The fact is that for fish and chips to work it has to be utterly non-corporate and preferably family-run. OK, so they might not be allowed to wrap fish and chips in newspaper anymore, but there should still be something rather amateurish and cheap about it - that's part of its charm. The shop should be really small with limited seating. The biggest concession to glitz should be the flashing lights on the fruity in the corner. The menu should be written in chalk or crudely painted. And so on.

They tried opening a Harry Ramsden's in Oxford. It was a huge failure. This is because Oxford, despite its poncey rep, has some of the best fish and chip shops I've been to.

Have the steep price rises come into effect yet?

Some Brits have ketchup. Others have salt and vinegar. In fish & chip shops it's more usual to be offered salt & vinegar.

Ed, who hates West London with a vengeance, will forget all about how much he hates West London if someone suggests a drive over there.

That and your dinner comes in pristine white box fastened shut with cute design-whore sticker of a baleful orange plaice.

Yes, Marcello, Carfax Chippie! The only fish & chip shop which is down a long corridor. But not only Carfax Chippie. The Mediterranean Fish Bar too - there are at least two of these, in Abingdon Road and Marston. I am fortunate enough to live equidistant between Carfax Chippie and the Abingdon Road one. Bizarrely, the latter has a small room where you can actually eat your fish & chips sitting down rather than taking them home. It has two tiny tables with gingham table cloths. I have never seen anyone using it.

And another thing - why can't you get gravy in London? Gah...

Liz, I am excited by your news that Fishco seems to be open once more for business! Each time I wander by, it seems to be lying fallow, oh alas! Alack! Perhaps I will have a stroll by on my way home tonight (or fair enough, maybe not) but I will FLAG IT FOR FOLLOW-UP! Oh boy oh boy!!

Mmmmm. Chips. Camden Fish Market is one of the best reasons one would ever need to go to Camden. Caaaaaamden. AND THEY DO GRAVY!

Our local chippie is good too. I do not know what it is called but it is on Claylands Road. They do Saveloys. I have never eaten a saveloy in my life and NEVER WILL.

One thing I do not like is the mixing of fish and chip selling with FRIED CHICKEN SELLING. Fried chicken is from the CHICKEN SHOP, not the chip shop!! HONESTLY!!!

Pete, I'm with you on the battered sossidge. Although I can happily eat fish, I never know which one to go for and the battered sossidge always seems a lot more appealing. Mmmm battered sossidge!!

Actually, I still want to try Madchens recipe of chips in goosey melting Camembert. Mmmmm!

Then again, yesterday I bought BUY ONE GET ONE FREE bags of sprouts so I er... need to eat them... quickly...

You even get funny looks at some for even asking. Naturally, they are the ones in the wrong, as any fule no that chips and gravy are the way things are meant to be. And proper gravy at that. Brothers and sisters, we must rise up - together we can save our Southern brethren from the spectre of dry chips.

One of the best fish suppers I remember having was bought in Greenock. Although this may have had something to do with it costing about £1.50. Can't remember the name of the place although I do remember it selling instant heart attacks in the form of battered haggis or battered beefburgers.

And, as Liz mentioned, Fishcoteque rules. Especially for the decor which contrasts pictures of whales and dolphins enjoying themselves with pictures of yummy fish dishes.

(Sheesh).

the Goldhawk Fish Bar on Goldhawk Road serves the BEST CHIPS EVAH! *drooooools*

But yay, Fishcoteque is back!

The chippy at the end of my road, Claudio's, is pretty good. It stopped doing Cod a while ago and replaced it with 'special fish'. They manage to get the batter really nice and crispy and they give you loads and loads of vinegar.

The great thing about fish and chips in Scotland is you get a much smaller portion of chips, so you don't feel like a disgusting old bloater if you succeed in polishing them off. Also, you ask for a fish *supper* rather than fish and chips, thereby losing the need to say fish and chips twice, so as not to confuse with two fish and chips. Did that make sense? I think so. I tend to go for the sausage supper myself because it's cheap and tasty.

I notice Birds Eye have started advertising hoki steaks in batter, presumably so that when the cod does run out they won't lose too much business.

(Peppers is good too but too far to walk from anywhere I've lived)

Yes, but its fish isn't all that good. What they are really good at doing, for some strange reason, is chicken. I always get a chicken planks or chicken sandwich basket whenever I go there.

