Skip to main contentWhen you hear the words "fish and chips," most likely a pub in London comes to mind, or maybe a north-country alehouse nestled in the Yorkshire Dales. But America's Midwest also thrives on fried fish, especially in the Scandinavian reaches of upper Minnesota and North Dakota, where Fargo winters demand putting on the fat. Two Midwesterners, Dana Born and Greg Boyce, visualized recreating the fish fries of their childhood here in Portland, and then opened a neighborhood tavern to make it be. Imagine catfish brought in from a hole in the ice and sent directly to the sizzle, and you have the idea. Well, Corbett Fish House's seafood is flash-frozen, but it's as close as you can get out here to the real thing.
The fat police in our superegos cry out against too much frying, but C.F.H. tries to neutralize the protests with high-quality canola oil filtered several times daily and a light dusting of rice flour, which forces the oil to drip off the fish sort of like water does when you Scotchgard a raincoat.
The place is strictly informal and inhabited by people who appreciate the low prices and friendly--though somewhat unconcerned--service. The kitsch netting-and-clam-shells décor of some fish houses here is replaced with detailed charts of river and bay soundings. Photos of fisherman with their catch, a few rods, a Green Bay Packers pennant, and a Brett Favre Drive sign complete the homage.
Appetizers are called "Bait." You can get a decent plate of calamari ($5.95); the complex structure of squid causes the oil to coat very lightly. Fried bay scallops ($7.95) fare less well: The nuggets are overly breaded and the batter tends to mask the meat. It's nice to see steamers ($9.95) on the menu--a generous heaping of small but nutty bivalves bathed in garlic broth--though as an East Coast kid I miss the Atlantic littlenecks and the brininess that brews in Long Island waters.
Fried pike ($11.95 and $15.95) proves to be the house specialty--it's a firm, white-fleshed item, sweet-tasting and with a low fat content somewhat offsetting the oil. Walleye pike is actually a perch, and sports fisherman, especially those patient souls who sit on stools atop the frozen lakes of Wisconsin, report that those fish are moody, temperamental and very tricky to land. James Beard reports that the pike "is a fierce and voracious fish, even devouring small waterfowl and mammals." Yikes!
I like the chile-fried catfish ($7.95, $9.95), that underrated animal. Six crisp filets--the size of irregularly shaped, gnarled and pitted golf balls--are dipped in a brilliant hot sauce and fried, which seals in flavor and keeps the center tender and creamy. The ordinary tartar sauce is nothing special, but the jalapeno tartar adds an extra hit of heat, and the fry technique permits the flesh to retain its integrity without being overpowered by the peppers. The fried oysters ($8.95, $10.95) are plump numbers from Willapa Bay and, like most of the fish, benefit from an accompaniment of sweet-potato fries, which are crisp and sweetly intense, unlike the regular ones, which tend toward sogginess. The wasabi-laced slaw is decent, but I'd stay away from the bowl of peas, frozen and swimming in butter. Devotion to indigenous conventions is not always a virtue. One of the best items on the menu is the catfish sandwich ($5.95), a great lunch choice; the burger bun wonderfully accommodates the sharp heat of the fillet.
If you want your fish broiled, C.F.H. will oblige, but with some disrelish, even disavowing full responsibility--though for what exactly they don't say. In a sense, they're right: The fried does taste better. Deep-frying fish can be a risky proposition, but Corbett Fish House does it better than most clam shacks: The fish is neither overcooked nor greasy, nor does it resemble sawdust, the other danger. Just as the restaurant charmingly stays within "The Guidelines of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sustainable Seafood List," if you control yourself you might sensibly stay within the obesity guidelines of the National Institute of Health.
5901 SW Corbett Ave., 246- 4434 11:30 am-10 pm Monday- Friday, noon-10 pm Saturday, noon- 8 pm Sunday. Credit cards accepted. Children welcome. $ Inexpensive.
Chile-fried catfish (entree and sandwich), fried walleye, sweet potato fries
Friendly, neighborhood-tavern atmosphere
WWeek 2015