Madison Fish Fry

Fish Type: Cod Price: $11.00

Overall, I would barely recommend this Fish Fry.

Fish Score: Good
Potato Score: Good
Tartar Score: Good
Bread Score: Good
Miscellaneous Score: Good

Share |

Comment: I was asking around about the Cannery Grill and had heard some good things from my coworkers and the like. Since my girlfriend wasnt in the mood for fish on this particular Friday I thought this would be a good place where she could find something on the menu that did suit her tastes.

The Cannery Grill is located in appropriately enough, Cannery Square which must be a redeveloping area of Sun Prairie. The building is pretty cool and mixes the old brick and beam aesthetic with modern styling. The place is huge when compared to more traditional restaurants around Wisconsin. The Friday Fish Fry specials consisted of 3 or 4 piece Cod, Lake Perch or Walleye (pronounced Wool-Eye by our waitress). I opted for the Lake Perch since I had Cod for lunch but I did manage to wrangle a piece of my friends Cod off his plate.

Both styles of fish were good, but not great. The Perch was much better than the Cod as it actually had some flavor. The Perch had a fairly good texture and decent flavor to the batter. It was not heavy and sat very well in my stomach after we left. The cod on the other hand was certainly edible but lacked flavor overall and had a firmer texture to it. It wasnt very tender or flaky and overall just not that great. Unfortunately I think our fish sat under a heat lamp for a little bit before it was served to us as it wasnt burn your face off hot which may have detracted slightly from the overall experience. If you are going to choose, definitely go for the Perch. Although I didnt try the walleye I saw someones order of it and it looked huge.

The French fry option was for straight or curly cut and I went for regular straight. The fries actually tasted pretty good, but only received a score of Good from me due to the fact that they were slightly mushy and not served hot; they could have easily been Excellent. The tartar sauce was good as well but had a very distinct taste of sweet relish which was slightly over the top. Since I opted for the clam chowder I didnt get any bread which actually looked very good. The salads that everyone else got looked very good. The service was good and the waitress visited our table several times during the meal to see how we were doing.

I think I would be able to highly recommend the Perch here if all the elements of the Fish Fry would have come together a little better. The fish and fries were not super hot and all the periphery items were just okay. Also, in a place as new and fancy looking as the Cannery Grill you come to expect extreme cleanliness. This was certainly not the case as everything was a little dirty, especially the floor around the table next to ours. Overall I think this is a decent Fish Fry. There are a few good options, but nothing blew me away.