Fish Type: Lake Perch Price: $14.00
Overall, I would highly recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Excellent Potato Score: Excellent Tartar Score: Excellent Bread Score: Good Miscellaneous Score: Good |  |
Comment: When the Klassik Tavern took over from the Cozee Inn it was sort of lost in no mans land. It wasnt really a lounge and it wasnt really a supper club; it wasnt really tavern and it wasnt a regular restaurant either. Although it had an old school feel it kind of lacked a true identity. It was strange, but evolution seems to have helped Dok find a niche a modern take on the classic supper club. And I like it.
In classic supper club fashion the Klassik Tavern has a Fish Fry on Friday featuring the most classic Fish Fry fish of all lake perch! There is also cod available, but at $14 I couldnt pass on the freshwater favorite. Our friendly-as-can-be waiter had the fish on the table quickly and while the portion was conservative it looked otherworldly.
Properly filleted lake perch will fold open like book and for this reason they are often labelled as butterflies. Three of the Lepidoptera lookalikes graced the Klassik plate which amounts to six full fillets. While these werent the hugest perch on the planet they were definitely the real deal. The mild, tender fish was home to a stupendous breading that had me standing at attention. It had plenty of salt, and plenty of other stuff that gave it plenty of pizzazz. While the perch was clearly high quality on its own the breading shown even more brightly and straight up stole the show.
Doks Fry comes with hash browns by default and I loaded mine up with cheddar and onion. These spuds were splendid with the only drawback being the smallish portion. While it cant be argued that the portion fell on the small end of the spectrum I can easily debate that Id rather have a smaller amount of great food than a whole bunch of garbage, so to that end Ill gladly take the conservative allocation of perfectly fried crispy on the edges and gooey in the center shreds with real cheddar.
Some ridiculously good tartar lives in a big squeeze bottle on the table, and while Im not sure exactly what was in it, the flavor was out of this world. The texture was a bit odd (it almost looked lumpy or like it was congealing) but the peppy, zingy, clingy (and pretty much any other adjective ending in y you can think of) sauce didnt lose anything to it. It really took the already excellent perch into some elite territory.
Little football shaped bread loaves came in a napkin-lined basket beforehand and werent warm, but werent necessarily cold either. Some runny yet zesty slaw was clearly a house-recipe and had plenty of pep so you know the kitchen isnt shy about unique flavors.
The Klassik tavern have really grown over the last few years and gives Verona another legitimate alternative to the 5th Quarter and the Draft House on Friday nights. Overall, we highly recommend this Fish Fry and will make our way back next time were in the mood for some pristine perch. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Klassik-Tavern/167910269940011
401 W. Verona Avenue
Verona, WI 53593
(608) 845-6471
