Pittsburgh Fish Fry

08/03/2024

Hey Pittsburgh Fish Fry Followers! Tonight is Fish Fry Friday and we need some suggestions for where we should go and review. But it does come with a couple criteria - First, M & S work late, so we need to find one that we can get to from Green Tree in about 15 minutes. One that we haven't reviewed yet THIS SEASON.

So - tonight we can't go back to the East across a bridge and still try to make it anywhere. If you have recommendations for your neighborhood Fish Fry, or your favorite Fish Fry, let us know quickly!

THANK YOU!
- S

02/03/2024

On Fridays when M & S work later and it's too much of a thrash to get to a parish or fire hall - Now we have more options to share with everyone! So plussed that one of our favorite Pittsburgh places MoonLit Burgers is offering fish on Fridays this spring!
Spoiler: We think we found the best fish sandwich... Ever.

17/02/2024

"It is happening again."

It's been a whille since we've been active. The pandemic took its toll on our energy level, our spirit and our free time, but we're on the way BACK!

Shadyside Nail Gal • Eastside Salon 7 and W Scot Fleming and Pittsburgh Fish Fry are kicking off the 2024 Lenten season at the Saints Simon and Jude School Saints Simon and Jude Parish for the St. Raphael Fish Fry! (Whew, that's a lot of saints for one fry!)

Here's a quick mini-review- OUTSTANDING FISH! We'll elaborate later.

04/12/2023

04/12/2023

This will be an amazing event with our friends at Café 412.
Only a few reservations left, book now!

JUST A FEW SPOTS LEFT! GATHER YOUR FRIENDS AND JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL HOLIDAY POP UP DINNER!

24/03/2023

TGIFFF! Yo Yo Yo, what’s up, Pittsburgh Fish Fry Fans!

We’re here at Ascension Catholic Church in Ingram, where the St. Phillip Catholic Parish Fish Fry is hosted. (Once again, thanks Pgh. Diocese for royally screwing up these parishes chances to make some money by having them show up at the actual place named in the fish fry, get irritated and drive over to Hardee’s)

Back with some thoughts and video soon!

23/03/2023

After-School Special - Ancillary Pre-Pizza Expo Mobile Review.
Thursday. No fish fry. No Michelle. Spontaneous pizza review with special guest star Ace the Tri-Hound. )Follow Ace's Insta page here: https://www.instagram.com/ace_the_tri_hound/)

Big ups and much luck to Rico and Chris and the whole Slice on Broadway - Beechview crew that’s going out this weekend to the INTERNATIONAL Pizza Expo in Vegas.

If this is what you’re taking, you’ve got it in the bag.
(Shout out to Katelyn at The Dog Stop South Hills)

10/03/2023

2023 Return of Pittsburgh Fish Fry ! Michelle and Scot try to jump back in the saddle to visit and review the Saint Teresa of Kolkata Parish fish fry! (More videos coming)
Michelle Thompson Maust
Scot Fleming

23/04/2022

Summer Food Series: Mediterra Bakery and Café in Mt. Lebanon. 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First fantastic day of the spring. Michelle and Scot and Ace (the Tri-Hound) grab a quick bite at the Mt. Lebanon Mediterra Café

Grilled pimento-cheese on fresh baked toasted multi-gratin bread. Homemade pickles. An interesting take on a Margherita pie, and chickpea-chicken salad.

Dog friendly and a nice shady lunch after a romp at the Carnegie Dog Park

Mediterra Cafe

10/04/2022

Pittsburgh Fish Fry visitsTäkō Tôrtä with special guests, TV’s David Johnson and Nacy Polinsky Johnson (unbeknownst to them)

Scroll up for the review. Okay

09/04/2022

Okay so here’s the quick review of Jabby Joe's

We don’t review restaurant fish sammiches the same way as we do parish or firehouse Lenten fish. Way too many differences in effort and results.

So I’m going to make this quick. I ate here a few times in 1990-1992 when it was “Rocky’s” and my memory of it was really good fish, cole slaw and I thought it used to be on Mancini’s bread. Which is a little ironic because we were trying to go to Holy Child tonight and one thing we loved about their fish sandwich three years ago was that it was on Mancini’s bread.

So - wasn’t offered cole slaw, I had Mac and cheese or fries to choose from. Now, the only answer when someone has Mac and cheese at all is “Mac and Cheese please” so I got the fish sandwich, Mac and cheese, and M. got the fish, no bun, and a house salad.

You all know we rate the fish first, then the bun, condiments, venue, service and then extra.

So the fish was excellent. Hands down one of the best fish from a local bar/restaurant yet. IMO. Very flavorful and well cooked.

Bun - 5/10 Not bad. Not great.

Condiment game - sadly - this is where they fail. And it’s an extremely critical issue. Heinz ketchup? Check. Red Hot Sauce? Check. Tartar sauce? FAIL. Ken’s makes some good ranch, but this tartar sauce could ruin a good sandwich. And if you’re making such a good homemade ranch as they do here (see sides) then you really should be making a homemade tartar, especially when your fish is so good. 1/3

Service - Great. They were slammed at dinner time and the wait for a table was reasonable and the wait staff was busy, but on point.

Sides - I grade Mac and cheese VERY critically. I use the Kraft-Stouffer’s litmus test: There is absolutely no reason that a Mac and cheese should try harder than being as good as fresh Kraft or any fancier than Stouffer’s. Usually the Mac and cheese at fish frys is awful, sadly. This Mac and cheese is excellent. Creamy, cheesy, and tasty. It’s not complicated. It’s just that easy. Great job.

