Dallas Food Alert: Flying Fish and a Surprise Workout
I've had my sea legs from the age of 3. I love pretty much any kind of seafood you stick in front of me, save for puffer fish (I'm not trying to accidentally die, folks).
A majority of my immediately family, on the other hand, isn't about the 'fishy' smell and taste that comes with it - I think it's silly - if my gumbo/po boy/whatever tastes like fish, that means there is most likely actual fish in there instead of fillers, but you can't win 'em all. But you can trick your aunt into eating shark by breading and deep frying it and saying it's chicken nuggets.
Small victories, my friends :)
Onto the beauty of this restaurant, Flying Fish, over off of Irving Boulevard in Dallas, Texas that I've been WANTING TO TRY FOR AGES but no one ever wanted to go. Jokes on them now, cause it was awesome, they have beer specials on Mondays, punch cards to get a free meal, and a loyalty program! And you can send in your fishing photos to them to possibly get your catch on the Liar's Wall so everyone knows you weren't lying about actually catching that sailfish *cough* Dad *cough*
With over 9 different locations in the US, and 6 of those being in the DFW-ish area, getting over to one to stuff your face full of some damn good eats isn't all that hard. And speaking of damn good eats:
You can bet your butt I wiped the side of that bowl with my finger. No.Shame.
Check that delicious bowl of gumbo goodness! I've had my share of amazing, great, and downright awful gumbo all over the State of Texas (and California that one time, but we won't bring up that terrible moment. Gross is an understatement). I'm not an authority by any means, but I can tell when I'm eating a bowl that has its roots in someones recipe book, and good gravy, Flying Fish's seafood gumbo is up there fighting the fight. My mother and I practically paid tug-o-war over this bowl because it was so good (instead of just buying another bowl, like normal, sane people).
"I'm ready for my close up, Mister Director"
This bowl of awesome has celery, okra, shrimp, onions, and a few other things I can't remember (nothing weird, don't worry) topped off with the usual helping of white rice. The only thing that would make this any better is a giant hunk of french bread to dip into it and mop up any leftovers after the massacre (Dramatic or truthful? Who knows!)
Looks can be deceiving - There was a bunch of this packed into that shiny, metal bowl
I'm not a huge fan of cold shrimp, especially shrimp cocktail. No, ma'am, not about it. But guess what, you're in the clear, because this shrimp on the shrimp salad comes out warm (not hot, you'd wilt the greens, dummy) on your salad. It may be a little weird for some people, but my Tia loved every bite of this - seriously, she ate all of it. She hardly ever does that.
My plate! Check that tartar and cocktail sauce action going on.
I opted for the 1 catfish and 4 fried shrimps combo. This basket came with two hushpuppies and fries. Nothing flashy, but all kinds of tasty, especially those shrimps. I ended up sharing this with my mom and Tia since I stuffed myself on that bowl of gumbo, but this can easily be taken down by one person.
Behold, the 2nd place winner of the evening, the Grilled Catfish (gumbo always wins. sorry, catfish.)
An order of grilled catfish can come one of three ways: traditional, snappy, or with garlic butter - in short, I have no idea how this was actually ordered since I didn't get it, but it smelled fricken great (no sharing on this one. Rude.) On the side you'll get grilled squash and zucchini, white rice, and borracho beans.
I threw of/stole for my gumbo the top part of the right side so you could see inside.
My moms order of the shrimp po boy was your standard fried shrimp load you'll get at a lot of good places, and that's a compliment. The one bite I did get had some great flavor, was crunchy, and the bread was obviously good because I stole half of it.
The actual chicken in this kids boat is missing. Clearly I wasn't fast enough taking my photos before they got their hands on it.
You have a few options for kids meals - kids burger, 1 catfish filet, 2 chicken strips, 2 jumbo shrimp, or a chicken sandwich - all with a side of fries and hushpuppies. This order came with the chicken strip option, and the kids loved it. So much so that this boat is just straight up fries and hushpuppies because they didn't want to wait for my photo. Murp.
Overall, I loved this place. Considering how long I've been wanting to come here I'm a little miffed at myself for not going sooner. If I play my cards right, I may even be going there for lunch today (and paying for myself, this isn't an ad).
Story time: I may be out of shape, but turns out I'm still faster than a 1 and 3 year old.
This place does have a patio, but it's not young children friendly since it's not fenced in or anything. And, as I found out, 1 year olds like to run. Fast. Very fast. So fast that I had to sprint after him while his mom was trying to chase him down and eventually scooping him up before he ran all the way down turtle creek. This next part may have been trespassing, so I won't get into too many details, but nearby there is a giant grassy area away from the main road traffic, so after eating all of that good food earlier, I decided to be the cool cousin and play 'you're it'. Because I'm stupid. And was wearing pants in the Texas summer heat. Double stupid. But they had fun, I got to exercise and not feel so bad about eating a bunch of fried food, and they fell asleep in the car on the way to their house. Wins all round!