Outside The Media. Beyond the News. Live from Greensboro, NC.

Wait, he thinks Chinese people actually run all the "Chinese" restaurants??


Wow, it takes a lot to piss off Serendipitous. Congratulations.

As far as the more legitimate complaints: I didn't try the hush puppies, maybe I will next time. I got a menu when I went, I will check it against what I see here.

Liv is right on. It was more like what you get across the pond.

Sanjuro wrote:Wait, he thinks Chinese people actually run all the "Chinese" restaurants??

Don't tell him/her there's a bunch of motherfucking VC's running 'em too! Aw hell... they all look alike, right?

*wandering off, singing Colored Spade*

I expect you people to never to complain about me taking threads off-topic again.


Yes.... I said "you people"

BecauseHeLives wrote:I expect you people to never to complain about me taking threads off-topic again.


Yes.... I said "you people"

Thanks for still considering us "people."

As for the "off-topicness," it happens... but then we either start a new thread or get back on topic. Don't we get credit for mentioning food/restaurants in those posts?

Back on topic, I still have to get over there and check out the fish-n-chips for myself.

To Liv:

I clearly states I wantes the SMALL cole slaw and when I checked the receipt it said $1.50. There was no working anything out with the order. I told them what I wanted and they gave me the price. Which was CLEARLY different than what is posted here. The 2piece fish & fry says $5.99. It's actually $6.49. The hushpuppies say $1.15. They are actually $1.99. The cole slaw says .75small/1.5/large. Actually, there is only one option $1.50! Clearly a rip off and not worth my money. Won't be eating here again. Captain D's is way better than this.

To: angry bloggers

I meant what I said in regards to the Asians running the restaurant. Personally, I don't eat from Asian restaurants as it is a personal preference. When I walked in, I was two seconds from walking out when the cashier asked me if I placed a phone order. Since I didn't want to leave them hanging, I went ahead and purchased it anyway. It seems like many of you didn't get the point I was making, very unfortunate. If I am supposed to be eating "fish and chips" and it seems like the frying oil was used on multiple items, it's time to turn your back and head out. I don't want to be eating a piece of fish and it tastes like hush puppies, french fries, and fish ALL IN ONE! And for the record, yes I have had AUTHENTIC fish and chips. This comes nowhere close. It is sad to learn when one person gives constructive criticism on a restaurant they are immediately attacked. I guess everyone is supposed to LOVE this restaurant? Well, check this out, WAKE UP ! , because it's not the greatest.

Cheers.

Not attacking, just curious love.... I'm glad you've posted a counter-opinion, and perhaps they'll be able to make changes based on it.

Sorry my opinion misled you, I'm still very fond of the place. Technically It's quite a brilliant idea bringing the franchise to this area as it's such a "fish" & fried food area... It is, I realize much different then what's currently out there....

me wrote:To: angry bloggers

I meant what I said in regards to the Asians running the restaurant. Personally, I don't eat from Asian restaurants as it is a personal preference. When I walked in, I was two seconds from walking out when the cashier asked me if I placed a phone order. Since I didn't want to leave them hanging, I went ahead and purchased it anyway. It seems like many of you didn't get the point I was making, very unfortunate. If I am supposed to be eating "fish and chips" and it seems like the frying oil was used on multiple items, it's time to turn your back and head out. I don't want to be eating a piece of fish and it tastes like hush puppies, french fries, and fish ALL IN ONE! And for the record, yes I have had AUTHENTIC fish and chips. This comes nowhere close. It is sad to learn when one person gives constructive criticism on a restaurant they are immediately attacked. I guess everyone is supposed to LOVE this restaurant? Well, check this out, WAKE UP ! , because it's not the greatest.

Cheers.

Wow- so admitting to having an anti-Asian bias now passes for " constructive criticism" in these parts. If the food is bad; that's one thing. Hanging your bigotry on the clothesline for all to see is another matter entirely.

C. Alice wrote:

me wrote:To: angry bloggers

... It is sad to learn when one person gives constructive criticism on a restaurant they are immediately attacked.

Wow- so admitting to having an anti-Asian bias now passes for " constructive criticism" in these parts. If the food is bad; that's one thing. Hanging your bigotry on the clothesline for all to see is another matter entirely.

Thanks, C Alice. The race/ethnicity of whomever runs the establishment should not be factor in a food review.

me wrote:To: angry bloggers

Damn straight I'm angry. It's motherfucking ignorant sons o'bitches like you who keep prejudice, racism, bigotry alive and pass it to future generations.

me wrote:I meant what I said in regards to the Asians running the restaurant. Personally, I don't eat from Asian restaurants as it is a personal preference.

