Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below.

Amy Cavanaugh: Welcome to Dish From Chicago Magazine. I’m Amy Cavanaugh, Chicago magazine’s dining editor.

John Kessler: And I’m John Kessler, Chicago magazine’s dining critic.

Amy: And today we’re joined by writer Titus Ruscitti, who is here to chat about his new story on the best fish sandwiches in the city. We’ll also dive into John’s latest review of Nadu in Lincoln Park, and we’ll also share the best things we’ve eaten lately, which includes a Hawaiian chicken dish in Highwood.

Amy: In our March issue, we have a story on the four best fried fish sandwiches in town, written by Titus Ruscitti, who’s joined us today on the podcast. We first decided to run the story timed to Lent, when a lot of people are seeking out fish options. But it also seems like our fried fish sandwich scene has been growing lately. Titus, have you been seeing that at all?

Titus Ruscitti: Yeah, there’s definitely fish sandwiches starting to appear on menus at, you know, the type of places that you need a reservation for.

Amy: So more, so more along the fancy lines than the, you know, kind of more casual ones.

Titus: Yeah, you’ve definitely seen them in in bars, you know, like cocktail bars, a little more there of course too. But any other spots that have lunch menus, I feel like they’re starting to put a fish sandwich on the menu, especially this time of the year with Lent coming up. 

Amy: All right, cool. So we tasked you with finding your four favorites in town. What do you look for in a good fish sandwich?

Titus: I mean, honestly, in Chicago, I just look for a fish sandwich because they’re so rare. But it is, it is nice to to find one, you know, like, like spots that specify the fish. I feel like that’s a good sign and that they’re trying to tell you, you know, they’re probably getting the fish as is, and not in, like, a little patty from a freezer or whatever.

Amy: Oh, that’s a good point. Yeah, you’re right. You see so many that don’t even tell you, like, what kind of fish it is.

Titus: Yeah, exactly. So you know, any place that tells you, that’s a good start, at least the way I the way I see it. Um, as far as the the style, I mean, I’m just looking for for something either traditional or unique, because there’s so many ways to go, kind of like a hamburger,  right?

Amy: And then John and I were talking before, oh, you know, fish sandwiches can be breaded or they can be battered. Do you have a

Titus: That’s, that’s a tough call. I mean, honestly, I like both styles, so I think it just comes down to for me, anyways, maybe the other, the other toppings, but even it’s usually just lettuce, tomato, and tartar sauce, maybe a little hot sauce. But honestly, I don’t have, I don’t have a preference. I like it both ways. But with cod, I think, you know, the way to go is battered. And if they are using, like catfish or like lake fish, like perch or something, I think bread is a good way to go.

John: I’m always looking for that McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish experience that was so revolutionary when I was 6 years old.

Amy: Guys, I ate one last night. 

John: Did you really? 

Amy: I was at an airport last night, and I was thinking about this, and I got a Filet-O-Fish and I hadn’t had one in years. 

John: How was it?

Amy: Really delicious.

John: I bet! Although even when I was 6 years old, I would open it up and pull the American cheese off.

Titus: Yeah, I think the cheese is kind of like what makes it a Filet-O-Fish, not a lot of spots serve their sandwiches with cheese, but McDonald’s, it’s standard. So I, whenever I have a fish sandwich with cheese, it kind of reminds me of a Filet-O-Fish.

Amy: Yeah, all right. Well, let’s count down your top four picks. So in the No. 4 spot you have Dock’s.

Titus: Yeah, Dock’s being a South Side kind of, a South Side institution, I forget exactly how many locations they have, although they do also have one, for this, When I went to it recently, I went to the one kind of by UIC. So it’s kind of on the West Side, but Dock’s is just a classic fish sandwich. You know, when you see it in that it’s they have a long cornmeal breaded whiting filets served on a long wheat bun. So it’s kind of like their their signature, but it’s just it all, Dock’s always hits the spot. It’s a fair price, and you know, it’s always going to be on the menu, so I thought it would be a good spot to include.

Amy: All right, great. And at No. 3, you have Obélix.

