No sleep ‘til Douglas – The official fish and chips story of the Isle of Man tour 2014

The tour was the annual get together of a few friends who agree a location to spend a few days chatting, walking, cycling, eating and drinking.

This year’s venue was the magical Ellan Vannin. A place that feels gloriously peaceful with little of the histrionics that seem to invade our daily lives.

Our first night was spent in Peel in a pub that is an institution in the town, The Creek Inn. I love the Creek Inn. Good beer, a ‘sun-kissed’ beer garden to the front and just a great bustle of people from all over the world enjoying their time on the island.

I waited for my fish and chips (£12.50) trying to ignore a nearby diner’s lamb shank which hummed with the smell of mint sauce. I’d had brilliant fish and chips from the Creek a few years earlier so was very excited about the meal to come.

When it came it looked OK and the fish was OK. Just OK. A little too dry and without a lot of flavour but not bad either. The same could be said of the batter which was fine but didn’t tickle the tastebuds yet it did have a good clean, crisp crunch to it.

The chips were homemade but were overcooked and the flavour of the potato had been completely removed from inside the outer crispy shell. The other problem was they had taken on too much oil and I could see them oozing fat when forked which didn’t make them terribly appetising.

The peas seemed to have come from a packet and had little if any taste. The tartare was also from a packet and had a harsh acidity which was far too overwhelming to make it enjoyable.  There was far too much tartare and far too few peas.

A piece of lemon was provided but the vinegar had to be requested.

So my initial excitement was well and truly deflated by this start to my fish and chip exploits on the island. To top it all off the meal was washed down with a very average Oakham Citra.

The end of the following day’s cycling from Ramsey to the Point of Ayr and back was a return bus to Peel and the Peel Fisheries chippy. 

We could smell the chip shop when we got off the bus and it just got better as we made our hungry way through the back streets of Peel. It’s a small corner chippy with some seating outside and they were just at the start of frying for the evening shift. With the sun beginning to fade over the Manx hills it felt very, very right.

The fish was cooked to order and without being remarkable was enjoyable and along with the fantastic batter it was a fine balance of taste and texture. The batter was perhaps a tiny bit oily.

The chips were glorious. A great clean potato taste and a perfect level of crispiness. The best I’d had in some time.

The peas didn’t have a lot of flavour but at least they did have the classic chip shop consistency.

There was no need for anything else as they had added the right amount of salt and vinegar.

There are fewer better things in life than sitting on a bench next to a back-street chippy with the cars and buses of Peel trundling past and the good people of Peel popping in to get a cheeky Tuesday treat. The meal was washed down with fresh air.

The final fish and chips of the trip were at Tanrogan in Douglas which came as part of their two courses for £15 set lunch menu. Tanrogan is widely accepted as one of the best restaurants on the island and the ambience of this fine looking eatery was only disturbed by a group of ‘ladies who lunch’ chatting far too loudly.

The fish was fantastic. Superb intense fresh fishy flavour in big chunks of perfectly moist meat. Happy days. The fish was encased in very crisp, very brown and very tasty batter and they worked elegantly together to give me a deep-fried taste sensation I hadn’t had in some time.

The chips were as good as the battered fish. They were bloody big things but crispy on the outside and a stunning floury flavour from some high-end potatoes.

As anticipated from the rest of the food, the tartare was excellent with big chunks of gherkin and capers in the mayo creating a cracking cut-through freshness against the fish.

I wasn’t surprised by the size of the lemon, but I was by the numerous pips that came out of it when squeezed.

The drinks that accompanied the meal were a bottle of Swiss 1936 beer and a glass of Nostros Sauvignon Blanc.

Great food served with very good service and attention to detail in every aspect of the experience. Highly recommended.

Afterwards it was off to the ferry for Liverpool.

Thank you Isle of Man.

Castle Chippy, Clitheroe

According to many on TripAdvisor the Castle Chippy is superb. More evidence that TripAdvisor isn’t always the most reliable place to get recommendations.

We parked up near the chip shop and I popped in for two portions of fish and chips plus a large portion of peas which came to the incredibly reasonable price of £9.50. Tragically what I saw coming out of the display section of the range were two incredibly uniform pieces of fish that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Birds Eye frozen battered fish packet. I was feeling anxious!

The chippy does have a small table but it was a wee bit cramped so we drove to the car park next to the outstanding Swan with Two Necks pubs in the charming village of Pendleton.

Thankfully it wasn’t Birds Eye but fresh fish that just happened to be similarly shaped. The fish itself had a good flavour and chunky flakes that on its own was good, but it was let down by the batter which was far too oily and tasted like it had been sat in the display cabinet for too long.

The chips were pretty poor - both limp and anaemic. They did taste of potato but the heavy flavour of oil overwhelmed any quality chip taste.

The mushy peas on the other hand tasted of virtually nothing. They had been boiled to within an inch of their lives and had lost the will to hold on to any flavour some hours ago.

