Live from Peoria, Illinois, it’s Saturday Night starring this week’s host, The Fish House with special guests, Kristina, Paul and Justin. Plus a photo montage of The Women Behind The Bar at The Fish House! Now please welcome this week’s host, The Fish House!
This year St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Saturday and this is that Saturday night, right here and right now. I’m not a big fan of St. Patrick’s Day. Green isn’t one of my favorite colors and I have a rather large aversion to watching Irish people drink themselves into an Irish drunken stupor. The whole St. Patrick’s Day scene eventually dissolves into equal parts of loud shouting, people drunkenly stumbling into each other, fighting, slobber, throw-up, over the top emotional close-talking and clouds of whiskey/beer-stench breath in the air. It's an overall horrifying hoo-ha that only someone who’s next tumbler of whiskey will send them into a severe bout of alcohol poisoning could see any sense in wanting to be a part of. So I’ve decided to have an anti-St. Patrick’s Day dinner here at The Fish House. I called and spoke to Paul the bartender and he assured me there was no St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans planned and that sounded perfect to me! Let’s go in and hopefully there will be no wearing of the green and/or throwing up of the dinner in here tonight!
When I come here, my favorite place to dine is here in the bar/lounge room. It’s one of the darkest bars in town and I love it in here. There’s Paul, who’s been bartending here for years down at the end of the bar.
While Paul is known as the featured bartender here, ever since I’ve been coming here and doing blog posts on my wonderful meals here at The Fish House, there’s been a revolving door of beautiful bartenders that have been Paul’s sidekicks behind the bar. This is Kristina, who’s Paul’s current pretty and friendly co-bartender serving up an ice-cold bottle of Budweiser. I thought I’d put up a photo montage of some of the women that we’ve met behind the bar at The Fish House through the last five years, so here it is!
The Beautiful Women Behind The Bar At The Fish House!
Here they are with Paul, from the top, it’s Emily, Sam, Penny and Caitlin! And if you’re like me, you’re wondering if Paul wears the same shirt and tie every night, or does he have seven of those in his closet? I’ll have to ask on my next visit!
And here’s Paul with his current beautiful co-bartender, Kristina!
The Fish House has been in business since 1976 and it’s a classic Peoria restaurant and lounge. This is a picture of the second-generation owner, Justin from a previous post here on MBIP. I don’t have a picture of Justin from this evening because I threw down a challenge to Justin to cook me up an anti-St. Patrick’s Day dinner that would be the opposite of corned beef and cabbage and he’s back in the kitchen preparing this meal. Did I mention that I hate corned beef and cabbage? Well I do. Corned beef tastes like roast beef that’s been regurgitated by an 87-year-old alcoholic Irishmen who’s just blown out his dentures in his latest drunken throw-up adventure. The cabbage that is the side dish makes me think of lettuce that’s been marinating in a pot of steamed, slimy, alcohol-laced slobber from the mouth of someone named O'Shaughnessy. While Justin prepares this anti-St. Patrick’s Day meal, let’s take a little look around in here.
This gentleman seated next to me at the bar said he preferred not to have his picture taken, but here’s an action shot of the back of him watching the March Madness basketball thingy.
Here’s the lounge area behind the bar and my favorite corner table back there. I keep threatening to have dinner at that table and I think that will be the subject of my next blog post in here. Stay tuned for that!
Here’s the dining room which isn’t too crowded due to the fact that I’m in here fairly close to closing time. I love all of the wood and the lowly-lit atmosphere in here. It's so warm and comfortable in here.
Meanwhile, back at the bar umbrella drinks have magically arrived and my place has been set for my anti-St. Patrick’s Day dinner!
We’ll start off with a couple of freshly baked dinner rolls. These are made in-house every day and they are not only the best dinner rolls in Peoria, but they’re the best I’ve ever had. They’re served warm, slightly crunchy on the outside and inside they’re fluffy, light and flaky. I don’t even put butter on them because they’re perfect just the way they are!
The salad arrived, but since this is an anti-St. Patrick’s day dinner, I’ve got to take the green out of it. Okay, that’s more like it and Paul adds some pepper to it.
And now it’s time for the main course of this anti-St. Patrick’s Day dinner! This is what Justin prepared for my opposite corned beef and cabbage meal and it looks fantastic! It’s Norwegian Arctic Cod prepared Thai style. Paul told me that it’s slices of cod baked with a Thai glaze and served on a bed of seasoned Thai noodles. It sounds delicious and intriguing, let’s dig in!
Wow, this was so tasty and delicious! You can read more about it in the review below, but even if you don’t normally eat fish, you should try this meal! It’s a special that will only be on the menu for about a month due to the seasonal fish and I highly recommend you go and try it out!
After I finished the meal, I surrendered the MBIP Camera to Paul to get a couple behind the bar shots of the taps and the nice selection of whiskey back there. Then he took a shot of me happily far away from this year’s drunken and sloppy St. Patrick’s Day mess. Thanks to Paul, Kristina and Justin for a great anti-St. Patrick’s Day meal and celebration! We’ll see you all tomorrow!
The meal started off with the wonderful home-baked dinner rolls that can only be found at The Fish House. They’re the best in town and I could make a meal out of those and be happy, but there was more to come! The salad was great, but it was green, so we won’t talk about that right now, let’s move on to the main course!
I asked Justin to prepare me a meal that was the opposite of corned beef and cabbage and he hit it out of the park with this main course, which is a nightly special for about the next month. It was generous slices of Norwegian Arctic Cod prepared Thai style. The cod is baked with a Thai glaze and served on a bed of seasoned Thai noodles. The cod was so tender and it melts in your mouth. The Thai glaze added a tasty and unique flavor to the fish and it was topped with grilled peppers. The Thai-styled noodles were slightly seasoned and added a nice and satisfying starchiness to the meal.
SN Rating
Three and three quarters Galloping Gourmets—This was such a unique and delicious meal, you won’t find it at any other restaurant in Peoria and it’s only going to be on the menu for about a month, so I suggest you high-tail it over to The Fish House and give it a try!
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4919 N. University Street
Peoria
309-691-9358
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Related Posts: Saturday Night @ Germantown Grille, PVII Restaurant and The Silver Bullet In East Peoria.