Lent Week #3: St. Paul the Apostle.

I want to take a moment to give some advice to anyone planning a Fish Fry, or any other charity fundraiser that serves food and potentially serves it to people who are unfamiliar with your venue and or your system. Please be generous in your signage!

We have visited several Fish Fry’s both this year and last that had poor signage. On more than one occasion we searched around large multi building facilities trying to find where the Fish Fry is located. We have also wandered through buildings searching for the dining area. You can follow your nose, but this sometimes leads you out back where they are frying the fish.

Finally, your Menu should be readily available both at the table you pay, and at the place you get your food.

This Friday on the third week of Lent Z and I, and our wayward Catholic friend Beth, went to St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Westerville. Thom and Fe were away on spring break, so this week it was just the girls. I brought up the suggestions about signage because of our visit here, but St. Paul’s is not the first Church where we have experienced this.

We arrived at their huge complex on State Street that contains what looks likes two Churches and a school. Despite the lack of signage on the outside of the buildings we were able to spot the school cafeteria from the outside and people mingling around. This was our clue and we ventured in.

We were in luck. Our dinners were $7 for adults and $4 for children 12 and under. Bargain hunters note: this was the lowest price so far this year.

After we paid ,we received our color coded tickets and a small orange traffic cone. We found a place at one of the tables and put the cone on our table. After just a few minutes of waiting a nice man from the Knights of Columbus came around and took our order.

The adults had the option of fried fish, baked fish, or macaroni and cheese for our entree and French fries, scalloped potatoes, or macaroni and cheese as side dish. There was optional coleslaw or apple sauce, and white roll or wheat. Drinks were also included and were served yourself.

This is another situation where they could have printed out menus and either posted them on the wall or had them on the table. It would have made it much easier of us and for our “waiter”. The only difference between our menu and Z’s was that she was not able to order baked fish.

Also if you were paying close attention you may have noticed you are able to order macaroni and cheese with a side dish of macaroni and cheese!

We all ordered fried fish and let me first say that it was both hot and yummy. My side dish was scalloped potatoes and coleslaw, Z had the macaroni and cheese and apple sauce and Beth had the scalloped potatoes and coleslaw.

I apologize that we didn’t order the French fries. I will tell you that they looked good and if the fish was any example their fried food was very good. The scalloped potatoes were tasty and Z gave the macaroni and cheese a thumbs up.

Z’s best quote of the evening was that our rolls tasted like communion bread. The amazing thing is that she was right, at least compared to our church.

Desserts were an extra dollar and once again homemade. Z had “dirt” in a cup which made her very happy and I had a nice piece of cake.

Our little group enjoyed our evening and our only complaint would be the poor information sharing. Again, something to keep in mind if you are planning your own fish fry.

Let us know if you have a great Fish Fry to wow us with!

Our Lady of Victory-Marblecliff

Loyal Readers: I am sorry for the delay this week. Being a single parent last week kept me busy and distracted. Fear not though here is Fish Fry week two.

Our party was down to three this week due to a minor bug that had Z down for the count last Friday. So it was up to Thom, F and I to venture out to Our Lady of Victory in Upper Arlington. Due to the Buckeye basketball game we started a bit later just to confirm our Buckeyes had a decisive lead, then checked on Z, took her carry out order and headed out into the rain.

If you are looking for scenery, give Our Lady of Victory two thumbs up. It is nestled in Marble Cliff one of the more beautiful neighborhoods in Columbus. Lots of big trees and winding roads with a bit of a hill, such as we have in Central Ohio, surround the area. I imagine it will be even more beautiful when spring gets a little more established here in Columbus.

We lined up with the crowd at the entrance and paid for our four meals, three to eat in and one to carry out. Adults were $9 each and kids, 12 and under, were $5 which covered everything. There was no family discount.

The main attraction is the FRESH LAKE ERIE PERCH! Ok, yes, I grew up on Lake Erie and am a bit partial. That said, I didn’t love the breading, but both boys did, and the couple we shared our table with were regulars, so clearly it must be a taste thing. This mother and son pair also told us that the church has it brought in fresh every Friday.

