Friday, May 21, 2010

Chain-o-rama: LJS Baja Fish Taco

You know what Indy needs? It needs a good fish taco. It needs a Rubios, too. Does anyone even know of a local place that serves a good fish taco?

Since first encountering a good fish taco about 10 years ago out west, I'm always pretty excited to see one on a menu. Around here, I've been typically pretty disappointed.
I'm a flour tortilla guy, preferring them over corn. My favorite fish taco features pico de gallo, cabbage, a spicy mayo-based sauce, and definitely a wedge of lime to crush over it. MMMmmmm. Baja Fresh used to have at least one local Indy location, but it now seems the closest location is Bloomington, and Chicago after that. Theirs weren't as good as Rubios, but were pretty decent.
Anyhow, I've noticed Long John Silver's advertising a Baja Fish Taco, so I had to stop in and try it.

First off, it is a really cheap snack. It is just $1 for the baja fish taco. But, as you can see, it is pretty much just one of the LJS fish fillets cut in half and put on a tortilla. So, if you really like the LJS batter, you'll like this well enough. The batter is just too thick, and doesn't seem to jive with my idea of a fish taco. The sauce, though, had a decent kick for a fast food sauce, so there is that. It had iceberg lettuce instead of cabbage. And, no tomatoes, no lime juice. So, it was really a poor facsimile of a baja fish taco. Ultimately, if you want a cheap meal, you could do a lot worse. It doesn't measure up to my idea of a baja fish taco at all though.

Bottom line: 1 belly rub (out of 5)

2 comments:

wibia said...

I would agree that this is an insult to a good fish taco. However, from LJS perspective, they need to have a $1 menu (everyone else does) and this is an interesting enough idea to grab your dollar and many others, so it seems to work for them. Plus it is an easy add on to a meal and people don’t expect a lot because….it is one dollar!! Same thing with McDonalds snack wraps, I think they are horrible…but consider how many people buy one with a meal as an add on…or… in the past the adult would maybe share their burger with the kid, but now they will just buy a snack wrap and share the fries.

Either way, cheap items bring people in that wouldn’t be there in the first place, and raise the check average for loyal customers. It is a win-win either way…unless you order 10 fish tacos and nothing else.

LJS is not very popular here….I am surprised that Captain D’s is still not in this market (I know they have a few stores in Southern IN.)

Indy Grub Review said...

Good point on the need for a dollar menu.... three of those would make for a decent little lunch (if not terribly healthy).....