On the positive side they had provided excellent plastic forks which meant that you could avoid getting your hands too oily.

A genuinely disappointing chip shop experience and I was reminded of its oiliness for a few hours more as the meal sat heavily on my stomach.

One chippy that’s definitely off the list.

Pier House Bistro, Beaumaris

My sister’s 50^th birthday party was the reason for this visit to Ynys Mon and as we’d made good time on the journey to Beaumaris, there was an opportunity for something to eat before we headed for the main event.

There was a difficult decision to be made. The Bistro had fish and chips which sounded good but it was only a few metres away from the Café Neptune chippy. The Neptune was a big modern proper chippy whilst the Pier House was a posh looking place, but as the name suggests there was a great view of Beaumaris’s charming pier and it wasn’t rammed with tourists. We decided to go to the quieter venue.

I went for the “Pier House Haddock - Fresh fillet of haddock coated in our very own gin & tonic batter, served with chunky chips and crushed garden peas” for £8.95.

The haddock was moist with a clean, fresh taste and had been cooked perfectly. This was supported by the batter which was only let down slightly by the fact that it has cooked a little inconsistently, but from the perspective of taste it was very good. Couldn’t tell that the G+T had made a difference but it worked.

The chips looked like they’d come from a bag in the freezer and tasted of absolutely nothing. A real shame that this fairly crucial part of the classic combination had gone so wrong.

The crushed peas looked really good but the mint flavour was so overpowering I couldn’t really taste the peas. As the mint tasted so vinegary I have to assume it came from a jar.

The tartare had all the right things in the right proportions but they sadly didn’t work as a whole. The capers and the gherkins were too acidic and the cheap tasting mayo was a perfect match for the overwhelming taste of vinegar.

The samphire on the top was a really nice touch and an enjoyable salty surprise, the lemon was a good big piece and salt and vinegar were readily available on the table.

A meal that got quite close to average, but a lack of attention to detail in not sourcing better ingredients, cooking proper chipped potatoes and checking to see what the food tasted like before it went out could have improved the meal significantly.

The whole thing was washed down with tap water.

The Closed Shop, Sheffield

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23112312@N08/2212880140/

I was out with 3 old friends for a few cheeky drinks around the outskirts of Sheffield and needed a good start to the day. Our first pub of the day was The Closed Shop on Commonside on the western edge of the city and it did food so it made a lot of sense to have the fish and chips at £7.95.

The pub has been recently taken over and was very clean but unfortunately on our visit the beer selection wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as it had been on their Facebook profile recently, but this was just a little bad luck on our behalf.

The fish was big and came with an equally large amount of sturdy skin on it which has to be scraped away and discard before I could start eating. The fish was pretty fresh if a little damp with some water coming out of the flesh but was cooked consistently throughout. The batter had a good deep colour and had a great flavour to match the fantastic crispyness.

The chips were yet again not chips but wedges. However, they did have a great flavour although as usual with my taste in the fried potato I would have left them in the fryer for another 60 seconds.

There are two images of the meal. This one clearly shows the frozen peas that arrived on the southern side of the plate and were simply dull. It also shows the overindulgence in the world of green leaves which was simply over the top and wasn’t eaten. Unfortunately, the salad replaced the lemon wedge which is a terrible shame.

The tartare was utter nonsense. Having has the stupid deconstructed tartare at the Clive outside Ludlow this was almost as bad. It was basically some sliced gherkins placed on top of a small, shallow mayonnaise container. I did have some of the mayonnaise with my chips but it was another very poor attempt at what should be a straightforward addition to a fish and chips meal.

The salt and vinegar was in packet form and the meal was washed down with an uncomplicated standard bitter.

The second image is a long shot of the meal with a bottle of Henderson’s Relish included. The object of the photo is really just to show you a bottle of Henderson’s relish.

Albert's Restaurant & Bar, Didsbury

I had been to Albert's Restaurant & Bar last year on the way to Dublin via Manchester Airport and had been incredibly impressed with the lunchtime meal deal and as we were in the area, we decided to try it again.

As the main part of the £10.95 deal at this ponsy Didsbury restaurant I had ‘albert’s fish and chips’ which was defined as sustainably sourced pacific cod fillet in a beer batter served with proper mushy peas, bread & butter and home-made tartare sauce.

For those that want to know, I had the Anglesey mussels in broth to start, which were absolutely fantastic.

The fish had an excellent clean fresh taste and fell apart into big enjoyable chunks. Sadly the batter was soggy and oily and clearly something had gone wrong in the frying process. Very disappointing.

The chips were very modern, very big, very rectangular pieces of potato which had been carefully presented on the plate, which to their credit was large, round and white. Unfortunately, although the potato texture was OK these had also not been cooked correctly. They weren’t crispy at all and had an oily, almost burnt flavour.

