Eats Beat: More than frying at Flying Fish

We like to argue over the best seafood restaurant.

But we forget sometimes about one with all the basics: Flying Fish.

The Lenten season is Flying Fish’s busiest, when the observant join the hungry for generous fried, grilled, garlic-butter or “snappy” seafood and chicken platters, salads and po-boys.

If you only go for a fried catfish basket, take a new look at the grilled and snappy menu, and ask about off-menu specials.

All locations now feature a grilled trout amandine (about $13), another step up for a menu that already offered whole snapper Veracruz and grilled, garlic-butter or snappy (spicy) snapper, salmon, trout, catfish or grouper.

A combination grilled or snappy platter ($18.99) offers any two fillets with grilled vegetables or one fillet and shrimp or oysters, lots of food with very little guilt.

Flying Fish’s fried menu is more familiar: catfish, shrimp, tilapia, grouper, crawfish, oysters, chicken or frog legs. Side dishes include jambalaya ($9.49) or grits-and-gumbo ($7.99).

Flying Fish is a Dallas-based company with five regional locations including 2913 Montgomery St., Fort Worth, and 300 E. Abram St., Arlington; flyingfishinthe.net.

Pizza to go

Downtown landmark Picchi Pacchi, a pizza bargain for 20 years on Main Street, will move next month to a new location at 411 W. Seventh St.

Owner Al Muric lost his current space for the remodeling of the Sinclair Building into a hotel. The new space is in the Neil P. Anderson Building next door to Planet Sub, but Muric will serve lunch only, foregoing the popular midnight pizza hours.

“The [apartment] traffic over there didn’t want the late-night traffic, but we’ll do the best we can at lunch,” Muric said.

Chicken-fried for the fam

That Billy’s Oak Acres BBQ chicken-fried steak is now also served family-style.

Pitmaster Billy Woodrich’s barbecue restaurant serves a choice of chicken-fried steak or chicken Wednesdays through Sundays for about $14 per person. The family-style version comes with green beans and a giant bowl of mashed potatoes.

Oak Acres also serves brisket tacos Tuesdays and pork chops Wednesdays. Woodrich continues work on a new location on Vacek Street near downtown.

Woodrich is one of several chefs joining in a chili cookoff March 6 at Dagwood’s Fire Grill Tap, a partial benefit for Cook Children’s. For more information, see celebchefchilicookoff.eventbrite.com.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Eats Beat: More than frying at Flying Fish."