Fish Type: Cod Price: $11.00
Overall, I would not recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Good Potato Score: Fair Tartar Score: Good Bread Score: Excellent Miscellaneous Score: Good |
Comment: The 1855 Saloon is apparently the place to be on a Friday night in Cottage Grove. I assumed some of the mystique of it being “the new place” would have worn off by now but they must have seamlessly transitioned into just being “the place” because it was packed. We arrived after 8pm and were told we would have about a 30 minute wait, it actually wound up being more like an hour and only after we got seated was the place truly starting to clear out.
The restaurant is a really nice place. Since it is still newish everything has a kind of modern feel which I assume is pretty unique in The Grove. Since we had a decent wait we had plenty of time to chill in the bar, enjoy the ambiance and watch Blake Griffin tear Syracuse a new one. We also noticed that the group next to us seemed to be wearing an awful lot of UW paraphernalia and be very popular with various patrons entering and exiting the establishment. I was trying my best to put two and two together and figure out what sporting event they were at. I knew the men’s hockey team wasn’t around and the basketball team was long gone. Eventually I overheard an older gent come up say “Hello Mr. Vetter…” It was then I realized that it was UW Women’s Hockey goaltender Jessie Vetter’s parents proudly boasting their UW and USA hockey garb, celebrating the national championship and whatnot…true local celebrities.
Eventually our vibrating coaster thing went off, scared the crap out of me, and we got a table. The Fish Fry at 1855 was 3 good sized pieces of beer battered Cod served with “smashed” baby red potatoes, tartar, slaw and bread. The Cod was served hot and tasted good although it was little heavy. The batter was actually a fairly thin coating and had a decent taste but was very firm. My slightly greasy fish actually slipped completely out of its “shell” more than once. The potatoes were all right but I would much rather have had French fries. The tartar sauce as good, although a very conservative portion had me asking for a second helping.
The bread came before the fish and the warm slices did a nice job bridging the gap. The coleslaw was also pretty good and had a discernable aftertaste that actually made you want to eat more, very peculiar. The service was also good but I barely remember it for some reason.
Overall this was a decent Fish Fry but not really great. The food is obviously very high quality it seems like they are just trying to push it a little too far by making the batter too unique, the potatoes, too original, et cetera. However, you can almost recommend this Fish Fry based on quality alone, I’m sure there are folks out there that would really like this Fish Fry, it is just a bit much for me.
www.1855saloongrill.com/
218 S. Main St
Cottage Grove, WI 53527
(608) 839-3700