There were a couple of good places in San Francisco too when I was there.

Hoki is marketed in the US as "blue hake" and is wildly popular behind the scenes as a drop-in replacement for cod: I think McDonald's uses it now for one.

Hurrah for the Fishcotheque! I had no idea its fame was so widespread. Mmmmm sausage supper. Heart attack in crispy meaty form, as an accompaniment to some nice goose fat. Ooohh! Chips done in goose fat would be the lardiest thing EVAH.

BY SO FAR IT IS EMBARASSING FOR THE REST OF THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

EMBARRASSING

24-hour fish and chips in Queens? Why oh why has this never been mentioned to me before??

Batterburgers are fucking VILE!

i am also salivating despite it being 10 in the morning i have a neeeeeeeeeed for fish and chips. some points:

1. how did i get through 2 years of living in oxford wihtout going to carfax chippy? although wings on cowley road was a v good sub.

2. chiiiiiipppppppppyyyyyy soooooossssss is double nummy and reminds me that i so need to go to embra (and glasgow too, but no chippy soss there). i think the cafe next to the festival theatre (that's the big goldfish bowl one right?) is called the city restaurant (not to be confused with the city cafe, which is some sort of poncey wine bar type place) and i have been there many a time for double egg and chips and really really nasty coffee for about two squid.

3. tartar sauce, hammers??? how middle class are you???? (joke :))

4. battered haggisses (haggi?) really are very very naughty, in a good way.

The wonderfully-named Michael's High Class Fish Bar on the Holloway Road used to be decent in the 1980s but I haven't been there recently (nosebleed territory). People keep telling me there's a fabulous chipper in the Herne Hill area but I've yet to go there.

I went past a chip shop just off Union Sq last week and it smelled dreadful.

The best chippy I've ever come across is closed now: it was Capel's in Exeter, across the road from the public swimming baths.

Destroy: any chip shop with the place / plaice pun in its name.

Actually I think I will drop by this evening...

Go to the coast anywhere in the UK though and the F&C will be superb - Grimsby's one redeeming feature for example. But the best I've ever had were in Scarborough - though I can't remember the name of the plaice (somebody had to do it)

jOe I advise you to try them both.

*proper* chippies do NOT sell kebabs

hmmm, is that really true? You working on the basis that this makes them jacks of all trades, but masters of none?

Ed, are you buying, then?

OK, Next time I'm in London I will call an FAF&C and we will carouse the chip shops of London.

1. Fishcotecque, WATERLOO! (Only marred by its lack of gravy). A grebt sit down chip shop complete with all matters of unhealthy additions to eat in or takeaway. And they do a good mug of tea.

2. Camden Fish Market, CAMDEN! (Only marred by being er, in Camden). See above - and they do gravy. They give you the gravy in a little polystyrene cup though, but still, it's good... the ideal place to go after you've run away from the goths in THE DEV. You can also go upstairs for a sit down meal and SURVEY the TEENAGERS and HIPPIES and TEENAGE HIPPIES!

3. The Rock and Sole Plaice, COVENT GARDEN! (Only marred by its chips being slightly too wide and flat, but they DO have good gravy and are lovely. And I believe they are capable of selling beer. A superb place to eat when yr in the environs. Cheap and tasty and filling and the under-the-sea decor downstairs+++).

4. Claylands Fish And Chip Shop, VAUXHALL! (Lack of gravy strikes again, but hey it's local).

None of the above sell kebabs. Places that sell kebabs aren't chip shops. They are KEBAB SHOPS. A world of DUH! That's like saying a chicken shop will suffice for chips. How wrong you are... chips serve a different function depending on your needs. In the Chick Inn (for example), the chips are only there as thin strips of potato to try and mop up some of the chicken grease from yr mouth. They fail, but it's a super-human attempt. CHIP SHOP CHIPS imply that the potato is a vital part of the whole caboodle. A chip has to be of quality there, unlike the mere acommpaniment that it is elsewhere.

Mmmm chipz0r.

I had slightly dry fish at the rock and sole plaice, but they do indeed serve booze, but ouch is it expensive. I shall make an effort to try the others., despite them being south of the river. ;-)

Nast-ee.

