Fish Type: Cod Price: $12.00
Overall, I would barely recommend this Fish Fry.
| Fish Score: Good Potato Score: Good Tartar Score: Good Bread Score: Good Miscellaneous Score: Good |  |
Comment: The last time we perused the Club Taverns Fish Fry was for lunch and the special was All You Can Eat pollock. It was pretty much gross which, as you can imagine, precluded us from returning. Well, as they say, time (10 years worth) heals all wounds, and we decided they deserved a shot at redemption especially since the Fish Fry is now AYCE cod pollock be damned!
The AYCE special goes for 12 beans and features not only cod, but baked chicken as well. While we stayed with the salt water dwellers the chicken is undoubtedly a bonus, at least for some. The dining room has a nostalgic charm that some would gladly call rustic, while others would unabashedly say dingy. I actually kind of liked it and the Fish Fry that came with it.
The first round started with three pieces and they actually looked good. Unfortunately, the pretty pieces had a lot of grease which necessitated constant rotation. High maintenance fish is never great regardless of how flaky or lightly breaded it may be. These slick suckers were hard to handle and although well-seasoned, the flavor was lost to the heavy oil.
Some thick-cut, battered fries buddied up to the fishs lubricated loins and were surprisingly good. These spuds were extra crunchy and offset the hefty cod to some extent, although a slightly larger portion would have been more than welcomed with the AYCE fish.
Greasy fish is essentially inedible without a thick tartar and the CT has it. Unfortunately, the Dixie cup we got with the initial trio was far too shallow to help matters much and ran out half way through piece #2. The sauce has a nice consistency and made the fish much better once we re-upped with the second batch.
Somewhat surprisingly a basket of ciabatta rolls with cinnamon butter came before the fish, and while they werent really good, they were at least unique. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the Club Tavern has a legit salad bar which we loaded up on it before the fish came around. It featured mixed greens, cottage cheese, potato salad, coleslaw and much more, all which were decent although likely just Sysco sourced. The icing on the cake were the six dressings and two soups to choose from all which were commendable. Not bad. Not bad at all.
This is a tough one. On one hand, the fish was a greasy mess, although AYCE. On the other hand the sides were tasty and plentiful, and there was a salad bar so what do you do? Overall, we can recommend this Fish Fry, although barely so. Its good enough to come back for, although, in all honesty, it might be another 10 years
www.clubtavern.com
1915 Branch Street
Middleton, WI 53562
(608) 836-3773
