Lent is nigh upon us and that means more fish sandwiches will be sold everywhere, including in fast-food restaurants. In fact, it all started because of Lent, so a little backstory before we get to the Popeye’s Cajun Flounder sandwich, the one that might ignite a fish sandwich war that let’s face it, will likely pale in comparison to the Great Chicken Sandwich War of 2019.

Here’s proof: The new Popeye’s sandwich comes with insurance. If you don’t like it, you can get a free chicken sandwich, if you follow the rules. More to come on that. But it seems that even the folks at Popeye’s know that most people prefer fowl over fish and they’re providing an incentive. All they are saying is give pesce a chance.

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The fast-food fish sandwich started with McDonald’s Filet o’ Fish. But we’d all be eating a different kind of sandwich if McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc had gotten his way.

In 1962, franchise owner Lou Groen in Montfort Heights, Ohio, was given the go-ahead by Kroc to introduce the sandwich on Good Friday.

Groen’s community was mostly Catholic, and he was getting clobbered by a nearby restaurant that had a fish sandwich.

He knew he needed it, but it took him three years to convince Kroc, and permission came with a condition. He could introduce the fish sandwich and Kroc would put the non-meat option he wanted on the menu: The Hula Burger, pineapple with a slice of cheese on a bun. The deal was that whichever sold the most would eventually gain a spot on all McDonald’s menus. According to a 2013 article in Smithsonian magazine and to no one’s surprise, it was the filet o’ fish, which sold 350 sandwiches to the pineapple’s six that day.

(Smithsonian includes an excerpt from Kroc’s biography “Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s,” with this quote by Kroc: “It was a giant flop when we tried it in our stores. One customer said, ‘I like the hula, but where’s the burger?’”)

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So the filet o’ fish became the first non-meat sandwich to make the permanent menu and Phil A. O’Fish was briefly a character in the restaurant’s character lineup with the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese and Ronald McDonald. But Phil’s run was short.

Now we have all manner of sandwiches at fast-food restaurants and had a big stir in 2019, when Popeye’s introduced its chicken sandwich. The hoopla was such that the New Orleans-based chain ran out of chicken not just for the day, but for weeks.

Last week Popeye’s introduced the Cajun flounder sandwich, in time for Lent and with confidence borne of its great chicken-sandwich success. If you don’t like it as much as the chicken sandwich, they’ll give you a free chicken sandwich.

You just have to buy the insurance. At 15 cents, it’s a bargain if only to say you insured your fish sandwich. There’s a small catch (ha): you have to download the app, order from it and make your insurance claim from it, too. And, of course, you have to purchase the insurance at the time of your fish sandwich order.

We tried to compare six fast-food fish sandwiches but the Wendy’s at Poplar and Perkins was closed when we went to the drive-thru on Saturday, so Wendy’s was cut from the lineup.

We went with Popeye’s, Sonic, Burger King, Captain D’s and McDonald’s. We even scored the last sandwich at Popeye’s on Poplar at Colonial around 6 p.m. Saturday, so sorry, anyone who came after that.

Here’s how it lined up after tasting all of them, worst to best:

No. 5: Sonic, made with Alaskan pollock. Nope. It was the bun that killed it for us. Billed as brioche, it was sweet as Hawaiian bread, but also tough. The fish was chopped and lackluster; no reason to try this again. $3.99.

No. 4: Burger King, also Alaskan pollock, was a bit better. The bun wasn’t sweet, but it was a bit dense and the sandwich was overall fast-food ordinary, at best. Not good enough. $3.69.

No. 3: McDonald’s is also made from Alaskan pollock and the company says it’s wild caught. Sound better? Phil A. O’Fish, that jocular character, would get a laugh as all Alaskan pollock is wild-caught; there is no aquaculture for this fish. Whatever — it can’t be said they’re making a false claim, and here’s what I most like about the filet o’ fish: It’s not everything else at McDonald’s.

I have grandkids who want their Happy Meals and sometimes I’m stuck eating at McDonald’s. If I find myself in that situation, I turn to French fries or the fish sandwich and besides, it’s not bad. The bun is steamed, there’s a half piece of cheese because they think it’s the perfect amount, and there’s plenty of tartar sauce that isn’t sweet. Don’t hate it until you at least give it a chance. $3.39.

No. 2: Popeye’s Cajun flounder sandwich was solid, no doubt. I’ll definitely try it again because I liked the spicy flavor, liked the brioche bun, which wasn’t sweet and was soft, and I loved the bread-and-butter pickles. The fish breading was a little heavy, and I don’t know if this sandwich had been sitting too long in its foil pack or if maybe they’re using chicken batter for the fish. Either way, it needs to be lighter. Yet it still came in ahead of four others. If I’d known about the insurance, I’d have a chicken sandwich in my future. $4.49.

No. 1: Captain D’s takes it. The captain is all slung up, relaxed, loose, giving zero cares about whether there’s a fish sandwich war looming. He’s not scared and the confidence is warranted. Why haven’t I had Captain D’s fish in oh, 25 years or so? Now is the time, friends. It’s a big sandwich made with two extremely crisp fillets of pollock from the North Pacific — wild-caught! — served simply on a toasted bun with tartar sauce and shredded lettuce. $5.59.