5 Restaurant Chains With The Best Friday Fish Specials

If you'd take a crunchy filet of fried fish over a steak any day, you should try to dine out on Fridays — that's the day of the week many chain restaurants offer excellent seafood specials. Often called "fish fry Friday" or "Friday fish fry" deals, these weekly offerings deliver deep-fried fish and tasty side dishes at discounted prices, with some even falling under the all-you-can-eat category. Tasting Table rounded up some of the thriftiest and most well-reviewed, so you know where to go.

Friday fish fries have cultural origins in the Southern U.S., and their popularity was also heightened by Catholic communities and their practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays, making fish a popular stand-in. Fried fish and spaghetti then became a staple in the Midwest thanks to influence from both the Deep South and Italian Catholic immigrants. Today, many chain restaurants cash in on this tradition with their own Friday specials.

To choose the best of these offerings, Tasting Table looked at them from a value standpoint, with bonus points given for significant discounts from standard menu pricing, as well as buffet-style deals. Customer reviews and social media feedback were also taken into consideration to ensure each of the following Friday fish specials offers high quality, not just quantity. 

Red Lobster offers so many different dishes and deals that you might have never noticed its Friday Fish & Chips special. You shouldn't let this offer swim under the radar, as it gives you one of the chain's tastiest and most underrated dishes at a discounted price of $15.99. That's compared to the $20.99 you'd pay for the same fish any other day of the week.

Red Lobster's fish and chips include two pieces of beer-battered, wild-caught cod with Chesapeake fries and coleslaw. The dish sounds run-of-the-mill, but it ranked first in Tasting Table's ranking of chain-restaurant fish and chips. With a wonderfully crunchy coating around soft, flaky, well-seasoned fish, it seriously delivers on seafood satisfaction — and the fries don't disappoint, either.

Beyond our taste tester's ranking, Red Lobster's fish and chips consistently land at the top of lists of the best chain restaurant fish and chips. Even better, the Friday special is available every week. With a nifty $5 discount and a tastiness that matches up to the value, you should be sure to catch this Red Lobster daily deal at the end of the week.

Black Bear Diner is a chain with just over 150 locations across the United States. While the food lineup focuses heavily on breakfast, Black Bear's dinner menu offers an all-you-can-eat Friday Night Fish Fry every week. From 4 p.m. until close, you can chow down on endless fried pollock for $19.99 per person. With most Black Bear Diners closing at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., you have five or six hours to get your fill. Factor in the French fries, hushpuppies, coleslaw, and tartar sauce that come on the side, and it's a pretty solid deal.

Customers have good things to say about Black Bear Diner's Friday fish special, calling it a great value and tasty to boot. "I had that fish last Friday and it was awesome, going for sure tomorrow," wrote one diner in a comment on Facebook. Another Facebook user called their Friday Fish Fry experience "FABULOUS!" Incidentally, if you or someone you're dining with is in the mood for meat rather than seafood, Black Bear Diner also serves up one of the best steaks from non-steakhouse restaurants. The Bigfoot Chicken-Fried Steak & Eggs is a beefy, gravy-smothered dish you can order all day long.

If you're in Madison, Verona, or DeForest, Wisconsin, your closest North and South Seafood & Smokehouse location is worth seeking out — especially for the Fish Fry Friday special. You can get two pieces of fried haddock for $20 or three pieces for $22.50, plus your choice of two sides: a soup or salad, and a corn muffin. Side dish options include regular and sweet potato fries, coleslaw, mac and cheese, hush puppies, chili, and more.

North and South Seafood & Smokehouse's weekly Fish Fry Friday special costs more than the restaurant's regular North Atlantic Haddock Fish Fry, priced at $16 for two pieces of fish and $19 for three. However, the standard plate only includes the two sides — not the corn muffin or the choice of soup or salad — and with the Friday special, a third piece of haddock costs just $2.50. Reviewers and social media comments reveal that North and South's fish fry is well worth any price.  

"We were looking for [a] fish fry tonight ... We hadn't been to North and South, so decided to give them a try," wrote one diner on Facebook. "Everything was great, including the service." A commenter on the post agreed, writing, "I love the haddock fish fry! So good and generous portions too!" Two more Facebook users called the Friday special "delish" and "incredible." This small chain has one of the best fried fish sandwiches in Wisconsin, too.

Glory Days Grill restaurants are found across Florida and Virginia, with four more locations in Maryland and one in West Virginia. The chain's Fish Fry Friday special is one of the most affordable around. For $14.99, you get a big piece of beer-battered, wild-caught haddock, plus coleslaw, seasoned fries, and tartar sauce. That's a $5 discount from the dish's usual price of $19.99, but the taste certainly isn't cheap.

Patrons find the Fish Fry Friday special to be exceptional. One Yelp reviewer wrote, "Fish was light and fluffy and very tasty and filling ... Will definitely be going back." Others enthusiastically called the dish "excellent" and "AWESOME." Glory Days Grill has an all day, every day happy hour, which offers Busch Light beer pints for $32.50, $6.50 house wines, and 24-ounce margaritas for $7.50. The restaurant also hosts "Happier Hours" with additional discounts, so don't forget about the drinks.

Sports bar chain Beef 'O' Brady's offers some of the absolute best game-day appetizers from chain restaurants, plus plenty of pub food classics, including fish and chips. Its version is made with fried cod filets and served with fries and coleslaw. On Fish 'N' Chips Friday, you can score this dish for an impressive $11.49 to $12.99, depending on the location. This is the most frugal Friday fish special on the list.

As for the taste, customers enjoy Beef 'O' Brady's fried cod quite a lot. One reviewer on TripAdvisor wrote, "the batter was a little crunchier than I am used to but the fish was delicious ... I thoroughly enjoyed the fish dinner!" Another reviewer on Facebook said, "The Cod was crisply covered by a thin batter that was not oily. We got 3 good size pieces ... with a lemon wedge and a very unique-tasting tartar sauce ... I'd take a gallon of that any day."