Long John Silver’s (“We Speak Fish”) is the best fast food joint in the world. It is by far the best seafood-oriented such place. Take that Arthur Treacher’s! They have over 1200 locations worldwide.

The best stuff there is certainly the whitefish; whitefish fillet combo is delicious, but the “whitefish fillet & more” is better, because that cole slaw and those hushpuppies are out of this world. (And by the way, a hushpuppy is only 60 calories.)

Okay, the seafood varieties are: Whitefish, popcorn shrimp, butterfly shrimp, lobster bites, clams, baja fish tacos, crab cakes, grilled pacific salmon, grilled tilapia, and garlic shrimp scampi. There’s also chicken tenders.

Side dishes are vegetable “medley” (that word does make me roll my eyes, but it’s good), natural-cut fries (which are great), corn cobbette (ditto), breadsticks, and the aforementioned awesome cole slaw and hushpuppies.

For dessert there’s chocolate cream pie and pineapple cream cheese pie. The pineapple cream cheese can be a little gross: stick with the chocolate.

History

Long John Silver’s opened in 1969 in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky is still the corporate headquarters.  They had a characteristic blue roof and steeple and Cape Cod theme. When the company filed for bankruptcy in 1998, a lot of things changed. It was purchased and managed by Yum! Brands, Inc. This resulted in many Long John Silver locations being co-branded with KFC or Taco Bell or A&W. In January of 2011, though, Yum! decided to sell Long John Silver’s and A&W. The buyer is LJS Partners LLC.

Long John Silver’s used to be a lot more pirate-oriented. Their Facebook page still makes much of Talk Like a Pirate Day, but the food no longer has pirate-themed names and the décor doesn’t tend to emphasize the whole pirate thing. You’d think, what with the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and all. But, kids can still get paper pirate hats.