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.

Old Gate, Hebden Bridge

 

 

 

The Old Gate is an old favourite even though it’s only been open since last October. Since the demise of Moyles bar, restaurant and hotel in the floods of 2012, the Old Gate has cornered the market for quality beer in Hebden town centre with a serious approach to sourcing an intelligent selection. They have also built their reputation on good food. It’s not cheap pub food but it seems to be well cooked and it was therefore inevitable that I would review their fish and chips at some point.

It’s a big old pub. The pub which was previously on the site, which had gone through many unsuccessful reincarnations since being converted from two houses many years ago, was rumoured to have been built on an Indian burial grave and therefore this new venture was never going to be a success. However, the new owners ripped out the old pub and started afresh with a long bar in the back of the pub and big open-plan L shaped drinking area with a mix of bench and more traditional pub seating including the obligatory sofas. I have a problem with sofas in pubs. As it’s so open-plan and so busy it can get incredibly loud downstairs but at least this is a catalyst to get me to go home! 

Upstairs is given over to eating most of the time and there is an event space for comedy nights etc. the space is well set out into a mix of table sizes and has its own dedicated staff to get your food and your beer. On the first weekend of the Hebden Bridge’s arts festival we had friends from Manchester along with their two children along with a mutual friend from Blackpool and by far the easiest place to accommodate 7 of us for lunch was around one of the tables upstairs. The space is quite quiet at lunchtimes and therefore ideal for the children to be children and space enough so that no one was shoved into a corner as can be the case in some many pub-restaurants.

 I went for the beer battered haddock, twice fried chips and mushy peas at £11.

The presentation was interesting as the battered fish sat on top of the chips, the mushy peas came in a mini saucepan and the tartare in a small shallow dish not too dissimilar from a ceramic dipping dish . I don’t agree with fish being on top of the chips as it just makes the chips sweat but this does seem to be the norm. Normally I wouldn’t like the gimmick of the iddy biddy saucepan but for some reason I quite liked its cuteness. However, I did have a downer on the dipping dish as it just didn’t sit right with the other elements – and the colour was wrong as well.

The fish was excellent. Big chunks, great flavour and well cooked. The batter was delicious and crisp and the various light and dark brown hues of the batter was appealing.  The chips were clearly twice cooked. They looked a fantastic deep brown, had a crispy outer and a soft scrumptiousness inside.

The cute saucepan contained some really well seasoned mushy peas which packed a really good flavour punch. The tartare was the only disappointment of the meal, and not just because I had clearly taken issue with its container. The mixture was too fine and green and had an overly acidic taste to it. Not pleasant at all and a shame in the context of the quality that came from the rest of the dish.

The meal came with a good chunk of lemon, a salt cellar and a good vinegar dispenser. The whole thing was washed down with a pint, or two, of Magic Rock’s excellent Curious .

 

 

 

 

 

The Market Place, Todmorden

Copyright – The Local Data Company

 

The Market Place in Tod is an excellent traditional fish and chip shop which does exactly what it says on the sign –no chance then that anyone will take them to court for misrepresentation in the eyes of the Trade Descriptions Act. Except they sell more than just fish and chips – other dinners do exist.

The entrance in the photograph is from Halifax Road in Todmorden and have an entrance at the back that is only a few yards away from one of the great markets in these parts.

The shop is about 40% seating, 40 % take-away counter and cooking area and the remaining 20% is storage and prep. The seating area is made up of a set of booths with Formica table tops that took me back to the 1970s. On each table sat huge amounts of sugar sachets that no-one would ever put a dent in along with the usual selection of salt, vinegar and tomato ketchup.

Although our welcome from the person serving was warm and helpful it was interesting to see the dynamics of what looked like a family working behind the servery. Tensions looked close to bubbling over at any point. As we took our seats the shouty chatter of three children with their parents became very apparent but they were soon to be fed and silence would resume as they tucked into their meals. For a while at least.

