Fish Type: Cod Price: $17.00
Overall, I would recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Excellent Potato Score: Good Tartar Score: Good Bread Score: Poor Miscellaneous Score: Good |  |
Comment: Just because I'm not in Madison on a Friday doesn't mean I'm not going to get a Fish Fry - that would just be crazy. This Friday we were visiting some friends who live up on Castle Rock Lake and I figured we'd let them pick the spot since they've been there and done that. Truth be told there are really only about three places to choose from on their side of the lake and when they said Pine Cove was the place to be who was I to argue?
PC has basically all the standard Friday fish options on Fridays (cod, walleye, lake perch, and bluegill), but when I heard about the Captain's Platter (a sampling of all of them) I knew what needed to be done. The Cove was busy and the "kitchen" was small so it took a little bit for our ticket to run through, but we didn't care - the beer was flowing, the company was good, and we had time to kill.
Usually when all four fish share one plate (or paper basket in this case) the cod is the least enticing of the lot, but this salty dog stole the show. It was easily the best of the bunch and the one they clearly took the most thought to prepare. While the quartet shared the same light and flaky breading the rich and buttery substrate on the cod played with it better than any of the others. While cod is easily the most popular Friday Fish ordered throughout the state I usually wonder why, in this case it totally made sense.
Coming in a distant second was the lake perch which had a subtle (nowhere near overbearing) essence of fishy flavor. It was the real deal yellow lake perch, but it was a bit overwhelmed by the crunchy breading. The same can be said of the bluegill which were hard to get a feel for. They were pretty much flavorless, and if they hadn't had a different shape you could have told me they were lake perch and I couldn't have proven you wrong.
The walleye was of the suspicious sort as it was served as two long thin fillets and didn't really have the musk I associate with the predator. Me thinks some pike perch may have been in play here and while it was still flaky and white it was lacking about everything I associate with walleye.
The handful of fries were lost somewhere under the mountain of fish and beer and were probably good but with so much fish to keep track of I really can't recall. Plenty of tartar also came to the party and with so much fried goodness I was all about it. It was thick and creamy and surprisingly supper club style. The last bit was the slaw which was good, but the soupiest I have ever seen. There was no bread.
Any time you vacation at Castle Rock you are going to have a good time, and if you hit Pine Cove on a Friday your are going to the weekend with a bang. Overall, we recommend this Fish Fry, but would definitely say the cod is the way to go when you're lakeside.
pinecovecastlerock.com/
9690 38th Street
New Lisbon, WI 53950
(608) 562-3651
