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Wayne and I visited the recently
opened Tugboat Fish & Chips located at 4801 Brainerd Road
for a recent Saturday afternoon lunch.
The menu reminds me of Long John Silver’s, only a bit more
expansive (more choices). It is different in that you do not
see your pre-prepared food through a glass enclosure as you
do at LJS. At Tugboat it isn’t cooked until you place your
order, and instead of getting hushpuppies, you get two onion
rings. This is an order at the counter, where they deliver
it to you and clean off the table after you leave.
Dinners include chips (fries) and coleslaw. I can’t say that
the coleslaw is homemade, but it didn’t taste like the usual
packaged variety. I thought it was pretty good coleslaw.
Dinner menu choices include an item listed as “fish”, which
we were advised is Cod, calamari, prawns, oysters, scallops,
shrimp, catfish, clams, and chicken. There are also several
seafood combination plates combining the cod with other
items. Tugboat even has a seafood sampler featuring fish,
prawns, oysters, and scallops for $8.49.
Wayne order the Fish & Scallops ($7.49) and I chose the
Catfish Strips ($6.99). Our orders arrived very hot, which
we liked (you know how I feel about lukewarm food!). I
thought the onion rings were good – firm and crisp. We were
given more fries than I could eat. The fries were nothing
special, just your average frozen fries.
They have a small cooler near the order counter with bottles
of tartar sauce and ketchup so it is kept cool and not left
sitting on the tables to possibly spoil. However, they had
the front door to the restaurant standing open, which I
don’t think is a good thing as it allows flies to get in.
I am really not sure exactly what “London Style” is, because
what we were served was the deep fried fish very similar to
LJS. In my research I really turned up nothing to speak of
regarding “London Style”. Someone told me it was “steamed”,
but this fish definitely wasn’t steamed. The catfish batter
is a bit different than the southern cornmeal variety, but
it was crispy and golden brown, and I certainly liked it.
Tugboat offers large orders for a group, which includes
coleslaw, starting with six pieces of fish for $14.99 and
twelve pieces for $26.99. Side orders include Clam Chowder
($2.99), Corn Dog ($2.39), and Hushpuppies ($1.15 for 5).
They use 100% vegetable oil with no cholesterol and no
trans-fat. I also noticed an item on the menu, “Lumpia”, for
$4.59. Since I wasn’t familiar with that, I looked it up and
found it is a Filipino version of the egg roll.
We would have no problem going back to Tugboat Fish & Chips
if we were in the mood for fried fish.
Hours for Tugboat are Monday through Saturday from 11:00 AM
until 9:00 PM. They are closed on Sunday. |
