Living next to the ocean brings a lot of benefits: fresh air, great sunsets and lots of fish. Our small fishing fleet, based at Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, delivers a wide variety of fresh fish and crabs. Rarely do you actually have to ask if the fish is “fresh.” Fish & Chips, of course, is another matter altogether. You can take fresh fish and produce a soggy, greasy plate of fish and french fries.
One thing you’ll learn about MendocinoFun.com is that we have established a goal of never saying anything negative about a restaurant or any subject we write about. If we don’t like something, we just won’t write about it.
So, my choices for fish and chips are personal. It’s what I like. The winner’s are:
1. Patterson’s Pub - Mendocino Village: the fish is coated with Japanese Panko Bread Crumbs and fried. The result is incredibly grease-free and crispy. The pub is noisy (hey, it’s a pub), usually jammed with locals and tourists — a popular place to watch sporting events with LCD TV’s scattered around the room. I suggest you get a pint of draft ale (Boont Amber is my favorite), an order of fish and chips and just eat. You can talk after dinner.
2. Cap’n Flint’s - Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg: fish and chips are always good (good old-fashioned traditional batter coating) and the price is around $10. Dinner comes with a view of the Noyo Bridge and boats coming into the harbor.
