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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Long
John Silver's I have a friend who claims her Weight Watchers coach approved her for Long John Silvers because "the food is so greasy it goes right through you and takes even more with it." Yet I am forbidden to take her to lunch there by her roommate because "it just doesn't agree with her and we all suffer in the end." Which I think is what Weight Watchers was saying... Coming from the Pacific Northwest, I like seafood. Living in a city with a motto like "Salmon Capital of the World", seafood was not hard to come by. Cast off a rock and catch one. Drop a crab pot. I had friends who fished daily so they could trade said fish to the Japanese lumber boats for Japanese cigarettes and Coca Cola (long skinny cans, tastes like Pepsi.) Seafood? Not a problem. So I move to the Midwest, where the best seafood is flash-frozen and sold for anywhere from $4 to $12 a pound at Super Target. Restaurant-wise, you're pretty much limited to Red Lobster (unless you're lucky...and if you are, it's probably ridiculously pricey). Then there's the fast-food seafood, of which there's only one real true national name...Long John Silvers. (I suppose Captain D's could argue, but they'd lose.) Long John Silvers debuted in 1969 with franchising beginning a year later. For a long time they were owned by Jerrico, whose history includes developing Fazoli's. They're currently owned by Yum!, the Taco Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut company, who ended up with LJS when they purchased Yorkshire Global Restaurants, largely for their other concept, A&W. But word is Yum! wants to significantly increase the presence of LJS after taking time to realize what they had with the chain. Long John Silvers epitomizes every fast food seafood chain that has ever come down the pike. You have a choice of fried battered fish, or grilled fish. In either case, it's a generic white fish, paired in combos with fries and/or cole slaw. Don't like fish? Have a chicken plank. It's battered in the same stuff as the fish, I believe. It's close, anyway. I occasionally get a craving for the chicken planks. Is this as good as it gets? Unfortunately. One significant difference about Long John Silver's over the competitors...Long John Silver's doesn't necessarily cook to order. You can actually pay for your food and occasionally have it handed to you immediately. This can be bad. This can be gross. LJS fish is barely passable freshly fried. Sitting awhile? Ewwww. LJS does have two signature items that people really go for...Hush Puppies (round bread thingies that I don't like at all) and random pieces of leftover fish/chicken batter that I have heard referred to as "scrunchies". I DO like those. I usually just order individual fish and chicken pieces, which seems to result in excessive scrunchies. This is awesome. Actually, my favorite Long John Silver's is an A&W combo unit. There, you can substitute cheese curds on the combo. For some reason, A&W has some incredible cheese curds. And the fish and chicken are better there too for some reason. It's pricey, it's greasy. No more so than the rest, I guess. Click here to return to tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption |
