I remember there used to be Long John Silver, H Salt, Arthur Treacher, but now I can’t find them. What happened? I would think when people started getting healthy that they would flock to fish as better than beef
i know long john silver still exists in places … but yeah I miss them too… when yum brands sold them ours that shared space with the KFC closed … seems most of them are in A&W or KFC’s
Don’t forget Skippers:
They were only a regional chain, but at their peak they had several dozen restaurant locations in five or six states, so I’d say they qualify for the list.
They’re still around, but have retreated back to their original state, with only a handful of full-scale restaurant locations (though apparently they also have some small counter-service type operations in food courts and grocery stores, offering a limited menu). They were much beloved in the Northwest during their heyday.
I am also curious as to why the bottom seems to have fallen out of the entire sector.
Arthur Treachers shows up at Nathan’s. Fish stored in a heat drawer, ruins the crispness. Not the same.
I remember reading that it was due to fish supply/price. Overfishing cod haddock - fast foodish chains couldn’t make it with rise in prices and decrease in supply.
Note that tilapia is all over the place now - has that been replaced by another cheap fish yet?
On the healthy eating surge - those chains had nearly everything deep fried - the fish the fries the hush puppies - what a mountain of napkins we went through.
Two WAGs on my part;
- High price point. If we look at Ivar’s, a seafood chain in western WA that’s managed to buck the trend, an order of cod, fries, and a drink is close to $20, which is twice as much as you’d be paying for a burger combo at McDonald’s/Wendy’s/Burger King etc.
- You can’t eat fried fish in the car the same way you would a burger. It’s usually knife-and-fork food, and once you get the tartar sauce and malt vinegar involved you’re flirting with disaster.
According to this article, the demise of Arthur Treacher’s can be attributed to the 1970s fast food wars and the 1975-76 Cod War between Iceland and Britain, resulting in the price of cod doubling.
I haven’t lived near an Arthur Treacher’s or Long John Silver for many years, but I miss them. I recall them offering good-size portions of tasty seafood at a reasonable price—a great alternative to boring burgers and chicken.
I used to love Long John Silvers, but thickly breaded and greasy fish served with greasy fries isn’t exactly health food. I would be very surprised if anyone considered it to be a healthy alternative to anything.
Last I knew, there’s an H Salt in Sacramento, and several Long John Silver locations.
Most of those chains do deep-fry everything, which would kind of negate health advantages of fish. 
I can’t find this online but I remember c1991 a big story about how the most unhealthy fast food offerings were all fried fish dinners or sandwiches. But that was an era where:
Carbs = Good
Fat = Bad
Protein = Meh
In nutrition orthodoxy.
Long John Silver’s is still in business near me. It’s a mystery since I hardly know anyone who goes there, but it is kind of the current “Radio Shack”, which stayed in business many years without anyone knowing how. Apparently, quite a few people still go to LJS.
Here is The Onion’s article about Radio Shack, which is no longer effective since it did shut down:
I believe even moderate amounts of saturated fat and trans fat are still considered “bad” by most nutritionists.
In the early 90s I worked near a Long John Silvers. On three consecutive visits they screwed up my order. Lost me as a customer for that, haven’t been back.
I agree - this is a good assessment. Cost is probably the primary driver.
McDonalds’ Fillet-O-Fish is now probably what most people think of as fast food fish, sadly. That thing is gross - WTH putting a slice of American cheese on a fried fish patty sandwich? Cheese and fish - not part of God’s plan.
And that was their second attempt at providing a Lenten alternative to hamburgers.
Really? Just this past weekend I made a sandwich with two fish sticks and a hunk of two-year-old cheddar. It’s really good!
And fish tacos are a family favorite. Those always have some cheese.
I don’t think you can get any lower on the cheap fish chain than tilapia. I refuse to eat it anymore after watching a particular episode of “Dirty Jobs”.
Mike Rowe was working at a fish farm. I forget what kind of fish they were farming, but tilapia was what they used to clean the tanks. They’d get all the other fish out of the tank, dump a bunch of tilapia in, and they’d eat the fish poo.
Yeah, my wife wont eat tilapia, either. She saw some show about zoos where tilapia are used to keep the hippo pool clean.
There’s still a Long John Silvers near me. It’s co-branded with an A&W, in the way that Yum! Brand restaurants often are (although neither of them are owned by Yum! anymore).
As far as other fast-food fish places, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Captain D’s yet. According to Wikipedia, they have over 500 locations in the U.S. Although the one in my city closed recently, so who knows?
I was just going to mention Captain Ds, the one near me is still open.
The one thing I have noticed though is that a solid 70-80% of the time I drive by, the parking lot is half full, but there’s no one seemingly doing pickup or to-go options. This ties into what was said upthread about fried fish not being an efficient eat-while-driving option. Which ties into something else - while not authoritative, almost every time I see people going in and out, they are noticeably older than the mean fast food age. I’d say 55+ for almost everyone I’ve seen (they’re right by the stoplight, so it’s something to look at).
So they may well have a large number of holdover customers that are eating what they’re used to, and not making a big point of more modern eating assumptions. And I do note that Captain D’s website now gives equal space to it’s baked and grilled options as well as the classic fried fish / hushpuppies.
Then why does the bagel with lox and cream cheese I’m eating right now taste like Heaven?