Fish-fry season
Nine Milwaukee-area restaurants that will make Lent something special.
There’s been a shift in the Friday fish fry. ❚ This year, I noticed perch seemed to be offered as an option at fewer bars and restaurants than in years past, and when it was on the menu, the chances were good it was ocean perch, instead of the more common lake perch, or European lake perch, a larger fish with a flavor different from what Wisconsinites are used to. ❚ Lake perch, it turns out, has had a rough go of it in the past year or so, and the domestic catch was down, industry veterans said. It’s just harder to come by. If you’re a particular and die-hard yellow-perch partisan, you’ll want to confirm before ordering what kind of perch it is to avoid disappointment. ❚ Meanwhile, resigned to seeing and eating not-your-usual perch, my concerns turned to what I usually look for in a fish fry: Is the fish well-fried and crisp? Or is it soggy and shedding its batter or breading? Is the quality of the fish itself good? Is the batter too heavy?
Those are the most important signposts of a fish fry worth eating, but the rest of the meal can set apart one dinner from the others. How are the coleslaw and tartar sauce? Did the restaurant make its own, and are they delicious? I came across a lot of coleslaw this year that could have used some tang from vinegar or even just a simple dash of salt.
Potato pancakes are likely to stray from the ideal. The best are thin, crisp at the edges and in the lightest of batters, just egg and flour and grated onion, with potatoes grated not too coarsely at the restaurant. If you’re a restaurant owner thinking of adding potatoes to regular pancake mix, please don’t. French fries, I hope, will be freshly fried and crisp.
As rare as lake perch these days is another traditional piece of the fish fry puzzle: a slice of good rye, preferably salted. That might be a question of access, since fewer bakeries are making rye bread (Milwaukee’s Miller Baking, for example, now makes only pretzel rolls).
The fish fry around the Milwaukee area is going through changes, but there still are ones to enjoy. Here are my favorites from the past few months — some of them newer fish fries, and others just new to me.
See you Friday.
Raised Grain Brewing Co. Taproom
I still call it the new taproom, even though Raised Grain moved to its larger space in a business park more than a year ago. Besides growing to twice the room for customers (some 250 of them), the brewery’s taproom has expanded its menu well beyond the creative, handtossed pizzas it started with. On Fridays, that means fish fry.
Customers order food and beer at the bar. Head to a table with your drink, maybe catch some sports on the TVs, and an employee will bring you your meal. The basket holds two well-seasoned, meaty pieces of cod, fried expertly in a light, crisp batter made with the brewer’s Guitar City Gold lager. They’re served with a pile of thin, golden, skin-on fries, a dab of oil-and-vinegar coleslaw that’s mixed with a touch of green apple, and very good remouladelike tartar sauce that the kitchen seasons with dill.
Cost: $13, or $15 for three pieces. Hours: Fish fry 3 to 9 p.m. Fridays. 1725 Dolphin Drive, Waukesha. raisedgrain
Orenda Cafe
Who knew one of the city’s best fish fries is in a polished little breakfastand-lunch spot in Silver City? One that serves American and Mexican brunch favorites? I guess we all do, now.
The cod is firm, white and flaky, delivered in three pieces coated in crunchy, well-browned bread crumbs. They’re served with the restaurant’s own dill tartar sauce (in a little metal cup, not plastic — sustainable!).
Diners can get the house chips or the crisp-edged vegetable pancakes from the breakfast menu. Pancakes for me, please. They’re like potato pancakes, but with fresh spinach, grated carrot and red cabbage added — tasty. The two sizable cakes are clearly made on a griddle or in a pan, not deep fried, also a plus.
Orenda’s coleslaw is creamy, and the soft, sandwich-variety marble rye comes with softened butter, again in a metal cup.
Because Orenda is a daytime restaurant, fish fry means lunch or early dinner, as long as diners are seated by 6 p.m. Happy hour runs from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, with $3 beer and wine and select cocktails for $5 and $6.
