LITTLE ROCK — It’s not easy replacing a landmark.
Fishermen Fish & Chicken, which has taken over the space at 3400 E. Broadway, North Little Rock, previously occupied by Young’s Catfish, is doing a good job nonetheless.
The new establishment has given the shack-like building a face-lift, with blue-gray siding and yellow windows on the outside and bright yellow walls with bright blue dividers, booth-backs and tabletops on the inside.
The food is just as appealing, if not more so. For a menu on which about 90 percent of the items are fried, the Fishermen kitchen does fried right. Everything is cooked in vegetable oil and comes out light, fresh-tasting and grease-free.
That includes the fried catfish, which is available as nuggets, filets, steaks or tails. That’s right, tails. (Maybe other area establishments serve up catfish tails, but we can’t think of one.)
Though not culinary cowards, we blanched at the thought of eating catfish tails. But we delighted in the two catfish filets in our small dinner ($6.99, including fries, hush puppies and slaw; large, $8.99), which were lightly coated in a cornmeal batter that enhanced, instead of hampered, the surprisingly clean flavor of the fish.
The batter might be the same for the fried tilapia ($6.99 small dinner, $7.99 large), but if so it’s a lighter color. The fish inside was moist and flaky, so flaky that because we were ending up with more shreds on the plate than fish in our mouths, we eventually stopped trying to eat it with a fork - just picked it up and ate it.
The restaurant has been consistently out of ocean perch ($6.99, $7.99), one of our two minor disappointments. (The other: the small and unimpressive hush puppies.)
But we found a major triumph in the Medium Shrimp ($8.49, $12.99; 10 shrimp a la carte, $3.99). They don’t look like much, but our mouths lit up the moment we popped one of these babies in there.They’re lightly battered, but right off, we tasted shrimp, not batter, and it was delightful. Our to-go order didn’t come with cocktail sauce, so we can’t gauge whether it would have improved or detracted, but we did risk dipping a couple of shrimp in Louisiana-style hot sauce (we found two plastic cuplets at the bottom of the bag) and that was pretty good.
Speaking of bags, each foam container in your togo order comes wrapped in a moisture-and-heat-keeping paper bag. This is the only place we’ve seen that does this, and since the restaurant is about 15 minutes from our office, it was welcome.
The fries, though limp, were intensely potato-flavored. We’re not big fans of cole slaw, and the homemade slaw at Fishermen did nothing to improve our outlook.
Can’t make a choice? There’s also a make-yourown-combination option ($8.99 for two choices, $12.99for three, picking from two catfish steaks, one catfish filet, two ocean perch, three chicken, 10 medium shrimp, one tilapia or three frog legs).
If you’re not into seafood, Fishermen provides some worthwhile alternatives, including chicken - gizzards, tenders or nuggets, and wings.
Somehow not quite appreciating the meaning of the menu category “Whole Wings Dinner,” we were a little leery about paying $3.99 for a threewing dinner, even if it didcome with fries and slaw, until, to our surprise upon opening our foam to-go container, we found three large, whole, fried chicken wings resting on a piece of white bread. (Most wing places, of course, split the wings into “drumettes” and whatever they call that other part.)
Our wings, coated in honey barbecue sauce (Buffalo is other alternative), were delicious, meaty and actually filling. You can expand your order to between four and 10 wings ($4.99-$8.49), or you can mass-order them in groups increasing by tens ($14.99) up to 50 ($28.99)or by the hundred ($55.99 - best, of course, to call ahead for an order of that magnitude).
We also took a flier on the Philly Steak sandwich ($4.99, with fries and medium drink, $6.78) and were reasonably pleased; the steak was well spiced and grilled with onions and green peppers. Purists, be careful - they’ll put mayonnaise on it if you don’t forbid it. And if you want just the sandwich, you’d better specify up front; we ended up with the meal without quite meaning to.
We were surprised and pleased at the fried mushrooms ($2.59 for a goodsize portion), coated in a medium-thick batter that crunched nicely when we bit in before we were semishowered by mushroom juices.
Need more choices? The restaurant also offers burgers and gyros sandwiches; onion rings, beans and cheese sticks as side orders; cheesecake and banana pudding for dessert.
Considering that everything you order is prepared to order (from helpful and pleasant behind-the-counter staff), food comes out relatively quickly; the longer of our two waits was less than 10 minutes.
Fishermen Fish & Chicken Address: 3400 E. Broadway, North Little Rock Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.
Sunday Cuisine: Fried catfish, shrimp, chicken, etc.
Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D Alcoholic beverages: No Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 945-4246
Weekend, Pages 38 on 08/18/2011