M. ordered a salad with French dressing. I always think a place should tell you when they’re going to try to pass off Catalina as Creamy French dressing. For one reason, they’re not the same thing. French dressing is orange and creamy. Not dark red and translucent and sweet. Regardless, they’re both good when they’re good, but the Catalina Michelle was served tasted legit OLD and was described as “rancid” . She asked for ranch instead and it was much better, according to her. She rates salad about a 4/10

So people always say to us “Yes but what about the FISH?!” And I get that. The fish here was very, very good. (We both had the beer battered, can’t speak to the breaded) but real Tartar (or just not this horrible tartar, Arby’s hands out a better tartar in packets) can bring down the score of a great fish sandwich.

They get a few points off for the tartar, a few points off for the salad dressing, but we think we saw a table full of homemade baked Easter goods so - I’m throwing a couple church basement points their way for that.

Overall - 7.9/10 A solid try.
Going just to try the fish? I’ll give the fish a high 8.9 I’ve had a few better fish in Pgh. restaurants, but not that many.

08/04/2022

Ok Michelle doesn’t wNt to broadcast live tonight, so I’m just going to fill in some info here. Sorry for such a shabby year for PFF activity. We kind of took 2022 off. We didn’t get a Friday that we were both off early enough to go to a church or fire house, and nobody wants to hear what we thought about the once great Sammy’s. It’s been Eatnpark for us for a few weeks.

And after a hectic day of dog urgi-care, I got very excited to hear that there was a fish fry at Holy Child (Because last we heard they were not going to have it anymore. And that was three years ago.) and I picked M. up and we raced out to Bridgeville, only to find a closed, dark church and no cars in the lot.

So heee we are at Jabby Joe's and just got seated. I ate some of the best fish of my life here when it was “Rocky’s” and I had forgotten about this place. Let’s see how it holds up to the memories.

08/04/2022

Okay PFF friends, need a quick recommendation - looking for beer-battered fried fish TONIGHT. South Hills and Green Tree Robinson area. Doesn’t have to be a church fry.

Who’s got a suggestion?!

26/02/2022

HELLOOOOO. PITTSBURGH FISH FRY PEOPLE!
Yo yo yo!
It’s Michelle here.
The last two fish fry seasons have been a bit unusual, to say the least.
I’m really hoping to get back at it this year.
I think I need your help talking Scot into it.
His work schedule is a bit nuts, but I want him to take some time to have some fun!
This is where YOU come in.
Please comment below fish fry’s that you know of.
Big or small, school, church, firehall or bar/restaurant.
Can’t wait to see some new places and maybe some of the past PFF faves!
Love you guys! 🐟🐟
(Don’t forget, it’s all about the condiments for me!)

30/12/2021

PFF LIVe on the road by request in Atlanta GA for the Peach Bowl with special guests Michelle’s family!

08/08/2021

13/03/2021

PFF- Friday Night Localized Fish Fry Video: Week 2: at the Circle Inn in Crafton.

Forgot to give the rating review last night. So for the Circle Inn

Fish: 8/10 It’s a very good fish sandwich, battered and fried perfectly and you get a good sized amount of fish.

Bun: 10/10 Seems like a silly thing but the bun can make or break the fish sandwich. This one is just a simple soft Kaiser roll but THEY TOAST IT! Which makes all the difference in the world! Holds the fish better, tastes better etc. Awesome.

Cole Slaw: 6/10 - Very good flavor but needs to be wetter. More slaw. 🙂

Mac & Cheese: 3/10 I’m giving it 3 points just for the texture and it starts out like it’s going to be great. Creamy and smooth sauce. But the taste and finish is just really weird and bad. Sorry folks. Not a fan.

Fries: 4/10. This year, places have to go to a lot of effort to not prepare horrible fries. Here’s the key - and this goes for fish too - don’t put them in a styrofoam container that’s just going to steam the crunch out of them in 5 minutes. I know that’s a challenge but a couple places have solved this, so it can be done. When it’s takeout or nothing - you either figure out how to keep stuff from getting bad or not offer it. So - they’re not alone with this issue but the fries were super soggy.

Condiments: 1/10 FAIL: This is one of our hot buttons. Condiments can ALSO make or break the Fish Fry experience. You can’t decide how much tartar a person needs. Just because it costs you money - don’t skimp. So at the very least put “one set” in for each fish. We ordered two fish sandwiches, and we were actually asked about tartar and cocktail and told the person on the phone “Yes, a bunch of each!” And then received one small tartar and one small cocktail fir the whole order. The reason I’m giving it one point was just for not being packets.

However the other reason this is a fail is that they put onion in their tartar.
No. That’s not a thing. Just no. I was so glad they didn’t put it in their slaw which sometimes IS a thing, but then to have the minuscule amount of tartar we were given be flavored with onion? Never heard of oniony tartar. Just stop making it this way please. It’s horrible. Relish and Mayo. Don’t complicate it. If we hadn't saved tartar from elsewhere, the whole meal would have been comprromised by their condiment game.

So overall - ordering process, friendliness, pickup, timing were all great. Which during Covid is important.

Fish sandwich was the best thing they did, which also is important and the bun is perfect.

I won’t hold any real score against anyone for bad Mac and cheese and fries. This seems to be all over the map this year and it’s really just side dishes.

But the condiments thing - guys...sorry. That costs points.

Our overall experience is 42/60 (with an extra bonus 10 for the bun’s interaction with the fish) - a great fish sandwich for takeout. If you’re in Crafton it’s a good option. But don’t order the Mac and cheese and make sure you’ve got lots of your own tartar at home or in your vehicle.

05/03/2021

Our first review of 2021 pgh Lenten Fish Fry! At Sammy's Pizzeria