Rock Bar II Fish Fry Review

I don’t know about the origins of the Rock Bar II on Powers Lake. I don’t know if it was once called The Rock Bar. Perhaps it was a trademark issue. Surely there’s another restaurant called The Rock Bar somewhere in this country. Did you know that Blink 182 was originally just called Blink, but then they, too, faced a claim and were forced to change their name? The 182 is a random workaround. Perhaps the II after Rock Bar is the same situation, but I admit I don’t know and never will. My curiosity is decreasing as time wears on.

But there we were, at the Rock Bar II, on Boxing Day, which is a silly Canadian name for December 26th. My son was in town, and fresh off of his first six months in NYC he had a hankering for a simple fish fry. A reader here had previously mentioned that this restaurant was worthy of a visit, and so we drove in a direction that my vehicle rarely drives and we found ourselves at a two top near the lakeside windows. It was dark and cold, but the inside was decorated in Christmas cheer and the stereo played old timey Christmas music, providing a nice warmth to our otherwise chilled condition.

Whenever I go to a bar like this I feel bad that I don’t drink. It would be nice to have a place where I felt like everyone knew my name, but not in a “there’s that realtor guy, how annoying”, but more like a “Dave’s over there at his usual table.” This bar has that sort of vibe, though it might be more so in the winter and less so in the summer, as the large outdoor dining areas looked on that wintry evening that they might be full of summery weekend transplants. Regardless of our alien status here, we sat at the prime table in an otherwise uncrowded bar and waited for the bartender to come out of the bar space and take our order.

The fish fry option was cod or bluegill, and I scantly remember a grouper option. I have a grouper rule, and that’s that I only order it when in a coastal location where it seems appropriate. The waitress offered no conviction towards any of the fish, so we opted for cod. Fried, because in case it’s been a while and you’ve forgotten, this Friday evening tradition is called “fish fry” not “fish bake”. The potato options were as expected, so also as expected we went with the potato pancakes. The order was in and we waited. The Christmas music played on and the otherwise quiet restaurant slowly but steadily filled in.

The fish was out quickly. I like when a restaurant is lightly occupied and the service is appropriately fast. A light attendance and slow delivery is a bad combination. The dinner, once on our table, smelled terrific. Some fish fry plates just smell like fried food stuffs, which isn’t great. This smelled really nice, which is an under judged aspect of any fish fry. The fish looked crispy, the potato pancakes looked appropriately sized, and all in all this evening was off to a really promising start.

I tried the cod first, since it’s unfair to judge cod once it’s been sitting on a plate for too long. The crisp was nice, the batter light and well connected to the flesh, but the fish itself was a bit softer than I’d like. It needed a bit of salt, which is a common condition of our local scene. The fish was good, but it lacked the firm texture and sweetness that I look for in my cod. The potato pancake was a touch bland, but it was light on filler which I like. The texture was that similar to a potato hash brown breakfast mix, just formed into patties likely with the addition of a touch of flour and egg. I liked the crisp, but disliked the overall meh flavor profile. My son, for his input, felt the same. He ate my coleslaw and rye bread, which he said were both decent, which is the highest praise one might offer up for rye bread.

This was a pretty good fish fry, but it fell short of being great. I appreciated this restaurant and their nice looking plate of fried goods. I appreciated that the cost was just $16 per person, which is insanely affordable in our new world where $23 fish fries are commonplace. I appreciated the decor and the scene. But on this night, the fish fry, while good, was not good enough to get me to go back to Powers Lake anytime soon.

The Rock Bar II

Powers Lake, Wisconsin

6.8

$16 for the cod