Twin Cities Restaurant Blog: JJ's Fish & Chicken ~ Maplewood, MN

The Maplewood, MN Location has been closed for business :(

Cuisine : American, Fish and Seafood
Restaurant Features: Counter-Service, On-Site Parking

Location: Maplewood, MN
Address: 3094 White Bear Ave Maplewood, MN 55109 (651) 773-0500

Hours: Mon-Thur 11am-10pm Fri & Sat 11am-12am Sun 12pm-9pm
Links: Google Map

Atmosphere: The Maplewood location of JJ's Fish & Chicken is in a small building on the east side of White Bear Ave across from Maplewood Mall. There is a counter when you first walk in that has a giant menu board hanging overhead. The dining room itself is made up of a handful of typical fast-food style booths (with padded backs!) and basic laminate tables with slightly padded metal chairs. Nothing fancy but it is clean!

Menu: Appetizers and side items include Cheese Sticks, Fries, Hush Puppies, Jalapeño Poppers, Fried Mushrooms, Mac & Cheese Bites, Okra, Onion Rings, Pizza Puffs, and Spaghetti.

JJ's salads include the Classic, Grilled Chicken or Grilled Shrimp.

Sandwiches offered at JJ's are the Philly Cheese Steak, Chicken Steak, Chicken Teriyaki, Fish Sandwich and the Gyro.

Chicken Meals include Wings, Gizzards, Nuggets or Tenders.

Fish and Seafood meals include Catfish Steak, Catfish Nuggets, Catfish Fillet, Cod Fillet, Ocean Perch, Walleye Fillet, Tilapia, Whiting, Crab Cakes, Oysters, Shrimp and Jumbo Shrimp. All meals come with fries and bread.

Desserts include Peach Cobbler, Banana Pudding, Cake and Cookies.

Price guide: Appetizers $2-5 Sandwiches $4-5 Chicken $4+ Fish and Seafood $8-14
What We ordered: First we started with Jalapeño Poppers, which came with six giant pieces in the order. The Poppers were extremely hot, full of cream cheese with a crispy golden brown shell.

I had the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, which turned out to be a really good choice. The bread was fresh and slightly crispy the outside but wasn't too chewy. The steak was thinly sliced, tender and packed with flavor from the sauteed onions and peppers that were cut into bit-sized pieces and mixed in with the beef, along with the melted cheese. The size of the sandwich was quite big and I wasn't able to eat all of it, even though I did not order the fries that came with it for basically $1 more. FYI- The sandwich comes wrapped in foil but I removed it before taking the photo

One of my companions had the Gyro with Fries. The amount of food here was quite impressive for $4.99 (including soda). There was a nice amount of tender gyro meat, plus it was loaded with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and Tzatziki sauce. Very tasty but very messy- this one might be better eaten in the wrapper or with a fork. The fries were thick and seemed to have a very light batter to make them more crispy (okay but definitely not my favorite).

Another companion had the perch and catfish combo. The size of these fish fillets was very impressive for the price. Both Perch and Catfish were breaded with a corn-meal type of mixture and then deep fried to a golden brown. The perch was especially tasty. Tartar sauce and cocktail sauce come in little packets.

Service: When you place and pay for your order at the counter, you receive a number and they will call your number when your order is ready. There are usually only two cooks and they make food fresh with each order, so the time it takes to get your food depends on how busy it is. JJ's Maplewood does not have a soda fountain. Note: Parking lot can only be entered from northbound White Bear Avenue
Overall Impression: The Gyro Combo at $5 for gyro, fries and drink is one of the best values I have seen out there. Everything we have tried at JJ's so far has been very good and you get a great value for your money. New favorite find for a fast, cheap place with good food near the Mall and it is open until midnight on the weekends.