Las Vegas, NV – The Original Fulton Fish Frye (New York, New York)

Restaurant: The Original Fulton Fish Fry
Cuisine: Fast Food/American/Seafood
Last visited: January 23, 2011
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada (New York, New York)
Address: 3790 Las Vegas Blvd S
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4
Service: n/a (fast food/pay at cashier)
Ambiance: n/a (New York, New York food court)
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Located in food court
• Fresh fish
• Lightly battered
• Popular for fish/chicken
• Cheap eats/budget friendly
• Big portions
• Made upon order
• Casual/quick
• Open late

**Recommendations: Fulton’s Fish & Chips, Chicken (Planks) & Chips

Despite my rather “ritzy” culinary adventures at Nove Italiano and Bouchon, my Vegas dining experience had actually started off at a rough start. Or so I thought! The Original Fulton Fish Frye was not on my original dining itinerary. It was actually a default choice and we were all starving and tired of walking around. The original plan was to find Serendipity, which we assumed would be located in New York, New York. But after making the trek down we realized it was back at Caesar’s Palace. At this point the majority of the group was ready to settle for just about anything.

There weren’t many exciting dining options at New York, New York, and Il Fornaio is a chain restaurant I had already tried in San Diego (see my post for it here), so we decided to split up and just hit the New York, New York food court. Initially I totally snubbed The Original Fulton Fish Frye. I actually headed across from it to Broadway Burger Bar & Grill for an actual restaurant style burger. Long story short, I ended up being disappointed by this overpriced $11 burger (with no side) and impressed with these bang for your buck fish & chips.

I’m actually really happy to write this post, because Vegas is not always a budget friendly choice when it comes to dining. At the same time cheap food is not always good food. It’s hard to find the best of both worlds without going off the strip, but I think I found it here. I also hear that Senor Frogs in Treasure Island is another casual dining restaurant that can satisfy both needs. You can check with your hotel concierge for Senor Frogs location.

Anyway not only was The Original Fulton Fish Frye a great find, but it was huge portions, filling, affordable and the majority of it was good quality. If you stick to ordering the right items you’ll be pleasantly surprised like I was.

I ordered the Family Meal Deal: Four Battered Cod, Four Chicken Planks, Pop Corn Shrimp, Hush Puppies, Seasoned Fries & Cole Slaw $16.95, and a New England clam chowder for 3 people. This order could have easily fed 4+ adults. The portions were huge, it wasn’t as greasy as I expected and the fish was fresh. If you’re looking for inexpensive options, kid-friendly food, or late night munchies, then I would recommend this place as a quick and casual find in New York, New York.

On the table:

Family Meal Deal

• Four Battered Cod, Four Chicken Planks, Pop Corn Shrimp, Hush Puppies, Seasoned Fries & Cole Slaw $16.95
• Add a large beverage and cole slaw $2.50

**Fulton’s Fish & Chips – 5/6

• Fresh Cod Fillets & Chips ($7.50 if ordered separately)
• For fish and chips, this place was great!
• It was huge strips of fresh fish and I was reminded of Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant in White Rock, BC.
• The cod and batter was well seasoned and the batter was light, thin and crispy.
• Despite what I’ve heard, mine was actually not greasy (for deep fried fish) and very juicy and well flavoured.
• Tartar sauce: The tartar sauce was almost like a creamy tangy salad dressing. It was heavy on the relish and lemon and it almost needed to be heavier on the mayo. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but the fish was great.

**Chicken Planks – 5/6

• Beer battered chicken planks & seasoned fries ($6.75 if ordered separately)
• How unexpected that the chicken planks would be a hit at a fish n’ chips place! I was so impressed with them!
• The chicken was super tender and soft and I thought it was deep fried halibut at first. It wasn’t fishy tasting though.
• It was well seasoned white meat chicken breast, or fillets, and not dry at all, but just incredibly tenderized.
• These chicken “planks” or strips were also crispy with a light salty batter that was similar to the fish batter.

Hush Puppies – 3/6

• I’m indifferent because now I’m confused to what a real hush puppy should taste like. I’ve had them before, but not like this.
• The texture threw me off because I was expecting more of a corn bread flavour and texture, but this was more like a croquette.
• It was more like a ball of soft dough with a crispy breadcrumb and cornmeal batter on the outside.
• The inside was a somewhat of a creamy pureed mixture of onions, powdered Parmesan cheese, cornmeal, milk and white pepper (that’s my guess at least).
• It was savoury and slightly cheesy and I thought it was almost cream cheese and then there was a bit of heat, but they’re not spicy.
• The flavour was actually quite tasty and savoury, but the semi creamy soft centre was unexpected and I thought they didn’t cook them all the way through at first.

Seasoned Fries – 3/6

• The fries are rather thick and crinkle cut. They taste like a cross between Ruffles potato chips and fries.
• It was almost like a rustic homemade version of Ruffles chips made with starchy Russet potatos.
• They were very crispy, salted, quite tasty and not your standard fries.
• They’re the kind of fries that go well with tartar sauce, but not so much with malted vinegar.

Garlic Crusted Popcorn Shrimp – 1/6

• Cocktail & Tartar sauces ($6.50 if ordered separately)
• I wasn’t a fan of these. The shrimps were likely frozen and very heavily battered. It was almost all batter.
• I could definitely taste the garlic powder sprinkled on top and I didn’t know that was what they meant by “garlic crusted”.
• Cocktail sauce: It was way too heavy on the ketchup with very little jarred horseradish and a hint of lemon.

New England Clam Chowder – 2.5/6

• Served in a sourdough bowl $4.95
• I had some, but it was very standard New England Clam Chowder. For a fast food place it’s not bad, but I wouldn’t really crave it either.
• It was quite chunky with lots of chunks of potatoes, but barely any clams.
• The texture was very creamy, rich and thick and I did like that part.
• The sourdough bread was crusty and somewhat chewy, but nothing special in particular.
• For $4.95 it’s not a bad deal since it’s pretty big and good, but there’s just barely any clams.

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