Dana’s Bar & Grill

• Date Visited: April 14, 2o17
• Location: Texaco Dr., Eau Claire
• Restaurant Type: Restaurant and Bar
• Fish Types Offered: baked or deep fried
• Fish Serving Sizes Offered: 2 piece meal, 3 piece, or lunch/dinner buffet
• Sides Offered: soup/salad bar, breadstick, and choice of side (cottage cheese, vegetables, pasta salad, baked potato (loaded for $1.50), sweet potato w/ maple butter, sweet potato fries, mashed potatoes, American fries, brew city fries, seasoned waffles fries, lyonnaise hash browns w/ onion, French fries, sour cream & chive fries, potato chips)
• Cost: about $10

Dana’s is a bit out of town, but there were still plenty of people dining around 5:30 when we arrived on Friday night. We were sat immediately by a hostess (there were seats available in the bar as well as in the dining room), and our waitress arrived quickly to get our drink order. We quickly had to decide between the buffet and the fish dinner, and though the buffet looked great (it had fish, chicken, shrimp, macaroni and cheese, dessert, and much more), we decided to stick with the basics and go with our usual fish dinners.

We ordered cheese curds and went to get a plate of salad at the salad bar. The curds arrived shortly after we had started our salads. They were Wisconsin white cheese curds with a heavy batter and weren’t cooked to be entirely melted inside. They still tasted pretty good as did our salads. Full of lots of salad ingredients including a variety of vegetables, eggs, and cheese, the highlight of the salad bar were the soft breadsticks. We could have eaten those all day. One thing we noticed was that Dana’s ranch dressing was very thick, almost solid, and hard to spread on the salad.

Our fish arrived just a few minutes later. The baked fish was a poor man’s lobster style fish served with melted hot butter. It had a lemon pepper seasoning, was flaky, but was not as hot as we would have liked. The deep fried fish had a light batter which was pretty good; it didn’t have a ton of flavor, so the batter wasn’t overwhelming but was decent. The waffle fries were not super seasoned but were battered and quite tasty. The brew city fries were also battered, though with a different batter than the waffle fries, were
skinny, and had a light crunch. We also tried a sweet potato; it was a half potato and was well cooked and tasty.

Dana’s has quite a bit of seating and was pretty busy around dinner time on Friday night. They also have a rather large menu, so it would be fun to try out some of the other items that they prepare.

 

out of 5

Playmakers Bar & Grill – Now Closed

• Date Visited: March 31, 2o17
• Location: Graham Ave., Eau Claire
• Restaurant Type: Bar
• Fish Types Offered: baked or deep fried
• Fish Serving Sizes Offered: 2 piece meals or all-you-can-eat
• Sides Offered: brew city fries or mashed potatoes, coleslaw
  • Side salad and soup available for an additional charge.
• Cost: about $10

Located in downtown Eau Claire, Playmakers was fairly busy at 5 o’clock on a Friday afternoon. We waited a few moments for a waitress at the bar and were told to grab a seat wherever we liked. Playmakers offered low-top seating, high-top seating as well as seats at the bar. There was a lower level as well as an upstairs with a few tables but which looked like they were used more during late night hours as they had pool tables and dart boards for patrons to use.

A waitress came to our table quickly to take our drink order. We ordered cheese curds, spicy cheese curds, and Bucky bites (deep-fried pretzel bites) as per the recommendation of the waitress. The appetizers came out quickly. The regular curds were yellow and had a heavy batter. The spicy curds were white cheese with a similar batter. They had a good kick, but neither curds seemed to be fresh. The curds were served with a runny, homemade ranch which was quite tasty. The Bucky bites came with a cheese sauce.

Our fish arrived shortly after. The deep fried fish had a medium dark and crunchy batter. The fish was flaky, and the batter was decent. The baked fish was coated in lemon pepper seasoning; it was
much too seasoned and smelled bad. We both agreed that the deep fried fish was fine, but the baked was inedible. The fries were a thick cut fry and were battered. The garlic mashed potatoes were homemade; both potato options were good. The coleslaw was heavy on the mayo and was a bit peppery and crunchy.

Overall, Playmakers’ other menu items might be better than what we ordered; however… it might be better to stick to Playmakers for drinks rather than food.

 

out of 5