Passtime Fish House: The (incredibly) Good (food), the Bad (reputation), and the Ugly (exterior)

Passtime Fish House is on the REALLY far South side of Indy: It's in Jeffersontown, KY (a suburb of Louisville) at Watterson Trail and Locust Road across from Skyview Park.  I've described other places as so small or nondescript that you wouldn't notice them if you weren't looking for them, but you can BE looking for Passtime and not find it-- there's a sign where to turn in, but the place isn't visible from Watterson Trail, and that's probably a good thing because after seeing the outside, many folks  might not want to see the inside.  It's one of those fabled places you often see in movies or on TV but which in reality are quite rare-- a tumbledown shack which conceals a wonderful interior filled with salty waitresses who serve delicious food to lovable regular customers. The first label that you see when you look Passtime up on TripAdvisor is "Hole in the Wall".

It's a little hard to describe and still do it justice: bare, weathered wood exterior walls covered with plywood in some places, metal beer signs nailed to them (maybe to help keep the walls up as much as advertise the beer), and a tin roof.  The parking lot is severely sloped and very roughly paved; it looks like gravel somehow fused together rather than asphalt.  There is a covered (not screened) outdoor deck area that looks rustic but fairly new. It is equipped with picnic-like tables and seems comfortable.  That's good, because on a hot summer day you may have to sit out there due to the inside not being air-conditioned.  That's right, NO AIR CONDITIONING in a functioning 21st Century restaurant!  When The Little Woman and I disembarked from our meat-locker cold vehicle interior into the Kentucky Fried Sunshine and humidity on an 88 degree day, I took one look at the place and figured we'd take our order to go.  

After we'd stumbled across the moonscape parking lot to the inside, however, we found that the darkened interior was tolerably cooler, what with the doors thrown open and a number of floor fans going.  The beating wings of the occasional house fly also contributed to beneficial air movement as well.  A lot of reviews said the waitresses were slow, inattentive, and grumpy, but we were greeted immediately and told to sit wherever we wanted, were waited on promptly and served in a surprisingly short time by an informally clad easy-on-the-eyes waitress. We sat in a comfortable booth which was one of a line of them along one wall.  There is a nice bar on the other side with the usual flat screen TVs and neon beer signs that adorn any decent bar & grill.  Everything was very nice and reasonably clean.  The only thing inside that resembled the rough exterior was the concrete floor which was not level anywhere. sloping in different directions depending on what part of the building you were in.  It would likely make drunken perambulation doubly difficult.

I hope you've read (or skimmed) this far, because here is the really good part: the FOOD! The very worst of the reviews I read nevertheless admitted the food was fantastic.  Their specialty is a Fried Cod sandwich, which TLW had with fries.  I ordered the Passtime Platter, which is a fried cod filet, fried shrimp, and fried oysters, and I added an order of Onion Straws.  You can also get frog legs for $2 more but WHY? The filet was HUGE, but the shrimp were HUGE, in contrast with the oysters which were HUGE, and everything was lightly battered and fried perfectly, which is to say not too much.  The filet was at least an inch thick, the fish moist, tender, and un-fishy. The giant butterflied shrimp and the oysters were tender and seemed extremely fresh. The coating (it was too light and thin to be called breading) had an incredibly flavorful mix of spices, although it was just a tiny little bit salty.  The fries seemed home made and were very tasty. My heaping plate of Onion Straws were the only less than stellar item, having been only lightly fried just like everything else, which in this case made them just a little soggy although they still tasted great: a little time in an oven might have crisped them up some. If you don't like seafood, they do have a HALF-POUND burger that is supposedly very good but takes a while to cook. Finally, Passtime has a wide selection of available beers:   I had a draft Shiner Bock that was ice cold, a welcome relief on a hot Friday afternoon.

I'm going to engage in a bit of sacrilege here....   The most beloved and well-known fish house in the Derby City is, arguably, Mike Linnig's 'way out west on Cane Run Road (although some of the Linnig family actually live nearby in J-town).  I love Mike's fish and its festive park-like ambiance, but-- please don't shoot me-- I love Passtime's fish even more, just sayin'. ...And that's all I'm saying 'cause I have to go before the lightning strikes me.  Order up!