6th Annual Fish Fry Challenge--2018!

Week 7 Review : Asbury Eagles Club, Asbury, IA For our final fish fry we made a last minute decision to head to one of our 2017 fish fry favorites, and winner of the 2017 challenge! As we knew from last year, you must get there early as its quite a popular place to go.  Being that we have a baby this year, we arrived around 7pm.  The fish fry dinner buffet cost was $13/person, and they asked you right away what type of fish you'd like brought to your table first--baked or fried. I ordered the baked fish.   There was no wait so we were able to get seated right away and it was much easier to get through the dinning room this year, even though the dining room was full of people enjoying their fish dinners. After we were seated we were instructed that we could go up to the buffet line and pick the rest of our dinner items, as the fish would be delivered to our table shortly.  The buffet items included: baked potato, corn, tossed salad, coleslaw, broccoli/caul...

FFC Week 6: The Barn, Sherrill, IA We have been told since we moved to Iowa that we must go to The Barn.  We were told it was a 'dive' bar & grille but had a great seafood buffet during fish fry season.  After numerous suggestions and recommendations, we ended up at The Barn! Upon entering The Barn, I was very surprised as it was nothing like I expected.  I had heard 'dive' bar, but this looked nothing like how I had imagined.  The inside looked updated and very, very clean.  And it was a lot larger inside that it appears from the outside. We arrived at the Barn at 6pm, without a reservation.  We had a group of 7 (with a baby), and were able to be seated right away.  Our server was very bubbly and asked for our drink order right away.  She also got us a high chair for the baby and we had enough room around our table to put the carseat in the high chair. The Barn's Friday night special is a seafood buffet, for $16.99.  The buffet con...

Week 5 Review: Hangar Bar & Grille (inside the Dubuque County Airport) *time stamps will be noted to give a sense of what our experience felt like This fish fry started like any other Friday night fish fry...I had made reservations earlier in the week for our group of 10 at 6:30pm. They were very nice on the phone, and were very accommodating to our large group.  We were very excited to go to a unique place, as it was located in the airport. I arrived at the airport at about 6:25pm.  Most of our group had already arrived and were seated at our table that was clearly marked reserved for our group.  The restaurant was fairly full, but didn't give off the impression that they busy.  There was also a large table next to us of about 8 people, and the other tables were about 3-4 people at each.  After I sat down the others mentioned that a server had said we could do a family style of the all you care to eat fish fry.  Their fish fry special for the nigh...

Fish Fry Week 4 Review: Oxus Grotto, Asbury, IA This week's fish fry was an impromptu decision.   On my way home from work I had seen signs for the Oxus Grotto fish fry but hadn't really considered it until my mother and I were looking for a place nearby to grab a quick fish dinner.   So we settled on the grotto. The Oxus Grotto is located just slightly off a neighborhood road in Asbury.  If there weren't signs, you'd probably miss it.  The building has no signage except for a small metal nameplate on the building, and is a very plain looking building. Upon entry, we were greeted by a friendly older gentleman.  The inside of the grotto was not very big, but was more of an open cafeteria sized room with long tables and chairs, and a kitchen in back.  A sign listed the fish fry for $8, but you could purchase an extra piece of fish for just $1 more (you got 2 pieces with the meal).  I wasn't sure if I'd want an additional piece but the gen...

Fish Fry Week 3 Review: 3 Mile House, Hazel Green, WI This weeks fish fry was a last minute change in location. We had planned to go somewhere else, but circumstances led us to need to change the location.  By the end of this review, you'll find if we made a good decision or not. As Wisconsin has been known for its supper clubs, it was no surprise that the 3 Miles House came to our minds as we were thinking of a place to go for a fish fry.  It's located just off exit 1 as you cross the bridge into Wisconsin, so a short drive from Dubuque.  We had been to the 3 Mile House a few times in the past, but not recently since it just changed ownership. We were able to make same day reservations for 6:30pm for four of us.  We arrived at 6:25pm, and were happily greeted by the bartender as we entered.  Even though the bar area was packed with patrons, he called over to us and asked us what we'd like to drink while we were waiting.  I, along with another member ...

Week 2 Review : Rhody's, Dubuque, IA During the fish fry season we gather our family and go to Rhody's as we have highly enjoyed this establishment for the past few years.  And we decided again to chose Rhody's to be a part of our fish fry review. As we had a large group of 11 going, we made a reservation ahead of time.  When we arrived, I was happy to see they had our table set up and ready for us.  It was not very busy at 6:30pm which was very surprising to me as typically its really very busy on a Friday night. Our server came by our table right away and asked for our drink order.  While we were waiting for our drinks to come and server to come back, I perused the menu and noticed that the Friday night fish fry did not have the words "All You Can Eat" next to it like it did last year.  I asked the table if they knew and I was sadly informed that they no longer offer the AYCE fish fry!  I was very surprised and saddened as I was planning to try bot...