If by chance you’ve been asking yourself or your mate this question, well, you’re not the only one. So we went on an all-you-can-eat fish fry affirmation expedition, starting with the most likely venues: those four long time Rocky Point Bars, Grills and Restaurants that pretty much started the bottomless fried fish platter, some more than a decade ago.
And if you’re a fathomless fried fish fan you’re going to be pleased to know the tradition is alive and well in our little slice of paradise! Not only that, but the original four restaurants are all still offering the Friday specials: Pink Cadillac, frying fish on Friday’s for 12 years now; Black Dog Bar and Grill (and now Sports Book and Casino) still serving since 10 years ago; Rosy’s Restaurant; and Ramon’s Restaurant(s) make up the tenured foursome.
Rosy’s Restaurant is a popular breakfast spot for visiting Americans and is in a convenient location to be discovered on No Reelección Street on the right hand side coming from Sandy Beach and before the corner where you would turn to go to the Super Ley grocery store on Constitution. A huge banner hangs from the top of her one story yellow building that advertises their Friday All You Can Eat Fish Fry available from 4:00PM to 8:00PM for $8.50 USD, but don’t pay any attention to that, she says, because she had to change the time and hasn’t figured out how to change the figures without replacing the whole banner. The fish fry is actually served from 4:00PM until 7:00PM and the cost is $8.50 USD. One of the main reasons most of us ex-pats love Mexico is for the culture that encourages a realistic approach to Cervantino-like romanticism while maintaining the patience to accept obstacles while figuring out how to overcome them.
Pink Cadillac Bar & Grill, is the cleverly decorated Mirador landmark built 20 years ago by personable resident David Burns who still owns and operates and hangs out there every day of the week, except Tuesdays when he closes for the day. The fried flounder at Pink Cadillac will cost you $9.75 USD and you can start eating as early as 3:00PM each Friday and continue until 9:00PM, all the while enjoying the 50’s decor throughout the restaurant and separate lounge areas including antique gasoline pumps, black and white tile floors, red Naugahyde seats and fountain stools in the restaurant part, a colorful patio mural, and in the authentic 50’s lounge includes electronic dart boards and dozens of dated dirt track racing photos from David’s racing days. The whole place is smothered in wall-mounted flat screen TVs near the ceiling. The lounge walls boast red Naugahyde padding. (let’s not go anywhere with that tidbit of info, o.k.?)
Black Dog Bar and Grill, the historic and legendary venue on Blvd Fremont that has been serving all-you-can-eat fried fish meals on Fridays for over 10 years, and you can still partake in their own recipe every Friday from noon until midnight for $8.00 USD. If you’ve never been to the Black Dog—or the Pink Cadillac for that matter—well, you haven’t experienced the true ex-pat side of our sea side community yet. And if you haven’t been to the Black Dog in the last year or so, you’re in for a surprise. The old piano bar and restaurant is now a casino and sports book facility lined wall to wall to wall with one-arm bandits of the real, modern slot machine type, one hundred of them, with an equal number in the software bull pen, that vociferously share your winning cheers with their own style of musical excitement for you in the form of bells, whistles, horns, organ scales even the sounds of various large African animals. Point is, there’s a lot to do while filling your face with fried fish at the Black Dog on Fridays.
La Cocina de Ramón (Ramon’s Kitchen) and Ramón’s at the Sonoran Sea are owned by, you guessed it, Ramón, more specifically, Ramón Ramos and his wife, Lupita. If there were a title called “Father of the ‘All you can eat’ fish platter” it would have to be Ramón Ramos, since he introduced All You Can Eat Fish and Chips to Rocky Point way back in 1992 and the original recipe is still the most popular item on his menu. You don’t have to wait until a Friday for fish at Ramón’s; he serves his famous all- you-can-eat fish and chips every day in both his restaurants from Noon until 8:30PM for $10.00 USD. Ramón is closed Tuesdays.
If you’ve had an All You Can Eat Fish Fry platter somewhere other than the four covered in this article, please let us know and we’ll get the updated info and share it with our readers. Even if you’ve just heard about another restaurant serving a Friday Fish Fry, let us know in the comments below; we’ll check it out and report the results in a future blog. Thank you in advance for sharing.
This article is brought to you by the Sonoran Resorts Sales Group, Jim Ringquist, Director of Sales and Marketing.