Fish-n-Chips

You will only find finish n chips in newspaper if you put them there yourself. Use of newspaper to wrap food was outlawed in the '80s.

Not familiar with that part of London, so can't say more.

Mark , thanks for the info ! We will be by Hyde park,and Derbyshire for a few days as well ...just looking for great Fish n- Chips....

Ask the staff at your hotel about a great place to get Fish & Chips in the neighbourhood. You're more likely to find them on a plate with mushy peas, rather than rolled up in a newspaper.

The quality of fish and chips varies hugely. I have 4 shops within walking distance of my house, 2 dreadful, 1 fair and one excellent. There's really no way of telling till you try. Always use a fish and chip shop--pubs or smart fish restaurants might do good f&c but the experience is not the same. Some places will have tables but most people have them as take-away. Not wrapped in newspaper (I'm in my 50s and I've never seen that), but usually in plain white paper. Ask for them "open" and the top of the bag wil be left open, or the packet rolled into an open cone, so you can eat with your fingers. Remember, plenty of salt and vinegar.

If you can find a place that cooks the chips in beef dripping then you'll be guaranteed some great tasting chips.

And if you have them in beef dripping often enough you can expect an early heart attack!

Actually Fish and Chips is on my Slimming World (group Man of the year, Slimmer of the Month twice, Slimmer of the Week several times, actually lost weight on my last two vacations - but who's bragging??) diet.

Fried fish from a chippie, when you take the batter off, has zero Syns. Steal a couple of the wife's chips and no harm there either.

I am not a fish eating guy. But, last summer when we pub hopped along the Llanggollen canal, the fish eaters thought that the fish and chips were always very good. Much better than anything from the US.

I'm a firm believer in researching food blogs for restaurant reviews.

I then choose a spot to visit if the review intrigues me.

Here's a blog you might like to peruse: http://fishandchipscritic.co.uk

Thank you for the blog !

If you happen to be going to Windsor castle try the Three Tuns pub. My friend and I stopped in for a beer. Some folks were eating and the food like good so we ordered a some fish and chips. I'm not generally a fish eater but I thought it was pretty good.

Hi jkturnage3:

These two fish and chip restaurants are out of your area, but just in case you happen to be in the neighborhood:

Seafresh in the Victoria neighborhood (maybe elsewhere, too). Great! And I love their scampi and chips. Sit down and take out. Good recommendation in RH guide to London.

Cafe in the Crypt (ST Martins in the Field): Avoid. I don't know if it just was a bad night in the cafe or whether it was their usual preparation of fish and chips: the fried batter hid the fact that the fish was not skinned. It was a not so pleasant taste. I had to scrape the flesh from the skin which meant that I wasn't able to eat about 50% of the crispy batter. Ugh.

Claudia:

The link that you provided fishandchipscritic.co.uk is great. However, I didn't see any way to find a specific restaurant or search by London district. This made it a less than useful search engine. Fascinating reading, though.

Geor(ge)

Geor(ge) the addresses of each restaurant she reviewed are at the top of each entry.

Merely means using Google maps to discover where the restaurants she reviewed are located.

Claudia:

I have always enjoyed your comments so it pains me to have to dispute your last posting regarding fish and chips restaurants. The web site is amusing and informative to read; however, it is of minimal help to a tourist, or even a London resident, looking for a great fish and chip restaurant to patronize. First, there is in fact no address at the start of each review. Only the name of the restaurant and the neighborhood in which it is located is given. A recent example: Studio 6, Southbank, London SE1 9PP. Sure, someone can do a google search to find the location with just the name and general location but it would be useful to have provided this information at the get go. Second, there is no way to to identify all of the reviewed fish and chip restaurants in a given neighborhood. jkturnage3 is looking for a restaurant near the Olympic Stadium. How does this person find all of the restaurants located in/near Stratford except by reading every review and notating the neighborhood in which it is located. Finally, there is no easy way to link to a given restaurant. For example, I like Seafresh in Victoria but am interested how this place stacks up with the other reviewed restaurants (regardless of location) if in fact Seafresh has been reviewed. How do find the Seafresh review?

I give the food critic a high rating for undertaking this project. However, the software driving the web site is underpowered so that performing sorts by alphabetical order or by geographic area is impossible at this time. Consequently, the web site provides great insight what makes up a great fish and chip meal but provides little assistance on getting a client connected to restaurants.

Claudia, keep up the good work. It will probably be a long time before I take issue with anything you write.

Geor(ge)

Geor, are you aware that the postal code in London virtually IS the address? It pinpoints it within a very few buildings. It's how I find anywhere in London.

After checking out the fish and chips blog, I have to mention that in one of the photos (The Old White Lion), it looks like the fish and
chips are lying on a newspaper. It may not be real newspaper, but it would seem that someone wanted to evoke the spirit of times past when that was a tradition.

You can buy newspaper themed food grade paper, that was likely what was in the photo.

Claudia, I am loving your fish and chips blog! Thanks for the link!
I am spending a lot of time looking around there.
Discovering all kinds of new places.

Today's find: Fish,Fish, Highgate, London N6 5BA
If you click on the third photo, you can read the menu.
I love that they have grilled and baked fish.
Under starters, feta cheese salad with olives.
A variety of veggies.

I am also learning that a couple of the places she reviewed served spoiled fish.
Making a list of places to avoid.

So I am enjoying this blog. Thanks for posting!

I avoided responding because it appeared that you had some responses, but after looking, I can offer my experience, but not necessarily in your immediate area.

Good modern/traditional take on fish and chips: "Kerbisher and Malt" in a couple of locations.

Solid Fish and Chips: "Golden Union Fish Bar" in SoHo

Same great Fish, but with more choices (they even have Skate) "The Rock and Sole Plaice" (Punny isn't it) also near SoHo

For a way modern take try "Hook" in Camden Town (A Lime, Mint and Wasabi Batter? Yeah, great)

Plus, you can get great basic fish and chips about in any decent pub.

Plus, you can get great basic fish and chips about in any decent pub.

Never, never, ever eat fish and chips in a pub.

Now, let's do the difference between Tower Bridge and London Bridge and the evils of tipping......

"Now, let's do the difference between Tower Bridge and London Bridge and the evils of tipping......"

:-)

Wife and I had great fish & chips at the Prince Edward Pub, 73 Prince's Square, Bayswater W2 4NY.

If we keep talking about this, I'm gonna have to fly to England for the weekend just to get some decent fish n chips! ;-)

Mark---or head north. The best fish and chips place I have encountered in my life was in Torino, BC ( on Vancouver Island) last summer. Take-out only. Of course they were crumbed not battered, so probably not traditional, but what I prefer. If it is battered I just pull that off as it seems so greasy.

"If it is battered I just pull that off as it seems so greasy."
That's heresy.😀

I can't really add much but if anyone finds themselves near Johnny's Fish Bar not too far from Tower Bridge (142 Tanner St, London SE1 2HG, UK) we thought it was excellent.

Some culinary notes ...
1. If your fish and chips are wrapped up in paper then they will become soggy because of the entrapped heat.
2. If your fish and chips are greasy then the shop is either using oil that is old or not hot enough. The batter hitting the hot oil should form a protective seal (and the crunch) around your fish so it doesn't become greasy.
3. Still, excess oil should be drained off before serving.
4. Check the fish comes from a sustainable source.
Enjoy.

Geez , David in Brisbane. I will never be able to truly enjoy fish and chips again.

My favorite fish and chips in London is The Sea Shell of Lisson Grove. 49-51 Lisson Grove, Marylebone, London NW1 6UH, UK, so use that address on Google maps and it will take you right to it. Eat-in or takeaway.