Bonnie's Bar and Grill

My husband loves this place!  They have good food, good service, good drinks, and all for pretty cheap.  It is a good little local bar and they do things well.

* * * *     Fries  
* * * * *  Battered Onion Rings  
* * * * *  Spicy dipping sauce for rings
* * * * *  Stephanie.  A "super server".  The type that every business hopes they  
 could find:  Efficient...attentive...warm, genuine smile.  Naturally upbeat and
 friendly---not embarrassingly enthusiastic, saccharine, or phony.

Would have given Stephanie 10 stars instead of 5 had she ASKED how our fish dinners were----but she may have been told to NEVER ask how the food is.  That's always a risky (potentially costly) question posed by any food server. ( I was tired and not in the mood to speak up like an adult.  Shame on me.)   A day later, however---reminded by seeing the weighty mass in the garbage can, and after thinking about dropping $28 on two WAY below average fish dinners---instead of forgetting about it and not bothering to review, I felt compelled to sound a "Food Alert" .
 
x x x x x  Breaded Lake Erie Perch
           (5 Don't Do It's)   What the...?  Worst perch fish fry we've EVER had.  

Their self-proclaimed "famous" perch dinner---audaciously printed on their menu and website---would be more aptly described as "infamous".  Offered battered, breaded, or broiled.  We opted for breaded---the best preparation for LE Perch.  Never had ANYTHING with breading that was this firm and thick---from 1/8" to 1/4" !   More like cow hide.   And gummy, too.  Maybe dipped into egg and flour 5-6 times before the bread crumbs.  This preparation was NO mistake---this was the intended heavily-coated result.  
And they didn't TASTE like LE Perch.  Not sweet and mild, but on the strong side, and very VERY dry.  If this WAS the real thing, it was likely a catch from 3 or 4 years ago---that was stubbornly stuck to the bottom of the freezer (requiring industrial pliers to yank them loose)---then finally dropped into a fryer and onto our plates.  I finished less than the equivalent of a single filet of the four served---about two small bites of each hoping to find a good part.  No luck.  I'm sure Stephanie noticed the heaping amount of food---mostly fish---that we packed into the take-home box, but she didn't dare say a word.  Rather than leave them there, an examination/dissection in the privacy of my own kitchen would determine if any of the FISH could be salvaged---whether for human consumption, canine consumption, or plant fertilizer.  No, no, and I'm still thinking about it.

x x x x x  Their Homemade Tartar Sauce
  A thick amalgam of what tasted and looked like a mayo/BUTTER combination
  ...yes, butter.  Unappetizing.  Unlike any tartar we've ever tasted.  Sampled once,
  so didn't use.
x x x x x  Coleslaw
  An unseasoned and liquidy mixture of what appeared to be just cabbage and
  maybe 1% MILK---certainly not cream.  Neither sweet nor tangy.  Could eat just
  two small fork-fulls.

Based on Bonnie's current self-promotion about their "famous LE Perch dinners", we expected a vast improvement.  But---to be on the safe side---I brought my own tartar from home.  Just in case.  (AL's from Seven Seas).  But even this excellent condiment couldn't save these petrificated and badly prepared fish.  It had been about 10 years since we had their LE Perch dinner.  All
components were just "ok" then---nothing special.  But much better than THIS visit.  (Except for the 4 star fries.)

Instead of looking forward to tasty fried perch leftovers today, I'll warm up the fries and rings in the toaster oven, and nuke some hotdogs.  

Other edible menu offerings may be real winners in this popular, clean, friendly, welcoming, comfortable spot, so worth checking out.  Heard their wings are favorites.

If we visit again---and feel like something to eat with our drinks---we'll stick to their onion rings and dipping sauce.  
.

Bonnie's seemed to have a lot of regulars when I was there, and I can see why. It's a really friendly place with pretty solid typical bar food. Nothing to go out of my way to enjoy (I'm not exactly in their demographic wheelhouse), but it's not far from me and I expect I'll happily return sometime soon.