The mushy peas were indeed ‘proper’ with great flavour and texture.

As it was a restaurant I had to ask for vinegar, but I definitely didn’t have to add salt. The kitchen had, very kindly, added a huge number of great big blocks of rock salt onto the plate. Some of them were easy to remove as they were so big, but others were carefully camouflaged on the white background and made for an exceptionally unpleasant taste when they appeared in a bite of food. This was completely unnecessary and although having pre-salted chips is becoming more the norm in restaurants, where the bloody hell does the idea of adding lumps of rock salt come from? Ironically, there was a perfectly good salt dispenser on the table.

The tartare came in its own mini ramekin, had a good consistency and a lovely subtle texture.

A big chunk of lemon squeezed well and I decided to pass on the triangles of sliced white bread.

A really poorly thought out and badly made plate of food.  

North Star, Higher Crompton, Shaw, Oldham

Once a year, somewhere between Oldham and Hebden Bridge, I meet up with some very dear friends and their extended and extending family. It is always a joy and one of the highlights of my year. I also got to use the new metro line to Shaw from Rochdale which was also exciting!

This year's venue was high on the hills above Shaw in the Crompton area. I hadn’t been to this pub in my many years in Oldham but the North Star looked a reasonable bet for a decent fish and chips.

I went for the Beer Battered Haddock with lemon & black pepper served with proper chips mushy or garden peas. Homemade tartare sauce. Bread & Butter 75p extra at £8.45. It was one of those pubs that maybe tried a little too hard with descriptions on the menu. I went for the mushy peas and didn’t have the bread and butter.

When it came it was a handsome feast.

The fish was OK without being exciting and lacked any real depth of flavour, but was well cooked and certainly much better than some I’ve tasted. The batter was a lovely crisp crunch of flavour that was a pleasure from start to finish.

The chips were just OK. They were OK in their taste but sadly hadn’t been crisped up like the batter and needed quite a bit of salt and vinegar to kick start them, but once they were improved I really enjoyed them.

The mushy peas were full in size and in flavour. Not in any posh way but just good, honest mushy peas with no airs or graces and the pea flavour did the talking. Lovely.

I am always suspicious when I read the words ’homemade tartare sauce’ and this time was no exception. The consistency and flavour of the tartare looked and tasted like it had come out of a catering jar. However, there was nothing too wrong about the taste and they seemed like honest folk running the place and I’ll therefore give them the benefit of the doubt and just say that it was a good tartare that just happened to look like it came from the wholesalers.

Big slice of lemon, but I’m still not sure where the black pepper was as it didn’t come across in the batter and wasn’t hiding anywhere, so it’ll have to remain a mystery.

The meal was washed down with ThwaitesWainwright which was on very good form.

The highlight of the meal was the company – wonderful friends and, although it’s only once a year we meet up, it may as well have been the day before. Maybe the smiles are a little broader for our year apart. 

The Borough, Lancaster

Fish and chips for £12 on a very short weekend break to the county town of Lancashire.

TheBorough is a smart, independent gastro-pub in Dalton Square in the centre of Lancaster with a fantastic selection of beers. It is an impressive Georgian Town House, once the Mayor of Lancaster's house, run as a family business since 2006.

We visited on a bank holiday weekend and the atmosphere was relaxed, friendly and not too noisy as the internal spaces were well broken up.

As you’ll see from the photo of the meal, they committed what I consider to be a serious fish and chip sin. The fish arrived wrapped on top of the chips in thick, waxed, fake newspaper, advertising the Borough’s offers – a gimmicky and unnecessary nod to the world of the chippie newspaper.

The peas arrived in a ramekin, which was fine, but the tartare had been demoted to be served in a poorer, mini paper version. Surely tartare deserves the same respect as the peas? The bread and butter was left as it had little appeal.

The fish was a very solid piece of haddock with good flavour, but I was expecting something fresher as we were so close to Heysham docks. However, it was very well cooked and enjoyable from start to finish. The batter was good in places but not in others due to some very uneven frying. The flavour of the batter was OK where it had been correctly cooked.

The chips were too big. They were clearly hand cut which I did appreciated, but their girth was 50% more than a good chip should be. They had more in common with the old block than with the chip and some had stuck together, making an already giant chip into an absolute chip monster.

They also had been inconsistently cooked, they lacked crispiness and the flavour wasn’t terribly exciting.

The peas were a reasonably mix of slightly solid and fully mushed peas with a lovely hint of mint running through them. The tartare was tart but too finely chopped for my taste, although it worked well as a complement to the fish.

A decent lemon wedge and salt and vinegar were provided – the vinegar in a standard, run-of-the-mill, Sarsons dispenser.

 It was washed down with their Borough Brewery pale ale, which was an absolute cracker.

Overall, I didn’t feel like they were using the best ingredients and they certainly could have taken more care of the cooking.

A good pub, with OK food.