Let's be honest here, upon first glance, it's not much to look at. The entrance is confusing. Instead of being at the front of the building facing the street or even the front parking lot, it's at the back of the building off to the side. To get there, you pass the employee entrance after climbing a couple sets of steps unless you were fortunate enough to have parked by the employee entrance. Very curious, indeed.
When you enter, the counter is directly to your right and that's where you order your food. The menu is absolutely massive for such a small place! I can't believe they have such a huge menu, to be honest. Four burgers (in a fish & chips place???), chicken sandwiches (umm...fish . & . chips ... ), salads (at least they have seafood on them), pozole, menudo (sigh...again...fish & chips place...what part of fish & chips seems like it should include menudo???). Definitely fish on the menu, though and plenty of it. It's the rest of it that's totally out of place here.
We both ordered fish & chips plates as well as clam chowder. The food arrived quickly, which is good because we were very hungry. The chowder got there first. It's a classic New England clam chowder; creamy and chocked full of potatoes and clams. It's good but definitely needs salt and pepper to bring out the complexity of the flavors. I finished my small cup fairly quickly and was left wanting more (so long as I added salt to it, of course). My husband ordered a bowl but he wasn't as happy with it.
The fish and chips platters came not long after the chowder did. I was a bit confused by the timing of the delivery of the food. Servers really need to be aware of how long they give guests to finish their first course. We hadn't even really started our chowder before the platters arrived.
As for how the fish and chips were, well...I'm not exactly impressed. The fish is battered and fried perfectly. The issue is flavor - or lack of it. It's all terribly underseasoned. Look, if you're going to do this, do it right. The batter on the fish is devoid of salt. It's beautifully golden and the fish is cooked perfectly and still juicy, not dry or anything. The fries, too, lacked seasoning. They were better than the fish, though. Fries require to be seasoned straight out of the fryer. Salt. Plenty of it. It's not difficult. Same for the fish. Season before battering, season the batter, and season after it's out of the fryer. You don't need a heavy hand, but you do need to add it. It's flavorless without it.
And speaking of flavorless, the tartar sauce is begging for some lemon juice! It's so bland. It's like it's just mayo and a bit of relish and maybe some onion mixed up. It's not good. Tartar sauce is supposed to be creamy and tangy, it's supposed to compliment and uplift the fish, not drag already bland fish further down. You achieve a perfect blend of creamy and tangy by starting with mayo and lemon juice then add your relish to it. I use sweet relish because it offsets the mayo and lemon juice perfectly with a hint of sweetness. A little bit of salt, white pepper, and a dash of garlic powder and you have the perfect tartar sauce. It truly isn't difficult.
I'm not sure we'll return here. We may just to see if any of the other seafood is as bland as the fish or if it actually has some flavor. We'll see in a few weeks or so. read more