Fish Type: Cod Price: $13.00
Overall, I would not recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Fair Potato Score: Good Tartar Score: Excellent Bread Score: Poor Miscellaneous Score: Excellent |
Comment: The old adage goes: When in Rome do as the Romans do. Along those same lines, when in Milwaukee eat a Fish Fry. Its essentially the same thing, so just do it.
I was at a conference at the Hilton downtown and since driving somewhere wasnt an option I decided to just hit up the lobby bar. I was down there the night before and it seemed like a pretty nice spot so I figured the Fish Fry (which appears on the everyday menu, but costs and extra two bucks on Friday) was worth a shot. I pulled up, started munching on a cone of the free house-made chips, and had a long neck of High Life in front of me in lickety-split.
The bartender was a friendly chap and had my 3-piece cod on the bar in seemingly no time. Of course, the time flew by as I munched the marvelous chips so it may well have been 10 minutes or more, I really have no idea. The fish featured a Miller beer batter which was every bit of basic. The coating was uninspired but didnt leave too big of a greasy smear, so theres that. In addition, a couple bites of the fish were a little chewy but others we smooth and flaky so it was a definitely a mixed bag. Overall it was fine, but thats about it.
Luckily for the flawed fish, the tartar sauce was superb. It was incredibly thick and creamy with all sorts of good stuff mixed in. It covered nearly all the imperfections in the cod and is literally some of the best I can remember eating recently. When stacked alongside the sauces that accompanied the hors douevres at the conference its clear that the Hilton has a whale of a sous-chef in that kitchen as every single one of them was electric.
Speaking of singular, one, count it one, potato pancake was positioned in the center of the long rectangular plate. It was eerily reminiscent of a Japanese flag and had me wondering if the sun would ever rise on this Fish Fry. In essence it did shine somewhat as the kinda thick cake had a legit crust and plenty of flavor. The best part was the seasoning which was so diverse there is no way you parse it out. While there was no onion-y overtone they were robust and thats what really matters.
Milwaukee is the rye capital of Wisconsin so its surprising that none came with the Miller Time Fish Fry. It was unexpected and undesirable. The sweet and creamy slaw made up for it somewhat with loads of carrot and a bunch of other goodies in there.
While this Fish Fry wasnt all bad there is no way that I would come back for it next time Im in Milwaukee on a Friday. Overall, we dont recommend this Fish Fry, and we know brew town has much more to offer elsewhere.
millertimepub.com
509 W Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53203
(414) 271-2337