There is also the ever present coleslaw, steak fries and bake potatoes. They will get credit too for offering salad and rice as options. Bread with butter too. And for all you fans, Grandview’s own, Rotollo’s Pizza is an option for the kids meals.

I enjoyed my baked potato, especially since they had sour cream after our first week’s experience. F thought the fries were too salty but good. We should also note that our family is not big steak fry fans, so French fries would always make us happier.

Desserts were clearly homemade which is a plus as far as I am concerned, and our mint chocolate bundt cake was a hit at our table.

Sodas and water are included. Beer and wine are available for a donation.

We brought a carry-out meal home to Z. We aren’t sure if it was because of the lateness of the hour or because it was carry-out but she was given four pieces of fish instead of our three. The food transported well enough, but I’m not sure that anything fried is as good once it has cooled off. Even so, she gave her dinner a thumbs up.

Coming soon, our review of St. Paul’s in Westerville.

Plus, we’ve added share buttons to make sharing this blog with your friends even easier.

2011: First week of Lent- St. Patricks, Downtown Columbus

Lent begins again and the intrepid Mak family is off in search of Columbus’s best Catholic Fish Fry.  Our hope this year is to visit new locations and explore new offerings.

 

If  you are considering visiting any of our locations from last year, we would love to hear of any changes and updates.  We discussed over dinner what our favorite was from last year and we universally agreed that it was St. Michaels on High Street in Worthington.  In fact, it was the one that was requested for a return visit this year.

 Both the Mak-lings are entering that phase of adolescents where they have plans on the weekends that don’t involve their parents.  I include this as a ray of hope for my friends with younger children who feel like it is impossible to spend an evening alone with your spouse. Your day will come!  

The downfall of this is that we are now glorified chauffeurs doing the pick-up and drop-off all night long. Even with a busy Friday evening our dedication is to you, so our family of four ventured out early to St. Patrick Catholic Church at 280 N. Grant in Downtown Columbus.

Because our children’s busy schedules dictated, we were early birds and pulled into the parking lot at 5pm. The lot was filled with teenagers getting ready for an event, happily joshing and horsing around. We worked our way into what looked like a newer parish hall and found ourselves first in line.

Our dinner was a choice of two types of fish, fried or baked.  Each dinner had two pieces though you were not allowed to mix and match. All of us opted for fried, I think in honor of our first of the season.  Though, I did try and get one of each. There was also macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and two types of potatoes, baked and French fries.  Dessert was homemade brownies and cupcakes.  Drinks were sodas, water, and fruity punch as part of the dinner price or wine and beer for a $2.50 donation. Adult dinners were $9, kids 12 and under were $4 and there was a family deal for $30.

Probably because we were the first ones there and this was the first Fish Fry of the season, they were a bit disorganized but they quickly recovered and were able to sort out what color our ticket was supposed and what their portion control was we were quickly served with a smile. 

Along with our fish each of us had the mac and cheese. Thom and the kids had coleslaw and fries and I tried the baked potato.  The food was basic but generally tasty. The fish was hot and crispy, but F decided felt that it was “uniformed in shape and that kind of creeps me out.” The baked potato was good but they had only butter and oddly, cream cheese but not sour cream.  The French fries were proclaimed good but needed salt. Thom and the kids thought the mac and cheese was good and it was better than average but I thought it was only just above average. I will admit to being pretty picky about my mac and cheese. We all thought the brownies were great and Z claimed a coveted corner piece.  F thought his cupcake was good.

If our visit is an example of what to expect in the future I would suggest this for families with small kids you want to feed early since it was easy to get in and out and the portions were filling. The people were friendly and by the time we left to drop the kids off for their evenings of fun the room was filling up with families with small children.

Again, if you go to a fish fry, let us know what you think.  We need contributors, so feel free to chime in!