I went for the fish, chips and peas which was a very reasonable £5.10. I loved the fact that as standard we were given a knife, fork and spoon as it is perfectly normal to stir vast amounts of sugar into a big mug of tea, which is exactly what a very tired construction worker, who took a seat opposite us, did.  

The fish was wet. And I do mean very wet such that pressing down fish brought forth water. Something may have gone wrong with fish storage or prep of the fish to cause this, but needless to say it didn’t help the texture or the flavour, which was mushy and bland. The batter was light and crispy but had more than a hint of old oil to it.

The chips were great. As so often, in my opinion, they could have done with a minute longer but were crispy and tasted like good chippy chips should.

The peas were big and very, very hot. Once they cooled they had a perfectly pleasant gentle pea flavour.

No tartare but it did come with a little wedge of lemon. The meal was washed down with a glass of corporation pop.

It was great to get to a new, local, basic sit-down fish and chip shop which was the motivation for starting the blog. Unfortunately, the mushy fish was unforgivable. That said, others meals looked slightly better so maybe it was just old-fashioned bad luck.

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Quarter Restaurant, Manchester

A 40^th birthday party and the host’s choice was the excellent Northern Quarter Restaurant in Manchester. I’m a big fan of the Northern Quarter with its combination of eclectic bars and restaurants and a real sense of being an independent spirit in a big conventional city. It does enjoy being different but its enthusiastic celebration of all things artisan makes it a lovely break from the mundanity of life. 

I went for the fish and chips with homemade pea puree and tartar (their spelling) sauce at £9.50.

The fish was excellent and had a fresh, light flavour. The batter was light and crispy and had a really well balanced taste. A lovely combination.

The chips were really good. Twice fried and full of floury loveliness. 

The pea puree was good but didn’t pack as much of a flavour punch as I expected. 

The tartare (my spelling) was excellent with the myriad of ingredients working well with each other and it came in a big portion on the plate with lots of little chunky fresh flavours. 

I was surprised that there was no lemon and the salt and vinegar needed to be requested. The vinegar came in a jug which made it another job for high-quality motor skills.

The TNQ, as it’s branded, is posh and therefore the pea puree and tartare has to swiped across the plate which meant that the chips were sitting in both of them and as I’m a little odd I always prefer to have all the ingredients separated out so I can choose what to add at any time of the meal.

I went for the house red as they only sell bland bottles of lager which is still a bit of a surprise. When I asked what beers they had the waiter was quite animated telling me their range of continental lagers, but I can never get excited about San Miguel.  

On the whole it was a pleasure to eat at TNQ and I’m looking forward to my next visit.

Brambles Cafe and Bar, Holmfirth

A Friday night in Holmfirth to watch the wonderful Lau in concert at the Picturedrome and an opportunity for a bite to eat before the gig.

I went for the Brambles beer battered haddock, chunky chips, minted mushy peas and tartar (their spelling not mine) sauce at £8.95.

The fish was bland and the batter was a little oily and the oil it was cooked in may have been past its best as it gave the batter a slightly burnt taste.

The chips were not chips and they were not chunky as claimed. The wedges with bits of potato skin on them were also a little oily and had a burnt flavour like the fish batter. They were thankfully a standard sized chip.

The mushy peas were a challenge. They tasted OK but had no mint. It was only after a few dips into the bowl that they came in that I realised the mint had been added to the bottom of the bowl and my job was to mix the peas with the mint to create the advertised effect. Unfortunately I’d already eaten quite a lot of the peas before I found the mint and so I had half a portion of perfectly good mushy peas and half a portion of very minty peas.

The tartare (my spelling not theirs) had been blended to within an inch of its life and none of the flavours that went into it had any distinction. A decent lemon wedge was provided.

My main grumble was with the presentation. The meal came on a plate with two equal sections. Section one, on the left, had the fish and chips and the other side had a bowl for the mushy then minty peas, the lemon and a tiny cup for the tartare. It seemed to be trying too hard for a plate.

I went for the Brambles Best Bitter which was a house beer from a local brewery and was pretty good.

The service was great. Quick, efficient and helpful.