Lenten Project III: Week 1, Part 2 of 2

After a somewhat successful attempt at getting a great piece of fried fish at my first destination of the evening, my second fried fish dinner involved a stop out and see the guys at Fat Casual BBQ in Macedonia. I missed their Lenten fish fry last year because at the time, I was still only reviewing non-commerical (i.e., not restaurants) organizations. Given that I greatly enjoy their regular menu (and have written about them twice already), they were a shoe-in for a stop on the search for fabulous fried fish.

Fat Casual BBQ was located at 223 East Highland Road, Macedonia, OH 44056 and can be reached at 330-748-4690. Parking was in the lot surrounding the building. Here was a shot of the front of the building:


I arrived slightly after 6:15 PM to find one of the three large tables filled with regulars, the communal table only slightly filled and the only other table in the room, a six-seater, completely open. Knowing that I was being joined by several guests, I claimed the empty table and waited for my tablemates to arrive. Shortly after everyone arrived, we headed up to the counter by the front door to place our orders.

Fat Casual belongs to a category of restaurants known as "fast casual." This means that you order and pay for your food up front and when your order is ready, they will run it out to the table for you. Here was a shot of tonight's special Lenten menu:


Normally, I might have tried the clam chowder in addition to ordering the fried fish dinner, but because this was my second meal of the evening, I decided to exercise a bit of restraint (so says the man consuming two fried fish dinners in one evening). After ordering my dinner, it wasn't ten minutes before this arrived at my table:


This was a Cornmeal-dusted Fried Catfish with Cajun Hushpuppies, Cole Slaw, Tartar Sauce and a squeeze of lemon. From a technique perspective, both the fried fish and hushpuppies were cooked perfectly -- crispy on the outside without being at all greasy. While I normally expect to find finely chopped onions in my hushpuppies, Fat Casual had decided to put a twist on the standard recipe and went a different route with some added cajun seasoning. The texture of the hushpuppies was nice, but the cajun seasoning left me a little disappointed. The catfish was wonderfully moist and I found it amazing that these thin catfish filets which had been thawed from frozen and dusted before frying were still moist and juicy.

The two issues I had with the catfish were that the seasoning in the coating was a bit aggressive. Whereas my earlier fish in the evening had been quite bland, the catfish was close to being too salty. The second issue I had with the catfish was the catfish itself. While I am in no way doubting the quality of the fish, catfish in general has a very unique flavor profile that you either like or your don't. This particular catfish had a very pronounced fishiness to it that may be off-putting to those normally averse to fishy-tasting fish.

I had absolutely no issues with the homemade cole slaw. It was crunchy, creamy, slightly acidic, and barely sweet. It hit on multiple flavor and textural combinations and was (and has always been) one of my more favorite versions of this side dish. The tartar sauce, also homemade, had a better balance between tart, salty, and sweet that my earlier dinner's version did not. One of the co-owners, Walter, suggested that I also try the catfish with the house BBQ sauce, which I did. It was an interesting combination, fried fish and BBQ sauce, but not one that I found worked great together.

While the execution in the preparation of the dishes was flawless, some of the flavors and seasonings were a tad off tonight. Would I go back for another fish fry at Fat Casual? With catfish on the menu, probably not. Were they to switch to a different kind of fish, absolutely. And, of course, I will always return for their mainstay, the barbecued meats and side dishes. That stuff is killer good.

Here are the current rankings so far from best overall to worst overall as well as an individual grade for each of the major elements on the plate.

1. Fat Casual BBQ (Macedonia): Fish, B-; Hushpuppies, B; Cole Slaw, A
2. American Legion Post 281 (Cuyahoga Falls): Fish, B; Cole Slaw, C+; Green Beans, C; Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, B-

Friday Fish Fry At Mr. G's Pizzeria

It had been nearly two and a half years since I had last eaten at Mr. G's Pizzeria in Fairlawn, Ohio. Mr. G's had only recently come back onto my epicurean radar since I was now in the area for lunch on a much more frequent basis. While I'm certain the restaurant's owners would much rather be known for their Italian cuisine rather than a fish fry, from what I remembered of past meals, it was actually a rather good rendition. At least it used to be.

