madisonFishFry.com

Fish Type: Cod Price: $8.95

Overall, I would not recommend this fish fry.

Fish Score: Fair
French Fry Score: Good
Tartar Score: Fair
Bread Score: Excellent
Miscellaneous Score: Good

Comment: The end of October is upon us and we had plans to go to do some Halloween related activities near Cottage Grove. Unfortunately, these activates were to take place outside and it happened to be pouring rain so we had to put these plans on hold. Regardless, we still had to get Fish Fry and since we had planned to meet some friends in Cottage Grove we decided to have dinner at the Black Bear Inn.

The Black Bear Inn is actually kind of a neat place. It has a nice big bar and a good sized dining room that has a sort of Northwood’s cabin feel. We arrived at 7:30 and had no problem getting seated immediately even though we had a semi large group of five. We got a round of drinks, looked over the menu and got the special relayed to us by the waitress.

The Friday Night Fish Fry consists of either thee or six pieces of beer battered cod. The six piece will run you eleven bucks while the three piece is only slightly cheaper coming in at $9. I went for the six piece because I was fairly hungry, but it turned out the three piece would have sufficed. The fish was okay, but I would not say I enjoyed it. The beer batter was dark, firm and a little too crispy. It tasted okay but didn’t really leave me wanting more. I am not a huge fan of beer battered fish in general and this stuff did nothing to dissuade me. The cod itself was better, somewhat flaky but a little too greasy.

The French fries that accompanied the fish were good but not great. They were fairly standard, straight cut potatoes with no real character. They were also not very hot which is always a bit of a let down. The tartar sauce had a good consistency but was a little too sweet for my tastes. Instead of coleslaw we got a soup/salad bar option and I went for the Clam Chowder, which was decent but unremarkable. In addition we got a nice sampler-style basket of breads which were all warm and tasty; this basket may have been the highlight of the dinner.

Overall this Fish Fry was just not quite good enough to recommend. Everything was just a step below where you would want it to be except for our waitress who was pleasant and attentive and did a very nice job. Regardless, good service can’t make up for a subpar Fish Fry. I don’t think we will be back to the Black Bear for fish any time soon.

320 W. Cottage Grove Rd
Cottage Grove, WI 53527
(608) 839-5222