Lake Geneva’s Best Fish Fry

I think a lot of the talk about favorite fish fry in the state of Wisconsin has a lot to do with our undying desire to showcase our individuality. Jim might tell Joe that his favorite fish fry is at some off-the-beaten-path bar, but only when Jill is working the fryer, which is only on the weekends when she doesn’t have her kids. Joe hears this and says that while that’s a cute story about that out-of-the-way bar, the best fish fry is actually in a town 40 minutes north of this one, and unlike a typical fish fry, this one is on Wednesdays, because on Wednesdays the bar gets a shipment of cod that comes only from a very deep trench in the North Atlantic, which is only open to fishing boats during the summer because in the winter it ices over. We spend a lot of time trying to convince people that we have, indeed, found the holiest of grails: The Perfect Fish Fry.

The thing is, I went out for lunch last Friday and had intended to go to Oak and Oar, which is the newish restaurant inside of the Geneva Inn hotel. The internet hours said they were open at 11, so I met a client there at 1. It’s just that the front desk told me the restaurant doesn’t open until three, or maybe it was four, and that the internet says that and that she knows because she just checked. I told her I had also just checked and that it said 11 was the open, but she didn’t appear in the mood for a friendly argument so we left in search of something else. I had a hankering for fish, and instead of working my way to something unique and rare, I decided to update my review on a Lake Geneva staple: Popeyes.

When I told my customer turned friend that we’d just go to Popeyes, he asked me if I was serious. That’s a common response to Popeyes. Isn’t it just for tourists who know no better? Why would we go there when God granted us free will? I told him he’d be fine, and we saddled up to a two top in the lakeside of the main dining room, but only after I refused the offer of a table in that upper area to the east of the main room. I dislike that upper room. We were seated and waited an inordinate amount of time for our waitress to stop talking to the table next to ours. It took far too long, and I could see my friend and his apparent Popeyes doubt.

I’m not going to go into the minutia of this lunch, because I don’t have to. There’s no minutia needing dissecting. There is only one singular truth to share today. The truth is that Popeyes is the best fish fry in the area, hands down. The cod is lightly battered, tender without being soft, and sweet. The potato pancakes are creamy and crisp without being over seasoned or over sweetened (looking at you, Wagon Wheel). The two little hushpuppies are unnecessary but who am I to turn down bite sized fried things? The tartar sauce is sweet and rich. The applesauce was chunky. It’s all you can eat, which is a terrible thing for a guy like me, but since I was with one of my annoyingly fit friends, I chose to only have one serving, which pained me, obviously. Nothing needed salt. Nothing was amiss. It was the best fish fry I’ve had in a long time, in spite of my heroic efforts to uncover something better.

Popeyes really isn’t cool. It’s kind of cheesy and a bit tired and it’s too large to be particularly charming or memorable. It’s also been there for a long, long time. Because of this the locals and vacation home owners like to look down on it as a dining option. But why must we do this? Why would we try out every new place and endure their sloppiness when we have the best local fish fry right here? We should stop doing this and just admit that Popeyes is the place for fish fry. If you doubt me, that just means you haven’t been there because your neighbor Jim told you that the best fish fry is at some place in Salem, but only on the third Friday of every other month.

Popeyes

9.1

$16.99 Early Bird All You Can Eat. $22.99 Regular Time All You Can Eat

Lake Geneva, WI (you already know where it is)