Caleb Westphal hasn’t missed a Friday fish fry since 2013. Follow his never-ending adventures—sponsored by Miller High Life—HERE. This week: fish fry #620, at The Mineshaft in Hartford, Wisconsin.
The din grew as I was being sucked up into the vortex, until it gave way to flashing lights and an endless whir of amalgamated boops and beeps. It wasn’t the ideal locale to be in after an all-you-can-eat fish fry, but there I was, sweat beading on my head, my heart doing God knows what in my chest—I couldn’t tell because of the boom of the room. This wasn’t Armageddon. This wasn’t even the floor of a Vegas casino. This was the game room at The Mineshaft in Hartford, Wisconsin (22 N. Main St.; 262-673-5416).
The 5,000-square-foot, $2 million game room takes up much of the second floor—there’s still some room to dine up there, too, because the main floor is somehow not roomy enough. There are multiple dining rooms and dining nooks on the main floor, enough to disorient the uninitiated almost as much as the game room does. All told, The Mineshaft can seat something like 550 guests, and the building stretches about a third of the way down a city block, making it one of Wisconsin’s largest restaurants.
This is all the more astonishing given The Mineshaft’s humble roots. What was a small tavern called the Candlewick became the Commodore after being purchased in 1975 by brothers Tom and Will Masters, along with their parents Dan and Dorothy. When their parents stepped out of the business in 1982, the brothers remodeled the building to look like a mine shaft—using barn beams and lamps—and changed the name to The Mineshaft. Many expansions followed, making it what it is today.
I’ve been to The Mineshaft a few times over the years, during stays in Hartford for basketball tournaments I played in grade school in the 1990s, and about two decades ago when I went with some friends who wanted to get Country USA tickets there. Last Christmas my sister and brother-in-law gave my family a Mineshaft gift certificate, and we used it last Friday, pairing the trip with birthday celebrations for one of my stepsons and my mom.
While the massive game room was to be the obvious draw for my stepsons, it was the $7.99 all-you-can-eat fish fry that I was most looking forward to. It is beer-battered haddock and is available on both Wednesdays and Fridays. The Mineshaft also offers perch, shrimp, or poor man’s lobster, either $9.99 for a plate or $11.99 for all you can eat. (The Masters family also owns The Fox & Hounds, one of the few other places in the area that offers an all-you-can-eat perch fry, which I had in 2024.) All the meals come with fries or tots—a baked potato can be substituted for a buck—along with coleslaw and rye bread. While I considered going for the perch, and likely could have paid the $11.99 and sampled all four types of seafood, I went straight to the bottom of the price scale. An all-you-can-eat haddock fry for $7.99 was just too alluring to pass up.
Most of those who ordered fish in our group got haddock, although a few got perch, and each type of seafood was represented at the table. The first round of fish came out on individual plates, not family style, with the haddock plates coming with two pieces each. The sides sitting with them were predictable, yet not disappointing. The half slice of rye was swirly and soft. The slaw was profusely creamy—with the cabbage almost drowning in the sauce—and with a large quantity of celery seeds. The fries were moderately seasoned; they obviously weren’t plain fries, but they didn’t overstimulate the senses either. This triad set the stage.
The haddock had an appealing beer batter. Light and crisp, it wrapped around the chunky, pure-white haddock pieces. The contrast between the batter and fish—the way the fork cut through from crispness to chunkiness—brought additional enticement. While the tartar was rather typical, it augmented the experience greatly instead of diminishing it.
I asked those who had ordered the perch if it was on par with or reminiscent of perch they’d had elsewhere, and they agreed that was the case. Generally decent perch for $11.99 is a deal, while generally decent all-you-can-eat perch for $11.99 is unheard of. The same can be said for all-you-can-eat haddock for $7.99 of the same caliber. This haddock wasn’t off the charts, but it wasn’t lower-grade fish either; it was at least comparable to single-plate haddock that can be found elsewhere. The haddock may be at the bottom of the price scale, but it’s not bottom of the barrel fish.
When our server came back I asked if we could get more fish. She asked if one piece for everyone would be okay. While I knew I’d need multiple pieces, I answered in the affirmative—maybe not everyone else would need more, especially the kids. This time a family-style plate came out, as did a plate with cups of tartar sauce. Plates of perch and poor man’s lobster were also brought. I took two pieces of haddock.
The next time our server came back I asked for another round. I had three more pieces, making it seven on the night. The added takeaway as the fish kept coming was that for the most part the pieces were consistent—consistently crisp and chunky, that is.
But, it was inevitable that not long after the sides and the seven pieces I was sucked up into the vortex, where I noticed I was sweating and thought about how this could be one way life could end: eating too much fish and instead of resting and digesting, being inundated with and overwhelmed by lights and sounds. (Good thing I didn’t attempt my initial ideas, which were to either eat a fish fry while walking around the game room, or to eat fish, visit the game room, and then go back to the table and resume indulging in the all-you-can-eat fish.)
If cost is a top consideration, The Mineshaft is an ideal place for taking the family for fish on a Friday night. I’ve had fish frys that cost more than three times this one, and they weren’t even all you can eat! On the contrary, this isn’t taking the game room into account. It is guaranteed that more will be spent on the kids in the game room than on fish frys, by a long shot, and I suppose that’s how the Mineshaft evens it all out and can offer such a great deal on fish.
There are a few attributes that The Mineshaft has that make it worth going to even if you don’t live in the immediate vicinity. There’s the price, the food, and the service. The price is nearly unbeatable, the food doesn’t suffer on account of its price, and the service, at least in my experience, was great. There’s also the game room. Want to find a way to get the kids to not complain about a 45 minute drive to a fish fry? Tell them there is a $2 million game room waiting for them. Lastly, The Mineshaft has a wow factor, a sum that makes it greater than its parts. It’s a place people know well beyond Hartford, and if you make the trek, you’ll understand why.
Takeaways: All-you-can-eat haddock for $7.99 or all-you-can-eat perch, shrimp, or poor man’s lobster for $11.99 on Wednesdays and Fridays; chunky haddock with a light, crisp batter; saucy and seedy slaw; lightly seasoned fries; $2 million game room that you probably could spend $2 million dollars in in a night; actually gives you the feel of being in a mineshaft; some other weekly specials include buy one get one pizza on Mondays and Thursdays and an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet for $9.99 on Tuesdays; there’s also a Mineshaft in Oshkosh that’s been open since 2020.
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