Titus: Yeah, Obélix, you know, from the same people as Le Bouchon, who also has a fish sandwich. But I thought the one at Obélix, you, maybe just a stop up due to the toppings, which, they’re kind of French in style. I know they had the dill pickles on there, the brioche bun, little fennel slaw. And then it also comes with their excellent fries, which is always a big plus.

Amy: All right, I’m gonna have to get that one. And then number—

Titus: Lunch time only, on the Obélix.

Amy: Okay, that’s good to know. No. 2 is Best Intentions.

Titus: Yeah, Best Intentions is, I guess, the one I would recommend to anybody seeking out the flavors of the Filet-O-Fish. It’s basically like a little updated version, down to like, you know, when you take it out, that little bit of steam that comes out of the, of the packaging, when you, when they, when you open it. But it’s very similar to the Filet-O-Fish, down to the slice of cheese, it just has a little bit, you know, the tartar sauce has little miso in it, so it’s just a little bit elevated. But price-wise, it’s, and taste-wise, it’s, it’s very similar to the Filet-O-Fish. Fridays only.

Amy: And then No. 1 is Omarcito’s.

Titus: Yeah. Omarcito’s, I had to put at No. 1, because it’s by far the most unique of the fish sandwiches. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes crunch, as it starts with a cornmeal-breaded catfish filet that goes into a jibarito. You can get it on a bun, on a regular French roll too, but I highly recommend getting it as a jibarito, which would be the fried plantains, so that adds crunch. And then it also has a salsa criolla, which is like an Ecuadorian relish of sorts, with little tangy, crunchy red onions and peppers and stuff like that in there. So as far as Omarcito’s goes, it’s the most unique. And then it’s, Omar himself is just a great dude. He’s kind of like the new Doug Sohn of Chicago, in that he just makes every last customer feel like they’re a long time regular. So hard to, hard to put that anywhere but No. 1, it’s just a, it’s this, it’s it’s become kind of a Chicago sandwich, you know, itself.

Amy: Love it. John, I know you’re a fan of Omarcito’s. Have you had this one?

John: Yeah, no, it is a banger. It’s great. It’s just there’s so much crunch, you know, it’s not like a big piece of fish, but many, many pieces of fish that you were just constantly trying to shove into your mouth. So highly, highly recommend it.

Amy: Any other fish fries that you want to recommend, or anything else to add?

Titus: The list was only four. So you can also find a really good beer-battered fish sandwich at Parsons. Red Hot Ranch has a very good fish sandwich at their Ashland location. That’s kind of, you know, this one’s the style of the Filet-O-Fish and it comes with their excellent house-cut fries. And another unique one is Nhu Lan Bakery has the banh mi cha ca with the pieces of fried fish in their excellent French bread with all the traditional banh mi toppings. Those were some other ones I would have liked to include, but, you know, you can’t, you can’t have them all, but they’re all excellent choices.

Amy: Oh man, I did not know Nhu Lan had that one, but I absolutely love them, so gonna have to go try that.

Amy: John, for for your review and the March issue, you headed to Nadu in Lincoln Park. Can you tell us about that spot?

John: Yeah, so it is a restaurant in the growing empire, owned by Sujan Sarkar of Indiana. He also has Swadesi the coffee shop, and he also owns Sifr, the Middle Eastern restaurant in River North. At Nadu, what they’re doing is very interesting. He brought on a chef from India named Sanchit Sahu, and together they developed a menu that is kind of a best hit— I don’t even call it best hits. It’s kind of a tour of India. There are recipes that are from all over India from all different kinds of communities, and they’re just trying to bring them here and show people what they taste like. And the restaurant has been open, I guess, for about eight months now. I really think it’s come along incredibly nicely. Every time I’ve gone, it’s gotten better.

Amy: Yeah, it’s so interesting because, you know, a tour of India, a tour of any, you know, single country, could go wrong in so many ways, like it could be, you know, too overly simple. They could be trying to do way too many different things in one spot. But it really sounds like the chefs here have a handle on so many different regional dishes. And, you know, it really seems like a great place to go if you’re looking to expand beyond, you know, chicken tikka masala and sag paneer. 