You say "personal preference." Tomato, tomahto... It is what it is even if you're not going to admit it, you stupidfuck.

me wrote:When I walked in, I was two seconds from walking out when the cashier asked me if I placed a phone order. Since I didn't want to leave them hanging, I went ahead and purchased it anyway.

Why not leave them hanging? If you changed your mind, you changed your mind. You didn't have to order anything. Are you a little pissed that those Asians got your money? Are you a little mad at yourself for not being able to walk away?

me wrote:It seems like many of you didn't get the point I was making, very unfortunate. If I am supposed to be eating "fish and chips" and it seems like the frying oil was used on multiple items, it's time to turn your back and head out. I don't want to be eating a piece of fish and it tastes like hush puppies, french fries, and fish ALL IN ONE!

Um, let's see... how is someone to know this without making a purchase? Also, do you put your food on sectioned plates? Greenbeans can't touch the potatoes?

me wrote:And for the record, yes I have had AUTHENTIC fish and chips.

You really should register on Greensboring and post as registered user. Liv will send you your "I've had AUTHENTIC fish and chips" button and bumper sticker.

me wrote:It is sad to learn when one person gives constructive criticism on a restaurant they are immediately attacked.

Not as sad as it is to know about your "personal preference."

me wrote:I guess everyone is supposed to LOVE this restaurant? Well, check this out, WAKE UP ! , because it's not the greatest.

Thanks for sharing your opinion... I'll be sure to come back and share my review after my first meal there. I sure hope I don't get any Asian cooties from it.

I would like to tell everyone how wonderful the food and service was at "Tugboats" tonight Nov. 17, 2008. The owners are wonderful people (US Citizens by the way) trying to please customers. The fish and chips tasted just like what I had in London and Scotland .... the only thing missing was the news wrap. Sam the owner gave us samples of the onion rings and prawns (shrimp) they were excellent!! The price was very reasonable for the amount and quality of the food. The owners wife said that everything is made fresh and battered there. Sam told us that he has ordered a machine to make homemade hushpuppies. I will eat here again and often! Please try it!!!

I heard that a new fish restaurant called the "Tug Boat" recently opened down Holden near I-85 interchange. Could that be the place?

lumieira wrote:I heard that a new fish restaurant called the "Tug Boat" recently opened down Holden near I-85 interchange. Could that be the place?

Yes, that would be it... It's on the corner of Holden and Vandalia....

neese4life wrote:I would like to tell everyone how wonderful the food and service was at "Tugboats" tonight Nov. 17, 2008. The owners are wonderful people (US Citizens by the way) trying to please customers. The fish and chips tasted just like what I had in London and Scotland .... the only thing missing was the news wrap. Sam the owner gave us samples of the onion rings and prawns (shrimp) they were excellent!! The price was very reasonable for the amount and quality of the food. The owners wife said that everything is made fresh and battered there. Sam told us that he has ordered a machine to make homemade hushpuppies. I will eat here again and often! Please try it!!!

I went back there on the 17th too! I ordered the onion rings and thought they were GREAT! I love the place, but my waist wont let me make too many repeat trips in a month.

I got my first Tugboat meal last night! This is just a quick post about the food... I owe y'all a better review about the whole experience when I have more time, so you're stuck with this until then...

I thoroughly enjoyed my fish and chips. I got the 2 piece and they were very well sized. After finishing the meal, I actually thought I might get a 3-piece next time. I even tried the onion rings to see what Sanj has been raving about. They had a great texture and flavor. On my next visit, I'll have to try some of the other items.

I'd love to see this little place succeed. Opening up something like this in the "Blah" economy is quite daring. Every night I've driven past they have had people packed in the door. That's a good sign.

Sanjuro wrote:I'd love to see this little place succeed. Opening up something like this in the "Blah" economy is quite daring. Every night I've driven past they have had people packed in the door. That's a good sign.

Yeah, they had a full waiting area (carryout orders) and a nice crowd in the dining area. BTW, i'm wondering if they originally planned on being a carryout only (wasn't that an earlier post?) but the adjacent storefront became available and they added the dining room. I dunno. It was just "a wondering".

I would guess that at least a third of Britain's chippies are run by ethnic Chinese. As a culinary skill, it's not difficult to acquire. Once you've negotiated the tricky question of oil vs lard, it's pretty much dip the fish in the batter, slice the potatoes, dump both into hot fat until cooked. Even the Welsh have worked out how to do it.

Hey is that some sort of bad Welsh joke???? Not funny...

