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| - I LOVE a good fish sandwich. With the emphasis on GOOD. Now I've heard all of the raves and seen all of the signs bragging about such-n-such an establishment's FAMOUS fish sandwich. Armand's FAMOUS fish sandwich. Wholey's FAMOUS fish sandwich. Roland's FAMOUS fish sandwich. And for years, I've driven past the dingy looking hole-in-the-wall with the neon sign out front 'Nied's Hotel' (which kind of looked like the dive bar my father worked at and found his second woman to knock up), with the 'Famous Fish Sandwich' sign...yadda yadda yadda.
Then, this particularly boring Tuesday evening, with foiled plans for something else, a neighbor and I decided to grab a bite. 'Let's try a fish sandwich at Nied's' I said. And off we went.
My hopes weren't real high, having experienced far too many disappointments in da burgh, mostly due to a big ol' dead fish on a hamburger bun. SERIOUSLY people, you're not fooling anyone. Just because you plop a big ol' fish on a tiny bun, it doesn't make the fish look bigger. It just makes the sandwich tedious to eat. Six bites of 'sandwich', and a plate of leftover fish that will NEVER fit on a hamburger bun.
So we entered the darkened cave of Nied's Hotel, which really was kind of an ancient but charming 'dive bar' with a restaurant on the side. We scoped the menus briefly - burgers, doggies, chicken, seafood, sides, and - the famous fish sandwich (with or without cheese). We knew what we came for, and we ordered.
It took almost no time to arrive, and our waitress was a good ol' kind of hometown gal, very friendly and accommodating, and happy to see 'new faces' coming in to give it a try.
Well...I have to say, after five years of just driving by and wondering...it was more than worth the visit. The fish was large, flavorful (not fishy tasting like something that had washed ashore in the noon day sun), the breading was nicely firm and crisp, not too heavy and not too light, and the flavor of overused oil did NOT come into the flavor. The cheese was a couple of sliced of basic American cheese, and I asked for lettuce and tomato, which fit nicely on...THE BUN.
Ok, now I'm not going to rave (or rant) about the bun except to say that of ALL of the joints in town serving a fish sandwich, Nied's came closest to having a bun to kind of fit FISH appropriately. It wasn't a freakin' hamburger bun! It was a longer roll (still not long enough to fit a fish), and made a little more sense as a bun for a fish sandwich than most brainiacs in da burgh seem capable of conjuring up.
Hmmmmm. Up until now, my fave fish sandwich in town, somewhat appropriately, was at the Lesbian bar in Lawrenceville. But now, I have to say, Nied's has won me over.
Armand's can keep the feisty old lady and the greasy fish on a hamburger bun. Wholey's can keep their claficken (and if you didn't know, since everything seems fried in the same vat, that meat you're eating, whether clams, fish, or chicken, all tastes the same...claficken). When I'm now in the mood for a good bar fish sandwich...it'll be Nied's.
And, to top it all off, they have BOTH - Coke AND Pepsi! (now truly, how smart is that?)
The waitress was bragging about her Reuben special on Tuesdays. I'm going to take her up on that challenge. I LOOOOOOVE a good Reuben, but have yet to find one ANYWHERE in da burgh that can stand up to the least of a Reuben from New York. I go to NY for four days, 6 of my eight meals are Reubens, because I know that ANYWHERE I go in NYC, competition and a demand for excellence insists - ANY Reuben had better be a damned GOOD Reuben, and they always are.
I'll be taking this gal up on the Reuben challenge. But even if it fails, the fish sandwich is worth the trip.
Nied's is a prime example of the type of place I will repeatedly hit for food...I don't give a rat's patootie how much you spend on 'atmosphere' and glitz...I go for the food. And often, the best food is found in the least likely places.
And frankly, the 'famous' sign might actually be worthy of its braggage.
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