As I have certainly demonstrated with The Lenten Project, I am totally a sucker for a good piece of fried fish and if your restaurant offers it, regardless of the style of cuisine you serve, I will more than likely try that before anything else. The problem is that there aren't too many terribly good fish fries out there. Now mentally stuck on fried fish and it being Friday, I decided to avail myself of this All You Can Eat (AYCE) seafood special at Mr. G's.

Mr. G's Pizzeria was located at 2955 West Market Street, Fairlawn, OH 44333 and could be reached at 330-836-1111. Having been around for a while, I would have thought they would have a website by now, but alas at the time of this writing, they appear not to (don't get confused by this Mr. G's, it's in Texas). Since the restaurant was located in the typical strip mall, parking was in the lot in front of the set of stores.

Here was a shot of the storefront of Mr. G's:


Once inside, a sign directed me to seat myself. As I had gone today slightly after the lunch rush ended and the bussers hadn't gotten around to cleaning the tables yet, there were surprisingly few clean tables at which I could sit. I found one near the back of the pretty tiny restaurant and soon my server stopped by to take my drink order and drop off a menu.

Here were the photographs of the menu:





Besides noting that today's AYCE fish fry was only $7.99, I noticed that Mr. G's offers fish two other ways: as deep fried white fish fillets for their fried fish basket and a hand dipped fresh cod for their fried fish sandwich. Wanting to know which I would be getting today with the daily special, I asked my server when she returned to take my order.

"Hand dipped cod," she replied.
"Oh, you mean the fresh cod you use for the sandwich?"
"Yep, that's the one."

This actually surprised and delighted me. I had assumed it would be the white fish fillets and that they were being fried from frozen. Any reservations I had went right out the window and I proceeded to order the fried fish option.

After only a few minutes, this arrived at my table:


From this angle, you can see the thick-cut fried-from-frozen steak fries, a bit of the fried fish in the back right, and the hushpuppies in the middle and lower left of the plate. I decided to take another photograph from the reverse angle as well:


Fried fish on the left, coleslaw on the bottom and to the right of the coleslaw was a cup of tartar sauce. I started with the fish first. The dish came with three cod fillets that had been breaded and fried. The fillet on top was the most perfect of the three and had an only slightly greasy coating, but was still nice and crisp. I pulled off a bite and tried it without the adornment of any sauce. The cod was not only beautifully cooked, moist and barely translucent, but tasted properly seasoned and fresh when I ate it as well. This was a good piece of fried fish. Sadly, however, the bottom fillet of cod


was a lot less crunchy and quite a bit more oily (admittedly, it's hard to see the grease in the above photo). The cod inside the coating, however, was just as tasty as the cod in the perfect fillet sitting on top.

I next tried the tartar sauce by itself:


While it had a decent flavor on its own, it didn't have enough acidity in it to properly cut through the fattiness of the fried coating on the fish. In fact, sort of by accident, when some of the fish got paired with the coleslaw, I realized while it was a more unusual pairing, taste-wise it balanced out much better on my palate. When I tasted the coleslaw by itself, I was very pleased with the nice balance between sweet, tangy, crunchy, and creamy it possessed. When my server stopped in to check on me, I asked if it was homemade and she grinned and confirmed that it was.

The other element on the plate, the steak fries, were pretty decent. Most were crispy on the outside and fluffy and steamy on the inside, but a few of the ones at the bottom of the plate were somewhat oily. Fortunately, I received so much food (and I hadn't even asked for additional fish yet), that I was willing to eat the good ones off the top and discard the not-so-good ones on the bottom. The only real downer on the plate were the hushpuppies. Having been fried to within an inch of their lives, they were pretty dried out.

While I could've ordered more fish, this one plate of food was more than adequate to feed me today and had I eaten any more, I probably would've required a mid-afternoon nap to process it all. With a glass of water, my check with tax came to just slightly over $8. In addition to being a great value, the quality of the fish was excellent and for the most part, the frying of my food had been done with a better than average skill level. If you are into fish fries, whether they are AYCE or not, definitely give Mr. G's Pizzeria a try. They are only open for lunch on Wednesday through Saturday, but they are open for dinner every night of the week. I know I'll be going back in order to sample some of their more traditional Italian fare.

And maybe another fish fry or two.