They're slow on the uptake too.

Liv wrote:

lumieira wrote:I heard that a new fish restaurant called the "Tug Boat" recently opened down Holden near I-85 interchange. Could that be the place?

Yes, that would be it... It's on the corner of Holden and Vandalia....

Thanks for a more specific location. A co-worker mentioned the place, but he didn't remember exactly where it was. YUM!!

For future reference:

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I came here to find about Tugboats because I'm a British ex-pat who misses good fish and chips. Looks like the reviews here so far are good and I guess when we have time off next, I might well go out of my way and check it out.

A comment to "me": in my home village the longest running fish and chip shop is owned by a family from Hong Kong. And yes they do do excellent fish and chips. Ironically we had two fish-and-chip stores in our village of 15,000 at one point, both owned by people of Hahn ethnicity. One succeeded and is still doing well today, the other not so well at fish and chips, flipped the restaurant to Chinese food. Now it's an Indian takeaway.

As for frying multiple things in the same oil, that'd be correct for a UK fish and chip restaurant. However if Tugboats are selling hush puppies and they want to be authentic then they need to kick them off the menu. Far more authentic would be fried Milky Way bars. Maybe hush puppies have been put on to cater to the Libby Hill crowd...

I'll return here and give my review when I've been there. There's different "authentic" fish and chips, depending on where you go. Even Libby Hill is "authentic", it's just "authentic" to here.

As for the rest of this forum (this is my first post, and sorry, "me" got my goat) it looks a nice place!

mwooldri wrote:However if Tugboats are selling hush puppies and they want to be authentic then they need to kick them off the menu. Far more authentic would be fried Milky Way bars. Maybe hush puppies have been put on to cater to the Libby Hill crowd...

Oh how I miss all the Milky Way & Mars stuff over there... One of my favorite concoctions was the "Mars muffin" the week we were over there.....


Welcome to the site.....

As promised, I'd return here when I've been to Tugboat (my plural was wrong on my original post) and give you my opinion of the place. Well... the short version is: I'll come back there next time I'm in the mood for fish & chips.

My wife ordered the special "fish and shrimp and chips", I ordered "2 fish and chips", my son had the 3-piece mini-fish kids meal. The menu had Lumpia on it - my wife ordered a portion but never received it... but never got charged for it either. My wife also gave me a revelation: the place used to be a pizza parlour. The staff were quite friendly, they helped out wipe up a spill quite quickly... (only water though...) but about the food:

The fish - I was told it was cod - was great. The batter was perfect. Maybe the fish was a bit on the thin side but there was plenty of fish to eat! My son decided he didn't like the fish (despite him eating something very similar in England fish-wise) so ate just the chips, but then the guys at the restaurant came to his restaurant: they started handing out samples of hushpuppies. He liked them, my wife did too. I never cared for hushpuppies and declined the offer of the free sample though.

So is this authentic British fish and chips? No way. The fish is about as close as you can get though. The chips were way too thin, mushy peas were not on the menu, and there wasn't a choice of different fish that you would get in a traditional British fish and chip shop (though one fish and chip shop I frequented in Dundee had only one kind of fish on its menu: haddock... and yes they did deep fried mars bars). The owners (don't know if they own the individual restaurant or the whole franchise) didn't know what mushy peas were, so they haven't been exposed to may British fish&chip shops evidently.

But is it good? Yes! People go to a fish place mainly for the fish and they got that part spot on. Although the chips were thin by British standards, they were chunky by American ones, and were cooked well. Service was good. The one bad spot was missing the order but my wife was more than pleased with her fish, and having malt vinegar to dip her chips into (yes, strange she wants to dip her chips in the vinegar, rather than have the vinegar shook all over the chips but she likes it like that). Sometimes you got to alter the offering to fit the local audience. I'm betting that because they were handing out samples of hushpuppies that their restaurants out in California don't usually have them on the menu, and they put them on the menu here because hushpuppies are well, quite a southern food item that goes with fish and people going to a fish restaurant around here would expect it to be on the menu. So a restaurant, billing itself as London Style, but tailored to the local audience might just well work!

Mark.

Liv wrote:

mwooldri wrote:However if Tugboats are selling hush puppies and they want to be authentic then they need to kick them off the menu. Far more authentic would be fried Milky Way bars. Maybe hush puppies have been put on to cater to the Libby Hill crowd...

Oh how I miss all the Milky Way & Mars stuff over there... One of my favorite concoctions was the "Mars muffin" the week we were over there.....


Welcome to the site.....

They had fried milky ways at the last fair here in Greensboro. I thought it was quite odd.