CHEAP EATS: Long John Silver's nonfried line - not-so-fast food

By Eric E. Harrison

LITTLE ROCK — Long John Silver's has finally caught up with competitor Captain D's and has started serving nonfried seafood, instituting a menu called Freshside Grille in its area restaurants.

Long John Silver's Freshside Grille

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Now, should you find yourself in a Long John Silver's but can't quite bring yourself to order their batter-coated shrimp, fish and chicken offerings (served with batter-coated batter cracklins), you have alternatives less likely to batter your arteries: Grilled Pacific Salmon, Shrimp Scampi and Grilled Tilapia, served over rice with a steamed vegetable medley and a piece of corn on the cob on the side.

Oddly, the Long John Silver's on East Broadway in North Little Rock costs at least a dollar less per plate than the one in southwest Little Rock.

Maybe that's because theNorth Little Rock location is wedded to a KFC outlet (they're commonly owned by Yum!

Brands, which also owns Taco Bell and the A&W restaurants),and so operates under a kind of subsidy. Maybe it's because at the University Avenue place you get "real" plastic ware - forks, spoons and knives - while on East Broadway you just get sporks.

And in any case you shouldn't regard Freshside Grille as fast food - not because of the content of the plates but because of the preparation time. On each of four occasions - two visits to each place - we had extended waits, in most cases because some piece of the meal wasn't readily available (in one instance the breadstick had to be baked; in another, the Shrimp Scampi hadn't been taken out of the freezer and had to be thawed).

In three of the four cases, we're talking about seven to 10 minutes. For the fourth, well, we'll get to that later. And in all four cases either the order taker at the register or the preparer in the kitchen wasn't quitesure about something, which no doubt contributed to the delays.

Oh, and by the way, when Long John Silver's says "Freshside Grille," that doesn't mean there's a "grille" in either location's kitchen. It means that your fish apparently has been "grilled" at some location off the immediate premises, then pressure-sealed into a plastic baggie and popped into a microwave after you order it, then "freshly" poured out upon your plate.

Long John Silver's Freshside Grille

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Taste-wise, all three dishes were acceptable: the flaky-moist salmon ($8.49 southwest Little Rock, $7.19 North Little Rock) in a mild ginger-teriyaki sauce; the firm shrimp ($8.49, $7.29) in a mildly garlicky scampi sauce; and the tilapia ($8.29, $7.29) dusted with herbs and spices. A salmon-shrimp combo is also available ($9.99, $8.69).

We won't give you much for the herbed squash-carrot-greenbean medley except to note that, being steamed-in-the-baggie instead of parboiled, it still retains some original vegetable flavor. On two occasions we asked for, and got, extra corn instead.

Our most recent attempt to access the Freshside Grille, at the North Little Rock location, was a real challenge.

We ordered late in the lunch period, and just beat a sizable rush, but what the helpful lady at the register had told us would be a seven-minute wait to thaw the shrimp turned into a 27-minute wait because our order somehow got either misplaced or crossed up with a tilapia plate a couple of orders behind us. That lucky fellow, who waited almost as long as we did, got the last of the rice, which was OK, because we took even more extra corn in its place. Meanwhile, folks ordering fried seafood were getting served quickly ahead of us.

Long John Silver's Freshside Grille Address: 4101 S. University Ave., Little Rock; 613 E. Broadway, North Little Rock Hours: 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily (Little Rock), 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily (North Little Rock) Cuisine: "Fast-food" fish Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D Alcoholic beverages: No Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 568-5963 (Little Rock), (501) 372-7807 (North Little Rock) www.freshsidegrille.com

Weekend, Pages 65 on 11/28/2008