The Early Word on Lake Trout in Williamsburg

Lake Trout, the Baltimore-style fried seafood restaurant from Matt Lang and Joe Carroll of Fette Sau, opened a couple weeks ago in Williamsburg. The short menu, developed by Baltimore native Lang, is basically un-elevated American food: chicken wings, fries, crab cakes and, of course, the eponymous lake trout sandwich, which is a fried piece of whiting with cheese, lettuce, tomato and tartar sauce. So far the restaurant has inspired mixed reactions, with some diners enjoying the simple, no-frills fare, others unimpressed by the same, and yet others annoyed by the intentional lack of effort. Here's a roundup of what people are saying so far about Lake Trout:

The Pretty Decent News: One Maryland-born Yelper has mixed feelings: "This isn't trying to be the pinnacle of Baltimore seafood - this is a replica of the inner-city Lake Trout stands, where everything is deep fried and nuance is out the window. ... I had my hopes up a little too high for this place, not realizing how low of a brow they were shooting for. It's decent quick stop fried food with probably the best crabcake you're going to find in Brooklyn. But they could do alot more with only a little more effort." [Yelp]

The Not Even Mad News: From Instagram: "Yeah it's on some hipster shit, but I'm not even mad at this. Fried fishes are delicious @ lake trout." [Instagram]

The All Around Disappointing News: The only commenter on MenuPages (also hitting FourSquare) is disappointed: "Locals around the city of Baltimore refer to it as 'B'more. The new Baltimore-inspired LAKE TROUT does not deserve a grade nearly so high as a 'B'. Their cheese fish sandwich was patently average in every way but one: fishiness." [MP]

The Not-So-Charmed News: Baltimore calls itself Charm City, but a Foursquare tipster doesn't find much of that here: "Cheese fish sangwich aight. Lake trout was bland. Slaw had fish sauce? And not so charmed by service. Le sigh, had high hopes." [Foursqure]

The Far Superior News: For many people, the point of departure for the lake trout sandwich is McDonald's Filet-o-Fish. At least that's what one Yelper says: "So, imagine for a moment you are sitting down about to enjoy a filet-o-fish from McDonalds. Imagine how wary you probably are - and should be - at a fried fish filet topped with cheese. Now, imagine this scenario with the same ingredients but a far superior outcome. This is what the cheese fish sandwich was like." [Yelp]

The Expensive Soda News: An Eater commenter was fine with the fried dish but has one major issue: "For the record, I have eaten there 3 times so far, the only thing that really bothers me is that their sodas cost $3.50. Please just give us fountain soda for a buck or two." [Eater Comments]

The Notably Good News: The Pink Pig was pleased enough with the sandwich: "Fish and cheese is a British, as well as a Baltimore, thing. Haddock with cheese sauce, for example. So I was okay with it, and the fish itself was notably good -- fresh and flaky. It's very much a snack, but a decent one for $6.50." [Pink Pig]
· All Coverage of Lake Trout [~ENY~]