Review
A Google search for Dave's South Bay will eventually land you on their entry at Menu Pix. Menu Pix is pretty a cool site, and serves as a useful resource if you have never been somewhere before and want to see what they have to offer. In addition to pictures of menus, people have the ability to review the establishment, and add comments to support their review if they so desire. One such poster did desire apparently, and posted the following: "NOT FRIENDLY TO WHITE PEOPLE I DO NOT RECOMMEND" on Dave's page. Good grief, I thought. I am all for freedom of speech, but this is ridiculous and really unnecessary even if you perceive it to be true. After reading a comment like that I knew I couldn't simply "take that persons word for it," and decided to find out what was what for myself.
I arrived at "South Bay" around 5:30 figuring I'd be among the first diners of the evening - this turned out to be a slight miscalculation on my part. Dave's parking lot was packed, and the street options were not much better. I somehow finagled a spot on the crowded street, wormed past the smokers near the front door, and made my way to one of the few open bar stools once inside. Since I was fishin' solo, I wasted no time when Dave came over and gave him my full order. I passed on the walleye, bluegill and lake perch (at $11 a pop), instead opting for the $9 beer battered cod (which Dave claimed to be the most popular of the bunch). One Spotted Cow and 20 minutes later, he served it up, fresh from the fryer and as hot as can be.
The plate was piled high with a plethora a fried foods, led by a quartet of cod. The four substantial pieces held rank over the plate as their sheer volume dominated all comers. Even the bevy of fries was powerless against the awesomeness of the cod. Each piece was shrouded in Dave's beer batter, which didn't house a wealth of flavor, but was very well fried and not too thick. Good cod is usually greaseless and flaky, and while this cod lacked grease it also lacked texture. While it wasn't mushy, I wouldn't necessarily say it was flaky either; it was actually somewhere in between, but still yielded positive results when combined with the batter.
Doing the best they could to stack up to the cod was the generous pile of crispy matchstick fries. They fought long and they fought hard, but truth be told, could not stand up to the mighty portion of fish. They ran short somewhere around the third piece, but their effort and deliciousness will not be forgotten. The tartar also gave its all, but the Wilson's-looking blend could not tame the cod beast. While I did exhaust the full cup it was more a function of the amount of cod, than the delectability of the sauce. Although this South Bay sauce appeared to be a Wilson's clone, the taste told quite a different story. Its thick mayo base gave way to an odd relish twinge that simply overpowered the mix with an almost Kraft-like essence.
A side of slaw, and a hamburger bun-looking roll completed the meal, which at $9 turns out to be a heck of a value. Both the coleslaw and roll were appreciated, but quite average; at the least they upheld the Fish Fry ideals.
Overall, I feel very confident recommending this Fish Fry, and look forward to coming back to try some of Dave's other beer battered options. The fish, fries and tartar were all acceptable, while the slaw and bun did what they needed to do to complete the meal. As for as the anonymous claim that Dave's is not friendly the white people, I think we can dispel that rumor seeing as how 90% of the clientele was white, and they all seemed to be having a good old time whooping it up at South Bay. Dave turned out to be a nice guy and the kind of attentive owner who knows most of his patrons by name and takes pride in his establishment. He could have cared less whether you were white, black, yellow, or purple for that matter; all he was trying to do was satisfy his customers, and he definitely succeeded at that. When it comes to online reviews it can be difficult to know who to believe, but in this case you can take my word for it; Dave's South Bay does Fish Fry right.
I want to like the place. Truth be told, I actually think it's a pretty nice place, although the parking lot is always packed and the cars in it never seem to move. The adjacent street serves as overflow, but it can barely handle the volume. The place itself feels more like a diner than a bar, but it's pretty clean and well-lit so I at least feel like in going to leave unscathed. I also seem to have a habit of arriving at high-tide which perhaps gives the illusion that the place is much busier than it actually is.
I want to like the service. Even though it was busy I got a spot at the bar after being directed to it by the friendly waitress - it would become my cell. It took me a good five minutes but I eventually managed to hail Dave down from my corner roost and put in my order for fish. I know he took the order at that time, but I'll be damned if I know what he did with it.
I really want to like the service. As I waited for my fish I had a beer (Dave was good about re-filling those), and another, and another. Eventually it had been about 40 minutes, the crowd was thinning out, and the cooks were starting to clean things up since they didn't have any orders coming in. At this point Dave came back and asked what I had ordered. I was clearly forgotten, and while I saw them scramble to get it ready it took a total of 45 minutes before I had my fish. I was starving.
I want to like the food. Everything on the South Bay's Friday Fish list is beer battered. Yes, EVRYTHING. While beer batter works well on cod or haddock, it just isn't the same on the freshwater fin-sters, and the flavor of the thick batters masks the subtleties of the delicate fish. Last trip I had cod, and it worked fine, this time I tried the bluegill, annnnnd... not so much. The batter dominated the mild fish to the point where you couldn't even taste the flaky meat. The batter also had a smoky taste which led me to believe the fryer grease was none too fresh.
I really want to like the food. Besides the fish, everything else was a little quirky too. The fries (they were battered if you couldn't guess) were plentiful, but had the same burned taste as the fish. The slaw was tasty, but soupy on the bottom, and there was no bread - which I take issue with. The only item that wasn't weird was the thick tartar which mercifully masked some of the imperfections in the fish.
In a vacuum this Fish Fry might be recommendable. In reality, this wasn't a favorable experience. While the food itself was fine, it wasn't good enough to overshadow everything else and at this point I doubt I'll be back. In the end, no one cared whether I was there or not, least of all me.