Farmer Boys Fish & Chips - Cheap Eats!

The Kentucky Derby cleaned me out and I spent over $100 bucks on that fabulous sushi dinner (see prior review) last night. Although I was hungry, I was feeling especially cheap tonight. Where could we go tonight and eat tasty food and spend little money? Ahhhh, Farmer Boys for Fish & Chips!

There are 3 ways you can get Fish at Farmer Boys. #1 In a sandwich #2 Fish & Chips only #3 Fish and Chips Complete Dinner. Here is the trick. Order the Fish & Chips DINNER and it will feed 2 people. Its a ton of food! You get 4 pieces of fish, and an obscene amount of fries, 2 huge onion rings, toast, and a salad or soup. With a large drink (that Mrs. Dog and I shared), the whole meal was about 9 bucks. For 2! The other trick is to have them give you "regular fries" instead of the "upgraded" steak fries you get only with the dinner. They are not as good as they have some sort of coating on them and some kind of seasoning. The regular bright yellow fries at these places rock!

We got the salad with a creamy Italian dressing. Nothing special. Not bad. Kind of what you would get if you ordered a salad at a cafeteria. Its on a large plate (actually platter) so its easy to satisfy 2 people. You can go up to the condiment counter and get those hot banana peppers for free and eat those too with your salad. I love those!

The onion rings are OK. A little too corn mealy. I much prefer the battered ones better. Onions were tender and juicy though on the inside. Probably because they were so big. Too often they get dried out at many places.

The toast was buttered on both sides. It was like biting into a toasted sponge full of melted butter. There was so much butter in this thing. We did not care for it.

The fish is awesome. Beer battered and crispy. Light in texture and very crunchy at first. It got a little soggy after a while because we drenched it with malt vinegar. The fish they use is pollock. The only thing that could make the fish better is if they used cod. I don't even know why that would be. I just know that cod tastes awesome. But if I didn't know it was Pollock, I would have thought this was cod. If I didn't tell you, YOU would think its cod. I think cod would have been slightly firmer. Anyway, the fish was juicy, firm, and mild. You get 4 huge pieces with the dinner! The tartar sauce is good too. I am not a tartar sauce connoisseur. I only can recognize it when its BAD, and this sauce was not bad and very tasty. This is seriously some of the best Fish & Chips available in Orange County and its so convenient and the price can't be beat. I love it when you find great food at places that don't specialize in the dish you are after. Farmer boys is not a British Pub or anything like that. The fries were awesome too. Light and pure. No funky coating. Just the right amount of salt.

The employees would come by on their own and offer to refill our drinks. They could tell right off the bat I was being a cheapskate and sharing a drink with Mrs. Dog. They could care less. They just wanted to make sure we were happy. And happy and full we were!

Who would have guessed that the long shot at the Kentucky Derby paid $102 on a $2.00 bet and that the the $2.00 Exacta paid over $9,000! If I had picked the horses better you would not know about this great meal.

There are numerous Farmer Boys across Southern California. We ate at the one on the corner of 17th St and Tustin Ave in Santa Ana

Before we left the manager gave us these coupons that do not have an expiration date. Next time we can get the meal for $5.99 which is about a 2 dollar saving and a 3 egg complete breakfast for $3.99. You gotta love this place!