Monday, March 5, 2012

West Catholic: The beer was better than the meal.

If you're fishing for a good Friday night Lenten dinner in Grand Rapids, cast your line somewhere other than West Catholic High School. As lovers of all things fish and fried, we're not normally inclined to turn our noses up at a fish and chips dinner, but this one was really a disappointment.

The wait for food was pretty short, due to their 2 line buffet system, and we were excited because this one looked good on paper. The first disappointment was finding out that West Catholic does not offer baked Lake Perch, only fried. They do offer baked potatoes or fries, homemade coleslaw, rolls, deserts, and cheese pizza for non-fish-eaters.

The baked potato was good, but the fries were a bland soggy mess. Store-bought dinner rolls are the same no matter where you go, and the coleslaw was fine. The fish itself was firm and had a good texture, but was completely ruined by a tasteless batter. All in all the entire meal was bland and unexciting. And at $9 a plate, with no seconds (this is not an all-you-can eat fish fry, not that we would have wanted any more) this was an overpriced sad excuse for a Grand Rapids fish fry. Most of the people at out table didn't even finish their dinner, and even though we had a high stack of condiment wrappers (West Catholic only offers prepackaged condiments, a wasteful practice) we were less than satisfied.

We brought Brewery Vivant Solitude Abby Style Ale to accompany the meal, so at least we had something good to enjoy. I am glad we were able to support the school, but next time I'll just write a donation check and go eat somewhere else.











 

West Catholic High School
1801 Bristol Ave. NW,
Grand Rapids, MI 49504 Time: 4:30-7:30 PM
The dinners include:
Lake Perch, home-made coleslaw, bread, dessert and beverage. Cheese pizza available.
Price:
Adult Meal $9; Seniors & students $7' Children $5; Children 5 and under are free.
Wait: 5-10 Minutes
Parking: Large parking lot
Take-out: Available
Tables: Long cafeteria style


Held in the cafeteria

Proceeds benefit West Catholic Athletic Boosters

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Jerk People,

You made my son cry after reading your review. He worked very hard to cook your meal and even added special flavors that he borrowed from his favorite celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse. He just wanted to share his flair for cooking while raising some funds for his wrestling team. They just want a decent wood floor in their gym and not have to suffer in squalor like public schools. Maybe your yuppy tastes are better suited for PF Changs or some snooty gastro bistro. To everyone else, you know where you can find an honest, home coooked piece of pearch with a pinch of "bang" to kick it up a notch.

Unknown said...

Dear anonymous, thank you for your comment. We obviously had no intentions of personally offending any individuals with our review. The only reason we point out negative things is with the hope that they will improve. Wouldn't your son's wrestling team benefit more from a fish fry with a great reputation that can draw in people from other parishes or cities?

Anonymous said...

You guys are sad. Going around reviewing charity fish frys? They do it to raise money, not to compete with one another. This isn’t a restaurant, where quality and competition drives sales. It’s people who want to support the athletics of these schools. If you really want good fish, go down to Fat Mans and pay $16 a pound for perch and enjoy it. What do you expect for $9? It’s already all you can eat. So go pick up a couple 6 packs, go to Fat Mans, and go home and play XBOX or D&D like you normally do on Friday nights.

Unknown said...

Thank you for the tip, Fat Mans sounds fantastic, and I'm sure we'll check it out. We enjoy going around to the fish frys during lent, and find that most of them are just as good as any restaurant. We hope this blog serves as a resource to those unfamiliar with a specific church or organization to know what to expect.

duty3284 said...

Methinks Anonymous protesteth too much. Why not take it as constructive criticism and improve not only your products, but also your profits? P.S. Your son would do well to learn to accept criticism as a part of life ...