Fish Type: Cod Price: $12.00
Overall, I would recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Good Potato Score: Excellent Tartar Score: Excellent Bread Score: Poor Miscellaneous Score: Fair |  |
Comment: I went into this Fish Fry with low expectations (which probably isnt fair for the establishment, but whatever, Im not getting paid for this), and was actually very surprised with what I found. The fish was good, borderline recommendable but good nonetheless. Take that, Yelp!
As I anticipated (based on their lackluster online reviews) the Tied House wasnt very busy this Friday. The place wasnt empty or anything like that, but for such a nice-looking, inoffensive restaurant I would really expect a lot more people on a Wisconsin Friday. We got a table lickety-split, and sat down to look over the options. It took surprisingly long for our waiter to come by which really gave me time to deliberate between the $12 4-piece cod or the $13 walleye. When he finally showed up about five minutes later our orders went in, after he made a quick beer run that is.
After that initial delay everything went smoothly and I had my cod 10 minutes after ordering it. It was served scalding hot by a different server-person which actually seemed to irritate Rich (out waiter) somewhat it was kind of amusing. I wasted no time and had at the fish the second his back was turned. The pieces were stacked Lincoln-log style and had a light, spicy breading which was reminiscent of our beloved Wilsons. The first bites were actually quite delicious, but as time passed the breading degraded due to a little accumulated grease. The cod itself was flaky and light, but the grease it produced caused the wimpy breading to flake off making the fork a necessity rather than an option.
The Tied House has a vast amount of sides to choose from and I settled on the cheesy hash browns. The finely grated spuds were smooth and creamy, very much like those at Buck & Honeys. They were delicious and we cant really complain at all. We also have no qualms with the tartar as the mayo-heavy mix was dynamite. It housed just the right amount of relish and what appeared to be a few pimientos for color.
Finishing off the Fry was Grays slaw which was creamy and rich with a adequate amount of zip. It was a diverse blend and the red cabbage contingent jumped to the head of the class. Oddly, there was no bread served which is a bit of a buzz kill, but it is what it is. No rye for you!
All in all, I was actually pretty surprised by our visit to the Tied House. Most of the reviewers say it is average and unoriginal but compared to somewhere like Applebees or TGIFridays it is much more wholesome feeling, and the food doesnt have that vibe where everything seems to be reconstituted from a bag of powder. Overall, we feel pretty good about recommending the fish we had, and will be back some day to verify that The Tied House was indeed better than others have made it out to be.
www.graystiedhouse.com/
950 Kimball Lane
Verona, WI 53593
(608) 845-2337
