Fish Type: Cod Price: $16.00
Overall, I would not recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Good Potato Score: Good Tartar Score: Good Bread Score: Poor Miscellaneous Score: Excellent |
Comment: In all honesty, I knew this wasnt going to be a great Fish Fry. But it was the wifes birthday and she likes Eldorado a lot so when I saw that they had a Fish Fry for Craft Beer Week I knew what needed to be done.
Eldorado is a Mexican-fusion kind of place, and doesnt even have a Fish Fry normally so I figured theyd be shooting from the hip. They used to have a spicy breaded perch offering that we sampled once, but I noticed that even that has disappeared from the normal menu. The CBW special was an Ale Asylum Bedlam 3-piece cod with sweet potato fries, chipotle horseradish tartar, and a salad for an eye-popping $17.00. While you totally expect to pay a little more at Eldorado, $17 is exceedingly steep especially considering what you actually get.
The cod was decent, but the portion was pretty tiny. The three small chunks were home to a medium-thick batter that definitely had some Bedlam in it, but not much flavor beyond that. It was on the creamy side and as a place just dabbling in fried fish they didnt have the process down which led to copious amounts of grease oozing from the fragile loins. It required numerous rotations on my part to keep it from turning into a soggy mess.
On the side sat a petite portion of shoestring style sweet potato fries. While they were liberally salted they were slightly under-fried and limp. Sweet potato fries are a tough beast to tame and not something to rush into for a couple weeks.
Instead of a traditional tartar sauce the Eldorado had a Mexican-y rendition. Theirs was a chipotle-infused mix that looked superb and had a delicious smoky flavor with a nice horseradish pop. It definitely gave the lackluster fish a boost, but was atypical to say the least.
Since Eldorado is a fancier-than-average place you know they are going to jazz things up a bit and thats exactly what they did with their sides. They eighty-sixed the bread altogether and had a fancy salad stand-in for the customary coleslaw. The salad was exemplary and featured a tangy dressing that reeked of beer (in a good way). It was a nice surrogate for the slaw, but it still didnt make up for the absent starch. While I appreciate the effort to be cool and unique Ill take some boring old slaw and a regular roll any day of the week.
While I expected this wasnt going to be a great Fish Fry I still had hope that they would put out something decent for Craft Beer Week. I guess It simply wasnt meant to be. In the end the highlight of the meal wound up being the $3 pint of Bedlam that came at a discount with the fish. Overall, we dont recommend this Fish Fry, but hey, since it was a once-a-year kind of thing its not really something to worry about.
www.eldoradogrillmadison.com/
744 Williamson Street # 2
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 280-9378
