Eadie's Fish House
 Canton, Ohio        Date of Visit  03/22/13        http://www.eadiesfishhouse.com/ 

We had been hearing about his place for a while and found ourselves in Canton so, Bob’s your Uncle. They apparently have good burgers but the name had put us in a nautical protein sort of mood. If the name hadn’t started us in that direction the interior certainly would have. It’s almost like walking into a place in the Conch Republic, if it weren’t snowing outside I would have expected to hear surf crashing.
 

The Sign Sat In Front Of A Full Parking Lot
 

They are still packed an hour after lunch, by a pretty versatile crowd. We sat and spent some time reading the widely varied messages scrawled on dollar bills which are pinned all over the walls between the island tchotchkies. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and we were met by an ept (I’m pretty sure that’s not a word…but it should be…inept needs an antonym) and friendly server. We tried a couple of the soups, some fishy dinners and a slice of pie…almost all of which took us back to the beach.

The soups were a clam chowder and lobster bisque. Both were thick as paste but weren’t as stodgy as I had expected them to be once the spoon was loaded. In both cases there was an even balance of flavor. The chowder had distinct participants of tender clams, potatoes, vegetables, cream, a splash of butter, herbs…each one lending an even hand to the bowl. There wasn’t much lobster in the bisque but they had either used enough base or wrung enough flavor out of the shells to stand out in the thick broth. Overall, the soups were pretty good.
 

I initially ordered the perch special but they were out of perch. Steph was getting some of the beer battered fish…what looks different? Gator. Since having the tasty nuggets at Charlie’s in Tampa I was looking forward to trying them again. They aren’t bad at Eadie’s, but they are nowhere near as good. Cut into thin strips and coated in cornmeal before frying, they turn out much drier and chewier than the little nuggets from Fla. They do plop big bottles of sauces on the table…they knew the goop meister was coming…which help moderate some of the lack of moisture. The fries were fresh cut and pretty standard overall.
 

Steph ordered the fish and chicken fingers with an upgrade from the fries to the onion rings. It was a split decision. The chicken was tender and moist. The fish just wasn’t. Funny, the worst thing we had at the fish house was far and away the fish. Even a blast from the gallon bottle of tartar sauce didn’t help much. Maybe we should have tried the burger. The rings had a batter that seemed to slake off much like a bad sunburn (another ode to the beach?) and tasted pretty good but were also fried to the point where the onion itself took on a leathery sort of texture. They were better than the fish but did suffer some from the over frying.

We finished the whole mess with a slice of Key lime pie. Graham cracker crust held a close to frozen custard which was not as tart and a little sweeter than most of the slices we have partaken close to the water but was a bright and sweet treat to finish a pretty fair meal. I love the place, the people seem genuine, I don’t know if we got things they way they always are or the regular fry guy was off surfing somewhere, but we will likely return to try some other things.