Friday, February 26, 2010

1st week of Lent: St Michael's, Worthington

Perhaps it was our two years living in New Zealand; our family loves a good fish fry.  For the most part we tell people we are vegetarians because it’s easier than explaining what a pescetarian is.  We may never know the joys of a good kumara fry here in the States, but the traditional Catholic Fish Fry during Lent allows us to revel in our memories and create new ones.  Because we are not Catholic we are not “restricted” to only patronizing our local parish, so we have in the past sampled various F.F.’s in our area. Of course we have our favorites for various reasons but we thought it was time to share our reviews on the F.F. and perhaps other dining pleasures in the future.
First you should know who we are: T, dad, though a vegetarian when I married him will eat anything with the exception of beets and I frequently find him treating the dog to bits of contraband ham he’s has brought into our house. He will also order red meat pretty much every chance he gets when dining out.
F, oldest and son, an adventurous eater with a mostly vegetarian diet but that didn’t keep him from trying snails in France. He will try most things but has strong opinions about what is edible.
Z, youngest and daughter, is a much pickier eater. She hasn’t eaten meat since she was four, 7 years ago.  She also is not a big fan of fried fish so she is our taster of the alternate dishes.
Finally D, me the mom, I love lots of different types of food, but limit as much as possible my intake of meat to the occasional splurge on seafood.
For our first Friday F.F. the four of us ventured to St. Michael’s on High St. in  Worthington. This is one of the two that we have visited many times over the years so it made sense that we review them first. St. Michael’s is run by the Knights of Columbus and one of the best parts is seeing grown men run around in funny fish hats. They offer several dinner options: Large Fish, Small Fish, and Macaroni and Cheese. All of their dinners come with french fries, apple sauce or coleslaw, a role and either soft drink or coffee. The side dishes and beverages have free refills. Also available for an additional charge are New England style clam chowder, extra fish and dessert. You pay when you enter the building but you do have the option of purchasing extra tickets once you are in the hall.
The meal is served in a cafeteria style. You take your tickets through the line and you are served your meal in carryout style containers. You then seat yourself in long table similar to my high school cafeteria. T, F and I all got the large fish dinner with three pieces of fish and coleslaw. Z had the Macaroni and Cheese with apple sauce. T also ordered the Clam Chowder. 
The three of fish eaters all thought the fish was hot and delicious with a nice crisp batter. We especially like the thin fries, also served hot. Hot fries are very important to me and on the few occasions that I treat myself to McDonalds fries at the drive through I will turn around and go back in and complain if they aren’t served hot. This is under the theory that if I’m going to eat something that really isn’t good for me it better taste good. The coleslaw was the creamy variety and we all enjoyed it. Z gave the Mac and cheese a thumbs up, though she thought my home made is better. It did look a lot like Velveeta. T tried it and wasn’t too impressed. T, F and Z all tried the chowder and thought it was good but had too many potatoes and T didn’t think he had a single clam in any that he ate. Since we were all very full none of us had dessert though they looked homemade and inviting.
The prices are as follows: Large Fish $7.50 and the Mac and Cheese $5.00. The Clam Chowder was $1.00. Our total family expense was $29.
Over all we enjoyed our dinner and the main attraction, the fish and chips, was very good. We would definitely recommend enjoying a dinner there.

1 comment:

  1. This is a great service! Love it - and thank you! Enjoy Lent. :-) [shh, secret: Catholics can also go to any fish fry they like, and some definitely know which the best are, though they may not talk too openly about it if the best are not their parish!] BTW, have you tried St. Margaret of Cortona's fish fry?

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