Station Square Restaurant 
 Youngstown, Ohio        Date of Visit  09/03/10           http://station-square.com/

Looking to catch a quick bite coming into town for the weekend we went to Station Square on Belmont where I have previously had the fried fish on Fridays. Since I have only ever had a burger or the fish I thought I would try some Italian, they spell it Ristorante so… The space is really nice, if a little cramped inside with close set tables and booths. They have been open for a while so they must work pretty hard to maintain it. Our server was on top of things and even helped us move to a table as the booths here are not engineered for we the round. She had the menu down, got everything out hot and together and never let us empty our glasses.

Crisp Bread
 

The table starts with crunchy bread and even if it not the healthiest thing in the world I still appreciate real honest to God butter in those little foil wraps. Makes me think “I can’t believe it’s not butter in my fridge at home”, but there is a reason for that as well. Salads were fresh and arrived with a load of bleu cheese. My mom and bro got the fish, it’s why we go. I ordered the chicken parmesan and Steph ordered the chicken franchese. As has become our custom since starting this little project, I did not get the best thing on the table, but for a switch I didn’t order the worst. The chicken was over cooked and dry and had been poorly cleaned with lots of sinewy chewiness. The sauce serves more as lubricant than flavor enhancer but the pasta was done well. The chicken franchese, to me, was the saddest plate on the table. A sliced lemon atop the chicken belied the fact that the sauce contained no lemon and very little sherry wine. While the butter on the bread was stupendous, the pool of butter under the chicken made everything about the dish cloying and disappointingly flavorless. Splashes of a couple acids would have done wonders.

The fish, however, remains the reason to go. It is almost always done well, cooked to flaky perfection. It has a thick cornmeal crust which gives it a nice texture and a hint of sweet corn. The potato options are typically all solid and the tartar sauce is a thoughtful accompaniment to the haddock giving the fried fish a nice counterbalance. We will certainly be back, on Friday, eating fish.

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Friday Fish Fry