variety of fillings. The «special» was quite a good deal, with a huge bowl of soup (we could choose from four kinds) and two sandwiches, for like, $ 5. The sandwiches were a good size too — for reference, here’s a picture:
We each got a special — I got the borscht on the waitress’s recommendation, dude got the split pea. Both were very good. We also ended up getting a nice big set of sandwiches — two each, and because we were actually ravenous, we shared three more. They were all wonderful, from the spinach and feta to the apple cinnamon and cheddar. My favorites, though, were the ones with chocolate. Yum.
Ambiance was nice — some modern art-​ish mobile stuff and vibrant colors. Our waitress was also very nice. I’m not sure what other customers thought of us. We noticed one woman who was sitting nearby moved to a table by the window, but we weren’t sure if she actually wanted to sit near the window or if she wanted to get far enough away so she wouldn’t have to listen to our weird-​ass conversation.
So altogether, a great experience. Great food, great deal, welcome feel. I’ll definitely be back when I return to Portland — I think I’m in love.

The best part about this place was the breakfast. The bacon could clog arteries enough to make you die happy. It was real bacon, not the limp, soggy, mostly white-​ish fat stuff you find other places. The bacon here had meat on it. Now, no more bacon. Which means no more board with the bacon eating records on it. Without bacon or french toast, this places fails it hard.
The soups are okay. When they have them. I’ve gone in for soup and had them tell me «oops, we’re out of that kind». I had to leave, which is embarrassing for everyone even though the waitress said she understood. Maybe she understood because I’m not the first one to get up and walk out when they don’t have something they advertised. Makes one wonder.
I also had the worst menu misunderstanding ever at this place. I looked at the menu (back before they fired breakfast) and saw something that looked tasty. So instead of three orders of bacon and a side of french toast, I ordered the sausage scramble. The menu listed the ingredients as «sausage, eggs, cheese.» This is important because that is literally all I wanted.
What showed up looked like something cooked up by Cthulhu and Shrek. It was chock full of tomatoes, Old Ones looking tentacle mushrooms, and red and yellow peppers. Mind you, I’m a somewhat picky eater, I admit it. I don’t like tomatoes and peppers make me queasy. I wanted what the menu had listed, because that was what sounded good. I looked sad, then asked the waitress if they could remake as it was on the menu. She said yes, then made me repeat what I wanted exactly so that she could tell the cook. We then listened to her tell the cook explicitly what I had asked for.
About 15 minutes later, my food came back. This time it had twice the number of tentacle fungi, no tomatoes and THREE kinds of pepper. I gave up and my boyfriend ate it while I ordered more bacon.
So go for the novelty of the No Fish cutesy sandwiches, it is an experience worth having once or twice. So, good luck.
I miss breakfast.