Most fast food chains are known for burgers and chicken sandwiches. It’s rarer to find a brand famous for fish, and demand can be limited depending on where you live. But one Ohio-based fast food chain is known far and wide for its seafood-based sandwich: Frisch’s Big Boy.
The restaurant’s Alaskan cod fish sandwich , which features two crispy cod fillets, shredded lettuce, and tartar sauce, has drawn Midwesterners for more than 75 years. The fish is sustainably caught and hand-battered, and the tartar sauce is just as essential as the sandwich. In 2024, Frisch’s used nearly 125,000 gallons of the stuff in stores according to a press release, and that’s not counting jars and packets sold to diners. Recipes for the sauce and sandwich haven’t changed since the item’s 1947 launch.
Customers say the chain restaurant serves one of the highest-quality fish sandwiches available. “Frisch’s Big Boy has the best fish sandwich. It was so good, McDonald’s had to invent the Filet-O-Fish to compete,” one Reddit user alleged. “I live in Florida and I still have not had a [better] fish sandwich than Frisch’s Big Boy in Ohio. The bun — soft … The lettuce — finely shredded. The fish — lightly breaded to hold in the juices. The tartar sauce … is really the key … I even eat it with my French fries,” wrote a Tripadvisor reviewer. “Frisch’s has the best fish of ANY drive-thru … It actually has fish … instead of a bunch of breading with barely any fish,” expressed another.
Frisch’s fish sandwich is an Ohio icon
Frisch’s Big Boy began in Cincinnati, Ohio. The fish sandwich was an instant hit and still is, so much so that Frisch’s anticipates an influx of orders during Lent each year. This speaks to the largely Midwestern tradition of a Friday fish fry, as many German and Polish immigrants in the region didn’t eat meat during the Catholic holiday. It’s no wonder the fish sandwich is one of the most popular Frisch’s Big Boy menu items…