Week #2-The Church of the Resurrection- New Albany

We have had such an unusual winter here in Central Ohio. We’ve had so little snow and so much warm weather and rain. This last Friday was no exception and as we arrived at the Church of the Resurrection in New Albany the sky opened up and poured rain.

Because we misread the Columbus Dioceses website we arrived at 5:00pm, a half hour early. The staff were a bit perplexed, but were lovely and welcomed us in to dining room to wait. The lesson learned would be to double check all the information when you read the website. The early arrival did let us get settled into the dining room and listen to the rocking sound system as well as listen in on the pre-meal pep talk and prayer by the head cook.

The Church of the Resurrection’s Fish Fry is held in their very lovely Ministry Center. For $9.50 for Adults, ($8.50 for Seniors, $5.50 for kids ( 4-10) free for the under 3’s) they serve an all you can eat buffet that includes lemonade, ice tea and coffee. Beer and wine can be had for a $2.00 donation and desserts were a buck.

Where other Fish fries are in the echoey walls of a gym or basement the Ministry Center is airy, well-lit and comfortable. They have great dinner music that ads to the setting and there is a great sense of community.

Thanks to a Square and an Ipad, they were the first Fish Fry that we have attended that took credit cards. Gotta love the new technology that allows you to do it on your phone.

The all you can eat part does have a bit of a catch. You can only go through the line once, so be sure to load up your plate the first time. I’m sure that is easier for them, but it makes one worry about waste.

They also offer many options that we haven’t seen before. There was the standard fried fish and they also offered baked. Potatoes were either baked or French fried. Standard sides included coleslaw, green beans, mac and cheese, apple sauce. They also had grilled cheese sandwiches on their standard menu but as part of their weekly special they offered tuna melts. The other weekly special offerings could be vegetable lasagna or pasta marinara. Check the specials board at the entrance. These are served on a rotating basis.

The other fairly unique item they offer is a rotating list of soups. This week they had tomato and broccoli/cheddar but they have clam chowder and potato soup in their rotation.

The fish here was good. Not the best we’ve had, but good. The cook joked with the woman in front of us, that it was genuine Ohio cod. She accepted this blissfully. He told me it was pollack from Alaska.

They keep the fish coming in small batches which help in keeping it hot. I wish I could say as much for the other dishes we tried. The coleslaw was flavorless or at least just tasted like cabbage with hint of dressing. The fries were warm at best and not crisp. The soups were warm, but bland and right out of the can. Thom and Fe tried the grilled cheese and were unimpressed with it as well. Sadly, my dessert looked delicious, but was full of ice crystals too.

Our overall feeling as we left was, to quote Z, “Meh.”

If you are looking for a fish fry, and are in the New Albany area, you will like the ambience and I promise you will leave full, but you will most likely leave unfulfilled.