Then again I had chips from another chippie somewhere near Mr Farrells house and they were *smashing*. Yet again it is the chippie vs kebab shop ting.

Camden is not north of the river.

Mmm chips and gravy.

Warning though - once in Camden Fish Market I saw they had chips and cheese. Upon asking for chips and cheese, I believe I got a regular funnel of chips, with a slice of processed cheese on the top. I ph34r they had misunderstood - or perhaps I misunderstood. This sounds so ridiculous I'm wondering now if I dreamed this.

I think I should buy a chip pan.

and yeah, fishco is sooper.

Jonnie lives above a famous chipper in Muswell hill, apparently it's full of ponces with more money than sense, but the fish is alright, chips undercooked.

The big difference I've noticed between F&C shops in Grimsby and the ones here in Scotland is the huge range of different types of fish you can get in Grimsby. Here it's just cod, haddock, then lots and lots of different non-fish things. In Grimsby, it's the other way round: most of the menu is different types of fish, with a couple of other things at the end.

Mary said a dirty word.

And there must be beetroot in the burger. There just must.

The five star fish bar as visited last night is also great, although Vicky wasn't too keen on her plaice.

so far auckland has been v.disappointing re : fish, although the proliferation of kumara chips & fried button mushrooms has somewhat alleviated this.
(aoli is good, TOMATAHH SAWCE is good, guacamole is underated, sour cream + chili ownz)

i must go today now

I keep meaning to go in there. Just about every restaurant that's lasted more than a couple of years in the same location has got some kind of award proudly displayed in the window. My own local chippie - Tales of the Sea on Westow St, Crystal Palace - was the best in South London, 2001, apparently. It is very good. They cut their chips too fat though.

There's a stonkingly good chipper in Llandudno too, I think it was called the golden bell or somesuch.

Yeah I've heard it's good - Might have to go there tonight.
I'll never go to the one on Gypsy Hill again (Golden Fry?), last time I got chips from them I nearly bit down on one of the metal ties they use to close spud sacks. Tasty.

my fav london f&c is on lisson grove by marylebone station and it has a pub opposite - which is rub, and it makes its own tartare sauce - which is a little too much like coleslaw for my liking

my fav uk f&c is in cambridge - which is also a chinese, ooh i might have them tonight that would be good

Thanks for the tip-off. Struggling up the hill from the station that place has called out to me many times (you can smell it from the Tavern) but I've always resisted.

I fear Starry is overselling the R&S Plaice on price - it's about seven quid for a cod, isn't it? That's not cheap!

1)Stock: very strange but sexy batter

2)Hatfield Peverel: all stuff v fresh, fastest service ever, outstanding vfm & the place looks so clean I would happily eat my large cod, chips & curry sauce (indeed) off the floor.

http://www.seafish.co.uk/news_releases/press292.htm

N.B. no-one I know agrees with this.

I did, It was alright I suppose
They cut their chips too fat though.
They do too!

Have also decided that there are better things to do with a perfectly good bit of fish (heresy!)

My friend read this. Just, I think, so he could go around saying "I'm reading the biography of COD!"

what Ned said. jeezis!

They're just trying to provide an 'authentic' British service experience as if you were going to a chippy in the East End or summink.

That is why whenever anyone mentions "fish & chips" to me in connection with a "true British dining experience", I wince and scatter away. I think I'll stick to the seafood restaurants close to home that I frequent, where there's very little grease involved and all I have to do is squeeze lemon juice over the fish and dip little pieces of the fish in tartar sauce. Call me parochial, but I don't want to risk severe digestive problems every time I go out to eat.

Anyway, fish'n'chips, as was said right at the start of the post, in Brighton Bardsley's is the one and is my local too, yay! Although there is a fantastic one if you happen to be in Hove called 'Seahorses' on Blatchington Road. If you want a tasty fish that isn't endangered (and unfortuntely Haddock is also endangered) Huss is a tasty white fish that is also cheaper and has no little bones (it has a backbone instead).

Best new takeaway science = the SEA DOG (huge crab stick w/tartare sauce etc in a hot dog bun)

http://pod-135.dolphin-server.co.uk/~gareth/faulkners.jpg

For sit down eaty fish & chips the Golden Fish Bar just by the junction of Farringdon Road and Roseberry Avenue is a good one.

umm, on a burger bun there's a slice of lorne sausage, a burger, a potato scone, an egg, sauces, there must be more than that... slice of cheese?

