lyc: I went to Twin Peaks for lunch today. It was the first time I'd ever been there. My review:
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I ordered the Fried Pickles as an appetizer and the Fish and Chips for the main. Ice water and coffee for the beverages.
The Fried Pickles at first were great, there had to be around 100 thinly sliced, breaded fried pickles on the platter. Eating one solo gave you a hot briny/vinegary taste of a dill pickle that was fun for a few pickles. If you dipped it into the accompanying it was even more pleasurable. It seemed as though the ranch was formulated especially to go with the pickle. It calmed the vinegar of the pickle and accented the dill flavor so that I was actually very pleased with the dish.
Then they changed. My fish and chips arrived soon and I began to concentrate on that. When I returned to the pickles, they had cooled and you didn't get the liquid of the oil and the pickle as much. You could more clearly taste the seasoning in the breading. And the breading was incredibly over seasoned. Without the initial heat of the frying process or ranch dip to hide behind, the seasoning tasted so that each pickles seemed like licking a salt packet.
I do like a pickle, so I'll give the Fried Pickles a 5/10. If you'd like to try them, bring a friend so you can get them finished while they are still hot and ask for an extra serving of ranch.
The fish and chips are listed on the online menu of the place as a specialty. You get five pieces of smallish cod, breaded. The cod itself was actually dandy. It had been fried just the right length of time to give it a perfect texture. The accompanying tartar also blended well with the fish so that I thought it had been designed specifically to work with the cod. It seemed boring when you dipped your fries into it, compared to the magical taste it had with the hot cod.
There was also a half lemon on the plate that had the beginnings of grill marks on the skin and pith but none on the fruit. I think it should have been grilled a touch longer, but the lemon juice also went well with the cod.
The fries however were unfortunately just boring thin cut straight fries. And the other sauce on the platter was ketchup, it tasted like well...ketchup. Bland, bland, bland, bland, bland on the chips.
My preference for fish and chips lends more to a fluffy tempura style batter instead of the southern style breading they used. I also would have liked three large pieces of cod rather than five small ones. Plus perfectly cooked steak fries or something even more exciting for the chips.
However, this is a sports bar and I'll grade it on the sports bar curve and not how I'd serve fish and chips if I had my own place. I'd give it a 6/10 which is low for something billed as a specialty.
Speaking of the sports bar-ness on the place, I sat facing eight big screens. Three had NCAA baseball on, one had horse racing on, one regrettably was replaying the 7-2 blowout that VGK laid on the Panthers, one had a replay of the Steelers-Rams Super Bowl from around 1980, one had some sort of x-games stuff, and the last one had cornhole. SERIOUSLY? There are enough advertisers out there with money to burn that cornhole makes its way onto TV?
The service was quite fine. I got the feeling my server knew her business when I initially spoke with her. She then told me that she might have another young lady tailing her as she served me since she was supposed to train her. If you go to a place, it is lucky to get one of the trainers to serve you as they obviously are good at their jobs.
Later I told her it was my first time there and I didn't know how generous the portions would be as a way of explaining why I'd like a to go box. They might be salty AF but I was taking my pickles with me.
After I'd paid my bill, she turned to walk away. She stopped and then said with genuine warmth that she hoped to see me again. I imagine in a place like that, servers must deal with a fair number of horses' butts. So it is always a good day when a pretty woman lets you know that you are not an asshole.
Given that, there is one more appetizer and two seafood dishes (salmon and fish tacos) on the menu that I would like to try. So I will visit again.
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