Cost: $9.95. Hours: Fish fry 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays. Takeout available. 3514 W. National Ave. (414) 212-8573 orenda cafe.org
North Lake Bear Trap
The fish fry at little North Lake Bear Trap, where a deer trophy presides over the back dining room, soothed me like a balm. After some forgettable fish fries at other taverns, it was obvious the ones at the 40-seat Bear Trap had been made with care. Yes, you can taste the difference.
Here was a dinner that was fried perfectly: delightfully crisp, not oily, made with good quality fish in a batter made with Pabst. The bar had made its own tartar sauce and lightly creamy coleslaw, and made its own potato pancakes, too — thinner pancakes that are more like the kind Grandma used to make than the typical hash-brown cakes seen elsewhere.
Fish fries are served with buttered marble rye and the house potato chips, but diners can instead order those potato pancakes or sour cream and chive potato wedges, crinkle-cut fries or onion rings for an additional charge.
Cost: Two-piece cod fry, $9.95 (additional piece $3); three pieces farmed lake perch, $12.95 (additional piece $6); one fillet of walleye, $12.95 (additional piece $8). Hours: Fish fry 3 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Ash Wednesday. Takeout is available; so are reservations. W314N7770 Highway 83, North Lake. (262) 727-7120 facebook.com/TheNorthLake BearTrap
Bonobo American Bistro
This restaurant takes the place of North Star American Bistro in Shorewood, bringing new preparations to the food and a new color palette to the dining room. It keeps the place’s upscale feel, complete with top-notch service.
The fish is fried well here, to a crisp golden brown — the cod in a nice beer batter with a lightly spicy touch, and the ocean perch in breadcrumbs.
Cod comes with potato pancakes; the fine grating of the potato brings this pancake closer than most to the traditional texture (I’d like them even more with more onion to flavor them). Perch is served with house-cut fries.
The coleslaw delivers color with red cabbage, and the house tartar sauce is a keeper, with herbs and dill pickle.
Cost: Fried cod or ocean perch, $14.95; pan-seared cod, $16.95; fried shrimp, $17.95. Hours: Fish fry 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays, and 4-9 p.m. Ash Wednesday Takeout orders and reservations accepted. 4518 N. Oakland Ave., Shorewood. (414) 964-4663 bonoboamerican bistro.com
Hotel Madrid
Sometimes, the sides make the meal. For instance, Hotel Madrid in Walker’s Point makes a terrific brusselssprout coleslaw (what are brussels sprouts but tiny cabbages?). It’s packed with flavor and brightened with red bell pepper and apple in vinaigrette, a joy of a slaw instead of an afterthought. The tartar is closer to a remoulade, a lovely dill and caper sauce. And the house fries are golden, with true potato flavor.
Hotel Madrid’s fish fry is crisp and beautifully fried. It’s perch, but European lake perch, a species bigger than
domestic lake perch, with an earthier flavor.
The price of the fish fry reflects the sleeker surroundings and that everything is made from scratch. (If you haven’t been to Hotel Madrid in a while, the restaurant has shifted its focus from high-end steakhouse to more moderately priced plates.) Dine between 5 and 6 p.m. in the bar, and you’ll get in on Hotel Madrid’s excellent happy hour deals, including half off all cocktails, glasses of wine and beers.
Cost: $21. Hours: Fish fry 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays. Reservations and takeout orders accepted. 600 S. Sixth St. (414) 488-9146
Pat’s Niche Pub & Grub
Owner Pat James — who knows a thing or two about fish fries — has renovated the former Ho Ho’s Chinese restaurant on the south side and now serves tavern classics in the brightened space.
James, who opened Pat’s Niche on Dec. 21 at the age of 77, used to own Pat’s Oak Manor in South Milwaukee.
Stop in the lounge at Pat’s Niche, where the building’s original tin ceiling has been exposed and midcentury pendants — not replicas — hang over the bar, or head to the dining room for fish fry.
First comes the bread, a light rye, and ultracreamy coleslaw, served before the main event.
The fish fry in a light beer batter is pollack, which has that cod sweetness; the perch on the menu is yellow perch.
