With there only being so many Fridays and too many fish frys around Cincinnati, one needs to assemble a good schedule during Lent to make the most of what’s available!

Here’s my pictorial tour around Cincinnati sampling a standard menu of fish sandwich, fries and slaw or mac.

Luckily, keeping a passport the last couple of years has been great for jogging my memory of the places I’ve been and what I enjoyed about each stop.

St. Vincent Ferrer (Kenwood) March 2017 $8 for the dinner and since they have one of the best menus, I included it. Side note: in 2016 one of their volunteers invited me to their fish fry, unfortunately the schedule never worked out. It’s my grade school friend’s parrish and her husband works the fryers, so I was happy I finally made it in 2017.

FOE #2289 (Batavia) This is my parents’ favorite fry and for $8 we get a big portion of fish, fries, slaw, mac and cheese, and a dessert. We if we have leftovers, my dad offers to finish them off on Saturday.

St. Francis Seraph at Moerlein Taproom (OTR) I picked this one because I thought a fish fry at a taproom what could go wrong? Bland mac and cheese that didn’t have cheese, but since it seemed homemade maybe someone just messed it up that week. $5 for beer, $6 for a fish sandwich, fries and mac n cheese, $2 for almond joy dessert.

Guardian Angels (Mt. Washington) Their sign said fried pickles and I was sold! $9.50 for a fish sandwich, crinkle fries, and pickles is kinda of steep in the fish fry world. Also, they had one of the longest payment systems and the use of one cash register really slowed down the operation.

St. Louis (Owensville) This was my second year at this fry and the price for a fish sandwich on a Blue Oven bun, fries, hush puppies, cookies and lemonade went up one dollar to $9.

St. Louis (Owensville OH) March 2015 I really enjoyed this meal and maybe it was because they offer a Blue Oven Bakery bun or because hush puppies were included, but it was a nice sampling of food with lemonade and dessert included for $8 in 2015.

St. Bart’s (Finnytown) March 2015 $6 fish sandwich with two sides so I carb loaded. The end of the night meant two desserts for $1 and half-price Krimmer’s Italianette cheese pizza.

Our Lord Christ the King (Mt. Lookout) March 2015 $10 for cod on a bun and all the sides – fruit, chowder, fries, cole slaw (ew), mac and cheese (meh). Despite the large menu, this meal was a general disappointment because of the unnecessarily long line. I never figured out what the hold up was and can only assume these volunteer organizers have never been to another well-oiled fish fry.

Nativity (Pleasant Ridge) In 2014 $3 Madtree beers was highlight to compliment a fish sandwich on a bun and mac and cheese. This is a well-run fish fry where the people in the parking lot are frying the fish, which is passed through a window to the kitchen and served.

I always say a big draw of the fish fry is the people you met, like this fella who told us he once played Santa and a girl died on his lap. Now seriously, if you have a fish fry story that tops that, I need to hear it.

St. Catherine (Ft. Thomas) March 2014 $7 for a fish sandwich, fries, slaw and cookie. The beer was by donation.

Immaculate Heart of Mary (Burlington KY) March 2013 Cod on rye, fries and homemade mac and cheese and great tartar sauce. They’re known for the grilled cheese cod sandwich, but I didn’t try it. I lived on the wild side and got a Mt. Dew.

Old St Mary (OTR) March 2013 The Friday of Bockfest, Old St. Mary hosts a fish fry from a tent on the parade route. There was limited seating indoors and no beer served. We attended Latin Mass afterward.

Knights of Columbus (Ludlow KY) February 2013 There was a sizable line and limited seating, as in our group had to divide and conquer. But we met a nice guy with a pitcher of Bud Light who shared with everyone! My fish was huge and served on white or rye with fries and slaw. Plenty of $1 desserts.

St. James (White Oak) March 2012 fish sandwich on rye, crinkle fries and applesauce for $6.50 with great tartar sauce.

St. Francis de Sales (Walnut Hills) March 2012 Large cod sandwich on rye with homemade delicious mac and cheese and slaw for $8. No beer is offered, but soda was only $0.75.

Immaculate Heart of Mary (Anderson Township Ohio) March 2012 $8 fish dinner with fries, mac and cheese, cole slaw. $3 beer. It was this fish fry that I learned about the churches having to file for liquor license to serve beer so each fish fry, night of their festival, bingo, men’s night, etc requires a liquor license, but each church can only get so many per year. Or something generally speaking.

Mary Queen of Heaven (Erlanger KY) February 2012 Fish sandwich with delicious battered fries for $7.75 and $2 beer.

I wrote a whole post on Mary Queen of Heaven when we kicked off #fffcincy Fish Fry Friday Cincinnati.