John: Absolutely. And the chef, Sanchit Sahu, is from Bangalore, and that’s, you know, in southwestern India. And so he’s very, very good at Southern Indian food. One thing that was really funny: When I went to review it, was that I had just gotten back from India, like a week before, and we went there with our daughter and her then-boyfriend, now-fiance — Woo hoo. 

Amy: Oh, congratulations. 

John: Thank you so much. We’re so excited. He’s just a wonderful person. It was really great to go to Mumbai and meet his folks and hang out with them a bit. But anyhow, so we went to Mumbai, and our daughter’s fiance showed us around and took us to a bunch of his favorite restaurants in the city. One of them was this place called Britannia & Company, which is a Parsi restaurant, and it serves kind of, you know, there’s a big sign in front says it serves exotic Iranian and Parsi food. The Parsis, you know, arrived in India from Iran many centuries ago. They have very, you know, specific culture and religion. And then they also have a distinctive style of cooking. There is a way that you make Parsi-style keema, which is that ground meat curry usually made with goat, which is called mutton in India. But there’s a way that you make the keema with little fried potato straws on top of it and a certain spice mixture. And when I tried the version at Nadu, I said, Oh, my God, this is exactly the version of Britannia. And so I brought that up with Sanchit when I talked to him, and he’s like, Dude, you’re kidding me. That’s exactly the recipe we based it on. So it was a very funny moment.

Amy: That is funny, and it also, you know, really just speaks to, you know, how these single dishes when you’re traveling can influence so much, and how you always see— that dish will be how you saw that, you know, that dish when you had it at Britannia, right?

John: Exactly. So that’s a very long-winded way of saying, definitely get the keema if you go there. It is great. Some other dishes I really love: He does this one dish called tangra chili fish, which is Indo-Chinese cooking, that kind of cooking that developed in the Chinatown in Kolkata. And the seasoning on it is just exactly Indian-Chinese food, which is sort of like American-Chinese food, but spicy, but spicy in a really particular way. He also makes a fantastic version of benne masala dosa. Benne being a kind of cultured butter that the dosa is cooked in. And there are a bunch of other great dishes there is that, that crab dish? Have you had that?

Amy: I haven’t, but that’s probably at the top of my list the next time I go. 

John: Yeah, you got to order in advance, but it’s like a whole Dungeness crab made in a Kerala-style curry gravy with a lot of black pepper in it. The fish arrives hacked up into pieces covered in gravy with gloves for you to put on and eat with your fingers and then appam to, you know, little puffy flatbreads to scoop up the sauce. Major, major, yumbo.

Amy: Yeah, it’s always good when the gloves come out. 

John: Right, when the gloves come out, you know you are going to be digging into something delish. 

Amy: All right. Any any other last tips for dining here?

John: It’s got a lot of people there. If you go early, you can eat at the bar, but think ahead about getting a reservation. It’s a hard place to walk in on. The cocktails are kind of fun, but for me, I like wine or beers, the way I’d go here.

Amy: John, what’s the best thing you ate lately? 

John: Every time I go to Creepies, I always find a new dish that I love. And the last time I went, something I’d seen on the menu and never really wanted to order because it sounds boring, but it’s the oeuf mayonnaise. You know, hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise, but they’re not exactly hard boiled. They’re cooked so they’re still jammy in the center, and the mayonnaise comes with espelette pepper in it, and it was just like slurppy, rich, delicious, great. So, loved that. I understand that you’re wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a lei and a grass skirt, because you went to Highwood.

Amy: I did. I went to Da Local Boy, which is a Hawaiian spot that opened, I think about a year ago. It made an appearance in our Best of the Suburbs feature, Where to Eat and Drink in the Suburbs. But I finally made it there myself, and I had a really good meal. I liked the huli-huli chicken. That’s like a Hawaiian teriyaki chicken, comes out with two thighs that are grilled, and it’s really flavorful and tasty. Comes with white rice and mac salad, which is a Hawaiian classic. Yeah, the place was packed. You know, there was this whole group from the Army base nearby, so it really attracting, like, a local crowd. Which is awesome to see. So a lot of stuff that sounded great on that menu. And then I started getting some DMs after I posted a photo on Instagram of people telling me not to miss the shrimp. So that is all for next time. Yeah. 

John: Oh, that’s great. I can’t wait to get out there.