This iconic Columbus seafood spot is a no-frills classic. Here’s how my first experience went.
Editor’s Note: Rosehill Seafood closed Friday, July 16 due to COVID-19. It will reopen Wednesday, July 28, according to a voice recording on the restaurant’s answering machine.
Rosehill Seafood is a Columbus classic — a place that hearkens back to the no frills, Southern-style fish camps of decades gone by. But this place has some little twists of its own.
The long, tan structure with its overhang roof and big orange letters on Hamilton Road has been home to some of the city’s best seafood since 1976. Though I moved here almost two and a half years ago, I will embarrassingly admit that I had not had the pleasure of sitting down to a Rosehill meal.
That changed earlier this week when the Ledger-Enquirer’s video extraordinaire Mike Haskey and myself decided that we were due for some fried fish and raw oysters.
I’m glad we did.
We arrived at Rosehill just before the lunchtime rush began. Long tables in the large seating area were dotted with older patrons, waiting for their longtime friends to fill the remaining seats. Those empty spaces dwindled as our server brought the customary lemon slices, dill pickles and raw onion.
Our half dozen raw oysters came to the table first. Three of those half-shelled bad boys were huge, comparable to the size of a medium hand. They sat in large, deep shells. The remaining three were medium-sized, but they occupied nearly all of the shell well.
I like to eat mine on top of a saltine cracker with a dollop of Louisiana or Crystal’s garlic hot sauce. A little squeeze of lemon is the finishing touch.
The first thing I noticed was the smooth butter taste. These oysters had a moderate to low level of salinity compared to the brinier, seawater notes I’ve experienced with other batches.
The reason: Rosehill served oysters from Maryland during our visit. The brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay region are only slightly salty. We finished the six wishing we had ordered 12.
Our entrees arrived at the table, and I immediately knew that we’d end up with leftovers. Haskey order the bone-in catfish which were piled high on the plate. I opted for the seafood platter with hushpuppies, fries and coleslaw because I wanted a little bit of everything — deviled crab, fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried cod and fried oyster.
It’d be hard telling you what item from the platter I enjoyed the most. But if I were forced to pick, I’d likely go with the scallops. They were lightly breaded, so it didn’t take away from the naturally sweet and mild flavor. The shrimp come in at a close second with its slightly coarse batter and butter taste.
I scraped the bottom of the crab shell trying to get the last little bits of the dressing-like mixture of crab, bell peppers and onion. The fried oysters, while not as satisfying as the raw, paired well with the tartar sauce. The fried cod was fluffy, flaky and light. Everything on the platter was a hit.
As predicted, I left with a to-go container of catfish, cod and a few fries. We also peeked our heads in at Rosehill’s market and oyster bar just a door over from the sit-down restaurant. A variety of fish and mollusks were available for sale. If you’re looking for seafood you can cook at home, and your local grocer just isn’t cutting it, I’m sure you’d find what you are looking for at Rosehill.
We left the parking lot with happy, full bellies wondering when Rosehill might be on the menu again.
If you go
Rosehill Seafood
Address: 2621 Hamilton Rd., Columbus
Hours: 10:30 a.m.- 8 p.m., Wednesday and Thursday; 10:30 a.m. - 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 11:00 AM.