This is an exciting day, I always love starting a new food tour and we’ve done plenty of food tours.
Our very first food tour happened 12 years ago on tomorrow’s date. The first food tour was Twenty Tenderloins In Twenty Weeks and the first stop was Midway Duck Inn on September 10, 2013. Twelve years ago! That’s crazy!
Well, here we go again and we’ll be sampling appetizers for the rest of this year!
I thought I’d start at a classic Peoria restaurant that has some of my favorite appetizers, The Fish House! I live about two minutes from The Fish House, so I don’t even have to drive, which means I can have more than one beer!
Let’s go and download the first apps of this new food tour!
I told you it was a quick walk to The Fish House from the MBIP World Headquarters! Here we are and there’s The Fish House in all its glory!
Let’s go in and start week number one of the MBIP appetizer tour!
I love the bar area in here, it’s always nice and dark and there’s a couple empty chairs, let’s snag one and settle in for this appetizing evening!
There’s long-time Fish House bartender, Paul, serving up the first beer of the evening! Always great to see his smiling face and catch up with him.
As I started to scan the menu looking for the appetizer section, Kathy who was seated at the end of the bar told me to order the potato chips and dip. I had no idea this was an offering and Paul confirmed that it’s a secret gem of The Fish House. They make the chips fresh here along with homemade dip, but you have to know about it and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of this!
Thanks to Kathy for letting me know and Kathy told me her son owns not one, but two bars in nearby, Havana, Illinois. The two bars are Babes on Plum and Stag Tap. Babes has a full dinner menu, so be looking forward to a Saturday night dinner there soon, stay tuned!
Thanks to Kathy for all this fun information!
There’s a dining area in the bar right behind the bar and it’s now all lit up! Wow, very sparkly in here! I love it!
That ship and The Bombay Crab sign have been hanging here in the bar for as long as I can remember! Of course, I have trouble remembering last week, so I guess it’s not that big of a deal!
There’s the doorway to the main dining room and I stepped inside and snapped a photo of the expansive dining area in The Fish House.
Meanwhile, back at the bar, bartender Logan has joined Paul and we now have dueling bartenders on duty! Nice!
And just like magic, here’s our trio of appetizers for this maiden voyage of the MBIP appetizer tour! Let’s dig in!
I started off with an obvious choice, the shrimp cocktail.
A classic appetizer and The Fish House shrimp never disappoints! They’re jumbo shrimp, juicy and the cocktail sauce is the perfect zingy compliment to them!
Next up is an appetizer that you can only find at The Fish House: The Crab Turnover.
This is a puff pastry filled with lump crab meat, Boursin cheese, spinach, herbs and the pastry is topped off with a roasted tomato sauce.
This a tasty and delicious appetizer that can only be found at The Fish House!
I saved the potato chips for last and these are such a tasty treat! They are fried fresh in-house, salted and seasoned to perfection and the homemade onion dip compliments the crispy chips perfectly!
This is a non-menu secret item at The Fish House, but it’s not so secret anymore!
Thanks to Kathy for telling me about this secret, non-menu appetizer item! I feel like I’m in a special club now!
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Appetizer Rating
This was a fabulous start to the MBIP appetizer tour!
We had a classic appetizer in the shrimp cocktail, a one-of-a-kind appetizer in the crab turnovers and a secret menu appetizer with the homemade potato chips and dip! What a fantastic and tasty trio of appetizers!
I thought I’d use a deviled egg for the rating chart, because the deviled egg is a classic appetizer, but you don’t see it offered very much. I’m making a rule here, that whenever deviled eggs are offered, we’ll have to try them!
The Fish House gets a high rating of 3.5 deviled eggs out of four for this scrumptious trio of appetizers!
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4919 N. University Street
Peoria
309-691-9358
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Related Poss: Palate Cleanser @: The Ice Cream Shack.