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Long John Silver's
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Fast Food Menu Long John Silver's |
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| Long John Silver's is a homegrown Lexington restaurant that made it big. The original opened in 1968 in a small Pirate themed facility on Southland Drive that had been a Cape Codder, a sit down dinner only seafood restaurant, until it moved to Chevy Chase. Local restauranteurs Warren Rosenthal and James Patterson thought a good fast service seafood outlet could draw customers away from the popular burger chains. They studied seafood restaurants across the country and designed a menu of deep fried shrimp and Icelandic Cod, accompanied by iced tea, corn on the cob, potatoes, green beans and hush puppies. Their format proved even more successful than they dreamed and they quickly franchised out additional locations. Three years later they had 200 LJS, by 1976 there were 621, and at last count there were 1200 in the U.S. and another 800 overseas. The headquarters is still in Lexington. LJS held to their fried menu for 30 years, but by the late 1990s began to evolve in healthier directions, adding baked, broiled and grilled entrees and reducing the fat / cholesterol element in their frying. |  |
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Several of Long John Silver's original 1968 menu items have become icons with their own cult following. People will drop by just to pick up special orders even when not ordering one of the entrees. One of the more famous is the Corn On The Cob. It accompanies most meals and can be added to the shorter orders. These are shorter ears, but there's enough to satisfy corn lovers without taking forever to eat. Long John Silver's soaks it first, so the kernels are softened. This is to appeal to kids and older customers, whose braces and dentures have a hard time with firm kernels. If you like your Corn On The Cob extremely firm, this might not be for you. But a lot of people consider LJS Corn On the Cob the best in Lexington and will drive all the way across town to get some once a week or so. They also do a good job with their Green Beans and Roasted New Potatoes, which are included with many of the meals you see pictured here. The Green Beans are usually firm and the Potatoes have thinner, more tender skin, having been picked when still pretty young. If you order French Fries instead of the Roasted New Potatoes, you get fries which were actually cut and run through the slicer just before frying, rather than having been processed far away and merely dropped in the deep frying vat to heat them. These are not reconstituted fries. |
| Now that you can order fish baked, broiled or grilled, Long John Silver's is actually serving a pretty heart healthy meal. Fish contain the critically important Omega 3 Fatty Acids, which are the "good cholesterol" doctors recommend we consume at least twice a week. Omega 3 Fatty Acids actually sweep out the "bad cholesterol" as they circulate through the blood stream. If nothing on the plate is fried, there is no grease at all. The serving of Tilapia shown at right has 110 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and a tolerable 250 mg of sodium (salt). The vegetables shown have 25 calories, and the Corn on the Cob with butter has 150. If you can eat the Corn without the butter it reduces the calories down to almost nothing. The breadstick has 150 calories. |  |
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The Grilled Salmon shown here at left has 150 calories, 5 grams of fat and 440 mg of sodium. They call it "Pacific" but the truth is, it's not from the ocean. These are farm raised Salmon. That's fine. It reduces the amount of Omega 3 Fatty Acids in the tissue (the colder salt water causes the fish to produce more than the warm fresh water in farm ponds), but the fish are still healthy and the meat still firm and tasty. As ocean stocks of all fish are being depleted, more and more of the fish we're being served in even the upscale restaurants is farm raised. |
| Another of those iconic food items Long John Silvers is famous for is its Hush Puppies. People have been known to ship frozen boxes of these across the country. They've been unchanged from the beginning, a real remnant of the 1960s. These are fried cornmeal balls with a crunchy exterior and soft inside. Technically, they are made from one cup of self rising flour, one cup of cornmeal, one onion chopped very fine, and two teaspoons baking powder. If you're counting, each high puppy contains 60 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and 9 grams of carbohydrates. |  |
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You have a decision to make when it comes to Shrimp. The classic Long John Silvers order features breaded and fried shrimp. A lot of people think these are delicious, but of course, they're also where the cholesterol comes from. But the Shrimp Scampi does not have the breading. One serving of eight Shrimp contains 110 calories, 5 grams of fat and 610 mg of sodium. Basically, you're trading off cholesterol for sodium. By good fortune, the Shrimp suppliers Long John Silvers uses were not in areas affected by the recent Gulf Oil Spill. |
Long John Silvers offers four fish wraps (you have your choice of shrimp, fish or a combination) with a Baja Sauce. The Baja Sauce is Mayonnaise based and the ingredients have been fried, so if you're dieting this is not a good choice. But if you're planning a physically active day and will work off the cholesterol, these are pretty tasty. There's also a Fish Taco, pictured on the Locations page. Long John Silvers' Malt Vinegar has been a tradition since that first outlet opened in 1968. You can buy it bottled and take some home. It is a classic condiment, ranking right up there with Ketchup, Mustard, Worcestershire and Tabasco Sauce. The Malt Vinegar is actually made for LJS by Heinz Corporation up in Pittsburgh. It has no calories, no cholesterol, and no sodium.
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