I'm kind of embarrassed that I grew up in Spring Hill, and have lived here most of my life...and it's taken me this long to try this place. I've driven past this little shack probably a hundred times, and probably mocked it half of those times...boy do I feel stupid. This is the bargain food joint you hope you can find in every city you might travel to...and it's been here the whole time, right under my nose.
We went here as a group of 9 for lunch on Mother's Day with my grandmother, mother, sister, girlfriend, three small children, and my brother-in-law. It's a tiny little joint, and was rather busy, but somehow we managed to walk in and squeeze our group into two tables. By the way, they don't have high chairs here for infants, but we worked it out.
They've got a house sweet green tea here that is rather tasty...most of the group enjoyed that, but I opted for what was a great beer selection in comparison to other Spring Hill offerings. Most notably, they had three different Southern Tier options, I ordered the Double Milk Stout, which was priced well at $5 for being their highest abv offering. They also had a few different Magic Hat options, Old Elephant Foot from TBBC, and a few belgian options, there was probably a dozen or so draft beers, pretty amazing for this obscure little spot.
We started off by sharing the fish dip appetizer. This stuff was absolutely addictive. Not sure what kind of fish is used, but it certainly tastes like smoked mullet and it was delicious. Served with simple saltine-esque crackers, but we devoured every bit of it. I ordered the crispy fish sandwich. I've heard this called a grouper sandwich in the past, but on the menu it didn't specify what kind it was, maybe due to difficulty getting grouper during certain seasons. On this day, it certainly tasted like grouper and given it's flavor, size, and freshness, the only other things it could have been are redfish or cobia. This hardly qualifies as a "sandwich" other than the fact that it comes with a bun, tomato, lettuce, and tartar sauce. It's more like a massive fillet with a bun on the side. Seriously you could have made three acceptable sized sandwiches with this fillet. The fish is coated in some sort of almond/breading mixture, fried perfectly and is delicious. I'm not quite sure how I finished it. It's an absurd portion in a great way. The 5-bean salad on the side was also delicious. I also tried my girlfriend's blackened fish tacos, and wow, they were fantastic. Perfectly blackened and bursting with flavor. They come in three per order and they're good sized tacos, she only finished two. My grandmother ordered the fish/crab cake combo, the fish portion of this meal is the same giant fillet that came on my sandwich. The crab cake was delicious and much more crabby than cakey. I also tried the mac n cheese which was a generous portion and delicious, more garlicky than cheesy though. Everyone was happy with their meals and everyone other than myself brought food home.
As far as the atmosphere, it's a little quirky, there's an awkward mannequin right in the middle of the restaurant, and there's interesting pieces hanging on all the walls. A little out there, but it was enjoyable. The service was great, I actually thought they were over-staffed with three servers in a place that seats no more than 25, but it was a pleasant surprise and we received just the right amount of attention from the staff.
Most importantly, I don't think there's a regular menu offering that costs more than $9. I really have no idea how they're able to serve monstrous portions of fresh seafood for such a low price, nor do I really care how they do it, as long as they keep it up. I spent years ignoring this place, but it will be a regular stop from now on.
