The Kinmel Arms, Llansansior/St George

 

On the way to see mother and father we stopped off for posh fish and chips at the Kinmel Arms.

The Kinmel Arms has popped up on a number of ‘best of’ lists over the last few years so it was great to be able to try it finally. Fish and chips were on the menu, handsomely priced at £13.95.

The fish itself was incredibly fresh, perhaps even the freshest I can remember tasting, and it came without its skin. The flakes were both big in size and in flavour. Very enjoyable.

The batter was very light in texture and had a very good crispy outer. It was a deep brown colour and an excellent taste which was subtle enough not to overpower the fish.

Crisp would be the only way to describe the chips. They were incredibly crisp. So much so that it actually took a big of effort to bite into them. Luckily the inside was a beautiful soft potato with a glorious taste. Clearly they’d been cooked more than once to get the crispiness – the colour of them was a lovely deep brown.

The peas were of the crushed variety and were simply superb. They had an intense flavour with just a hint of mint and a very good consistency.

Big chunky bits of vegetables had gone into the tartare and mixed with the light mayo (which was very good in itself) to make for a very enjoyable accompaniment. The lemon was OK and had had the pips removed.

I had to ask for salt and vinegar.  The vinegar came in a container that when using it even the most dextrous couldn’t avoid delivering anything short of a torrent of vinegar onto the fish. I didn’t try it a second time.

Oddly the meal came with a green leaf side salad. I did look at it and wonder what business a green salad had with fish and chips, and decided that the best strategy was to leave it untouched on its plate.  If I had wanted a salad I’d have probably asked for one.

Great food but just a shame about the vinegar disaster and the green leaf conundrum.

Colemans, South Shields

Colemans is an award-winning chippy. It wins awards not only for the quality of its food but also for the sustainable way in which it sources its raw materials. And it’s a Tyneside institution with a proud tradition of quality going back to 1926. Although South Shields is a slightly depressing, post-industrial seaside town, the reputation of the restaurant made the visit a necessity.

I went for line-caught haddock and chips at £8.50 with mushy peas an extra £1.20.

The haddock had a clean, fresh taste and the soft big flakes of fish made it a pleasure to eat. The batter was well-cooked with a good flavour and not a hint of oiliness. You had the feeling that the oil was probably fresh that morning as the taste was so clean.

The chips were again very well cooked and all their creamy Maris Piper qualities were on show.

The peas, on the other hand, were a disappointment – an overly thick consistency detracted from a decent flavour that didn’t manage to match the quality of the rest of the fish and chips. The meal came with a big piece of lemon that had too many pips. Adorning the plate were two sprigs of flat leaf parsley intended to add an additional aesthetic element – they didn’t add to my enjoyment of the meal and were surplus to requirements.

The tartare was all wrong for me. It came in a small plastic pot, which was clearly designed to manage portion size and offer consistency of presentation, but it just looked ugly. A small white ramekin would have been much more appropriate for an establishment aspiring to high standards. To add to this it was too thick and was therefore more a mustard than a sauce. It was clearly homemade and had a reasonably good flavour balance but for me its inelegance, in texture and presentation, spoilt it.

The meal was washed down with a 7up and a glass of water where the water came in a charming bottle of H₂OUSEWATER.

It was a pleasure to go and the fish and chips were fantastic but just need more effort on the extras.

Colemans popularity was evident: as we left the queue waiting patiently to be seated stretched out of the door and beyond.

I’m looking forward to going back when they celebrate their centenary – only 13 years to go.

The Angel Inn, Corbridge

Corbridge is a well-to-do small village in Northumberland which lies along the Tyne Valley. The town currently boasts two of the top ten most expensive streets in the region by average house price. This explains why, along with tourism, it supports such an amazing range of shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants.

One of the gems of Corbridge is the Angel Inn, branded the Angel of Corbridge, which is a great big traditional inn with rooms, a restaurant and a bar. We went to the bar.

I went for the Wylam Beer battered Cod fillet, hand cut chips and mushy peas at £11.95.

The fish was tasty without being anything special and I did need to remove the skin before I could enjoy its flavour. The Wylam Brewery batter was very good. It was crisp, a golden brown colour and had a taste that was fulfilling without being overpowering. It also had some bit crispy bits hanging off it, which went down a treat.

The chips were hand cut by someone who had a very limited amount of time in which to cut chips. They therefore decided that instead of aiming for a traditional chipped potato they would use scaling as a time-saving device. They were huge. Huge, long, wide rectangles of chips and although they did have a good flavour they should have been in the fryer for a couple of minutes longer. But at least they brought back a reminder of childhood songs.

 

There were chips, chips as big as battle ships,

In the store, in the store,

There were chips, chips as big as battle ships,

In the quartermaster’s store.

The peas were excellent. They had a deep, intense colour which was matched by the flavour and they were probably the highlight of the meal.

I did have to ask for the salt and vinegar but this wasn’t a problem as the staff were friendly, helpful and attentive, without being too interested in upselling you more drinks. The lemon was very clever. It was tall and had been cut in such a way as you could hold it in one hand by the skin and get an efficient squeeze out with no pips. The tartare was fine, in both quality and density, with a blend of gherkin and caper tang.

The meal was washed down with a cold pint of Tyneside Blonde. Sadly the temperature killed much of the flavour of this normally fine beer, but all in all it was a good meal, in good company in a charming pub, in a delightful Northumbrian location.

Aragon Fisheries, Knaresborough

NADV 1307302AM1 Brian and Sally Cunningham of the award winning Aragon Fisheries. Picture : Adrian Murray. (1307302AM1)

Another break with the blog's focus on sit-down fish and chips is this trip to the rather wonderful Aragon.

Run by a charming couple, this back-street sensation was recently listed in Fry Magazine's top 50 chip shops in the country - and deservedly so. Aragon was immaculate and had a straightforward menu cooked on a standard range and delivered through a small serving area. The couple spent about 10 minutes chatting about all sorts of subjects and the welcome and goodbye seemed very genuine and warm.

Fish and chips was £4.40, 60p for mushy peas and 20p for a big sachet of tartare.

As with all great fish and chip shops, the fish was cooked to order whilst me and some friends engaged in a friendly chat with the owners. Locals popped in on a regular basis and many of their orders were pre-prepared - they had clearly phoned ahead and had probably been doing so for many years.

The meal then technically became a sit-down experience as two friends and I, who had come to Knaresborough to visit some hostelries, sat on a council bench on a T junction in the town and managed a decent impression of Compo, Foggy and Clegg. I'll let you choose who's who.

 

Courtesy of the BBC

The fish was excellent. A fabulously white piece of haddock with a fresh, clean taste and a tender texture. The batter was a little oily but well-cooked and had just the right amount of crispiness. The chips looked underdone, but were in fact perfectly done and had one of the most satisfying potato tastes I've had in some time.

I didn't have any mushy peas but one of my friends did and said they were very good. The tartare was a very pleasant surprise as I've been consistently disappointed with packet sauces. However, this one had a really good taste and texture and beat many restaurant-made versions into a cocked hat.

We ate from the biodegradable trays provided and were mostly successful in the act of eating, apart from the 'Forkgate' incident. One of our group was overly enthusiastic with his white plastic fork and unbeknownst to him he had dislodged a prong. Luckily, as he continued to eat, the prong appeared on a batter background and not a fish background, which would have made it invisible to the human eye. Had he not seen it the trip might have been a bloody disaster.

As it was we had a fantastic start to the day at a stand-out chippy.