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Fish Type: Haddock     Price: $10.00

Overall, I would barely recommend this Fish Fry.

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

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Comment: One thing we really like about the Friday Fish Fry is that the local places shine. Rarely do you find anything decent at a chain restaurant, and it’s usually some form of pre-battered nightmare when you do. While we don’t avoid chains per se, we don’t go out of way to try them either - unless they come recommended from a trusted source... The Texas Roadhouse did.

We showed up at the Roadhouse for an early lunch, and were literally the first patrons of the day. The Fish Fry is on the everyday menu for $10.50, but features a $0.50 discount on Fridays, so I guess it counts as a special. Before the fish the Roadhouse rolls out a basket of their well-respected rolls with cinnamon butter. The spheroid-esque starches were soft and chewy, and really quite good if I do say so myself. They led things off with a bang, and before long our sides began to trickle in.

The Roadhouse gives you a choice of any two sides with the fish, but unfortunately, there was no coleslaw among them. The full-fledged Caesar salad I chose instead filled in admirably, but instantly made this Fish Fry a little less traditional. It was chockfull of fresh romaine and lathered up with plenty of zesty dressing which is just the way I like it, so I can’t really complain too much. After wolfing down the roughage I was more than ready for the fish which appeared moments later and actually looked really good.

The fish of record at the Roadhouse is haddock and is actually battered in-house. +1. The three reasonable sized fillets were quite light and flaky, although thinly cut. They were home to a batter that looked wispy, but was deceptively thick. It featured a hearty crunch, and a plethora of sea salt and black pepper sprinkled atop. While it wasn’t perfect, there was nothing glaringly wrong with it save for a small amount of grease that leaked out.

A handful of steak fries came along on the drive and like the fish were well-seasoned and hearty. They were portioned almost perfectly, and went blow for blow with the fish until the bitter end. A menacing looking tartar rounded out the meal, and while it appeared problematic it was actually decent. It had a lot of chunks and some visible dill and oil, but came off smooth and zippy. The task of tartar is to improve the fish, and this stuff actually did it, so I’ll give them credit for that.

While we don’t live for chain restaurants the way some people do, the Texas Roadhouse certainly made an impression on us. The food was actually pretty tasty, and appeared to be of good quality. Overall, we recommend this Fish Fry and while we’d still rather spend our money at a locally owned establishment, this is one chain that seems to be doing things right. We might actually be back.



www.texasroadhouse.com
4841 Annamark Dr.
Madison, WI 53704

(608) 244-9486