Lots of different tastes together...a bit dubious. But maybe I shouldn't knock it til I've tried it.

Burdocks is living on past glories at this stage, there's a better fish and chips to be had at the north end of Capel Street. But I might take the Fox to Burdocks so he can live the Dublin dream.

I wonder is Burdocks in "Ulysses"?

Last night me and the missus had cod and chips and Mooro had haddock and chips. I forgot there were different makes of fish, so I just asked for fish and chips, but I got cod. Mooro asked for haddock.

it could do. me and the Pinefox ate from there last night. it was very tasty - I think it's on a bit of an upswing. which is good.

(bad pun just for the halibut)...

gareth you are 100 percent geezer and yr faulkners luv has redeemed yr plastikman hate for me.

read it now, read it here, for you will never see these words in the same sentence again...

1. a deep fried pizza

or

2. a deep fried pie

!

Tell me about making it home. Tips? We're doing f&c for Labor Day.

It's not that difficult but scares me because of the huge vat of virtually boiling oil you have on the stove...sooooo...get one deep fat fryer. Good ones work really well and they're a lot less hassle if only for the reason that you can get the temperature right from the start which as fish'n'chip man will tell you is crucial.

Thx, Ned.

We decided to cook this stuff outside in a fryer. MMMMMMMMMM.

I think this stuff made me sick Sunday (after eating Sat night)

I have no doubt that English F&C is superior to US F&C. Though I am off the idea altogether now. WHen I was a kid I loved F&C! We had a fast food chain that claimed to make it like the English, I think it even came in newspaper? Called H Salt Fish-n-chips, there was also Arthur Treachers? Last ime I had them was in a local pub, I was sick-to-my-stomach for 2 days. It was like eating a 10 oz lump of greasey batter!! Wait a mninute... that's what it was! I guess my middle-aged tummy can't take the grease like it used to...

English fish and chips are shit now they're cooked in cheap vegetable oil. You have to go to Belgium where they cook them in LARD. Lovely, lovely, lovely lard.

the midwestern friday night fish fry is a noble tradition

I'm sure it was all very tasty, but since I was the fryer, I didn't want any of it by the time I was done.

Fish and chips is one of my favorite things about no longer being a vegetarian.

The fish was cut into small pieces because I couldn't afford to feed the masses:
<img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/amdraheim/fried1.jpg";>
We just kept frying things and throwing it into this box. It never got half full.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/amdraheim/fried1.jpg

English fish and chips are shit now they're cooked in cheap vegetable oil.

Do not tar the whole nation with your crappy chip experiences. Many many fine fish and chips can be had in the UK.

One time I had f&c but with SALMON. wtf Hartford, CT.

I do this frequently. Usually I keep the fryer out for the next couple days and fry whatever else I have that might even conceivably be edible battered and fried.

I always use cod. Suggest me other fish.

Haddock can be just as good fried or battered.

The cod, it always falls to teeny bits when I try to make this!

!!
Has it been thawed and refrozen multiple times?

Frozen at least once, when I buy it from the store.

Inland New Mexico doesn't have a lot in the way of fresh seafood.

use Hestons method for the batter

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/heston_blumenthal/article631377.ece

Cod is pretty bland for fish and chips. Haddock's better, but I don't know what New Mexico's haddock stocks are like. Plaice is better than cod too.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1960/beer+battered+fish+chips

Trending: serve your fish and chips in a box and charge a quid over the odds because it's a fine dining experience

oh yes, i had that in Margate. it came with the free pleasure of watching some EDL lunks in bomber jackets smacking the shit out of an arcade machine :-/

cafe downstairs from work is putting this on with their fish and chips, plus inflated "seventh most expensive city in the world" surcharge

They tried opening a Harry Ramsden's in Oxford. It was a huge failure. This is because Oxford, despite its poncey rep, has some of the best fish and chip shops I've been to.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 09:25 (9 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

things done changed

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-09-11/heart-omega-3/57750182/1

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/azstarnet.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/6e/d6e7a31e-9454-51f7-bb11-65ea825785d7/505211afe9ed6.preview-620.jpg

MONKEY LOOK AT FISH