Potato pancakes are made with coarse-grated potato in a classic, barely there batter of egg and flour, the closest to traditional I’ve seen this year. They’re griddle- or pan-fried, with good onion flavor; the applesauce has a whisper of cinnamon. Lightly coated fries are another option, as are onion rings and cottage cheese.
The tartar sauce? It’s on the table in an oversized squeeze bottle. Help yourself.
Cost: Beer-battered pollock is $10.95, $13.95 all you can eat or $2.25 for an additional piece; beer-battered yellow perch or catfish, $13.95; deep-fried frog legs or fantail shrimp, $13.95; baked pollock $11.95, fish sandwich $7.95. Hours: Fish fry 4 to 9 p.m. Fridays (and Ash Wednesday, in addition to the usual Wednesday special of fried chicken). Takeout is available; reservations accepted. 3956 S. Howell Ave. (414) 5396452 facebook.com/PatsNiche
This new restaurant and bar in Menomonee Falls’ handsome old fire station is a good spot to catch a game on the TVs, and to reel in a fish fry, too.
The restaurant, a sibling to Leff ’s Lucky Town in Tosa and Revere’s Wells Street Tavern in Delafield, serves cod of excellent quality in light, crisp beer batter.
The fish fry comes with a choice of sides, including a crunchy potato cake. It’s notable that the applesauce for it was the only one I’ve come across this year that was made by the kitchen; the flavor definitely stands apart.
House chips, another option, were admirably thin, but something went haywire in the frying — the chips that night weren’t crisp.
Hot House also serves the best bread I’ve had with fish fry lately — salted marble rye. Tasty.
Cost: $14 for three pieces of cod, fried or baked, $3 an additional piece. Hours: Fish fry served 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Ash Wednesday; takeout orders accepted. N88-W16631 Appleton Ave, Menomonee Falls. (262) 812-2005 hothousetavern.com
St. Paul Fish Co.
Every day is fry day at St. Paul Fish Co.
That goes for both locations, the newer Mequon location and the original Milwaukee Public Market spot in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. I revisited St. Paul’s because of that Mequon restaurant, which is considerably bigger and takes reservations. And being seafood restaurants, both locations have numerous grilled options (salmon, mahi mahi and so on) for diners who are avoiding not just meat but fried foods, too.
But for those specifically seeking out fried fish: St. Paul fries a raft of it, including cod in crunchy Schlitz beer batter, and an exceptionally moist and meaty breaded walleye fillet. On Fridays, the walleye is a discounted special.
Also on the fried menu: catfish, grouper and shrimp. They’re all served with thin, crisp fries, a slightly sweet and tangy coleslaw, and tartar sauce tasting of dill pickle.
Cost: Fried cod, $11.95; catfish, $12.95; shrimp or walleye, $14.95; grouper, $16.95. Hours: Friday fry served daily for lunch and dinner; takeout available, with reservations at Mequon. Locations: 6200 W. Mequon Road, Mequon; (262) 200-9909. 400 N. Water St. in the Milwaukee Public Market; (414) 2208383. stpaulfish.com
Wonderland
Wonderland, the new diner in Riverwest that’s decorated with vintage diner finds, takes a classic approach to Friday fish fry: It’s served with soup or salad.
The fish is an ample portion of breaded pollock, fried until crisp. (Wonderland was planning to roll out a catch of the week to supplement the pollock).
It’s served with coleslaw that’s dressed in lemon-poppy seed vinaigrette, the diner’s own tartar sauce, pumpernickel bread and a choice of crisp fries or a potato pancake, fried crisp and brown.
Just save room for pie.
Cost: $13 for fried pollock. Hours: Fish fry served 4-10 p.m. Fridays. Takeout available; reservations only for groups of eight or more. 732 E. Burleigh St. (414) 372-7880 On Facebook.
Caro l Deptolla has been reviewing restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 2008. She visits restaurants — unannounced — several times to better evaluate food and service and usually brings other diners to sample the menu widely. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers, working only for our readers.
Contact her at carol.deptolla@ jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_ diner.