I’ve had a really disappointing takeaway and now I’m sad

[ChipAndMiss]

First world problem ahoy.

We’re on holidays. I’m also on a diet but my husband has been talking all week about a local fish and chip place that’s meant to be amazing and said he’d love to try it tonight, so I planned my food for the day accordingly and was hungry and in the mood for takeaway.

I’m not the biggest fan of chips but the website and Instagram page went into lots of detail about the fish and seafood that comes off the boat every day- squid, prawns etc.

The website descriptions of what I ordered were-
Calamari- fresh squid in our signature light and crispy batter
Onion rings- slices of fresh onion in our signature light and crispy batter

Sounds nice, yeah?

This is the shit they gave me.

Clearly cooked from large bags of frozen crap. Cheap, nasty, tasteless, and processed. Completely inedible.

I’m sad. And hungry.

And to make it worse, they close ridiculously early so I couldn’t even phone up to complain because they were shut by the time I got home and opened these abominations.

Oh no! That's infuriating. I hate bad calamari and I despise bland onion rings.

That is crap but I also feel you picked a bad choice regardless sorry :(.

Never had a nice takeaway onion ring

Are your pictures both onion rings, or did the calamari and onion rings look the exact same.

Bad take away food is a sad event. It's the main reason I don't get take away too much. Can't take the sadness.

First pic is of the onion rings, and second is the so-called squid.

Our local place at home does the best onion rings. They’re huge, always ridiculously hot, and the batter is exquisitely crunchy.

They’re a big part of the reason I need to be on a diet, tbh.

Bad food is really depressing. Can you plan a nice meal for tomorrow, maybe one that's in line with your diet but also special?

The onion rings look pretty standard for a fish and chop shop, but that does not look like calamari, just more onion rings!

What a disappointment. They look beige.

Aww. Thats such a shame.

I feel your pain 😬

It's just looking at depression in a polystyrene box tbh

I went for lunch out with mil today, finished work early especially, looking forward to food. Picked the curry from the healthy and light list, £14... It was a bowl of thin and very hot curry sauce, slightly burnt naan to 'dip' in, and a small mound of cous cous with bits of pepper in it, had a funny texture, pretty sure microwaved. I had to pretend it was soup, only way I could mentally deal.

Oooh, that's quite an odd choice to pick from a takeaway. I mean it's not really a meal, is it, calamari are more like tapas or a starter and onion rings are usually just a garnish with steak or a side. Didn't you have any fish? And like you said, you get those items anywhere, even your local pub has them in frozen ready to cook. They're like those "deep fried mushrooms with garlic mayo" - standard frozen stuff you can get anywhere, nothing special.

So I'm afraid it's your actual choice that would make me sad, not the food itself, cos my expectations of those items would be quite low. Unless it was supposed to be some gourmet seafood restaurant like Rick Stein and promise the earth, that is.

What did your DH have, and did he like his?

Battered stuff in a takeaway never stays crispy. The steam always makes it go soggy in the box. To have really crispy batter you need to eat it straight out of the fryer in a restaurant. There's a world of difference between crispy light as air hot batter and vaguely warm soggy, deflated, slightly mushy, greasy-tasting kept-warm battered items. Urgh. Have you got a nice dessert to try and make up for it? Or even just some carbs, to fill you up?

GBK does a good onion ring

I don’t really like chips, and I absolutely love calamari so it’s something I’d order regularly.

I’m normally wary about where I’d order it from (I’ve been burnt before!) but the description and fact that the chippy had great reviews and lots of Instagram posts about fish and prawns and squid straight off the boats (we’re by the sea), I figured it was a safe bet.

Onion rings were more of a whim but my husband likes them too so I got them with a view to sharing. Again, based on the description mentioning their “signature batter”, I was confident of a decent, homemade ring.

Oh, and the squid was £7.50 😬

I doubt that calamari is 'fresh off the boat' in any British seaside resort.
Fresh out of the catering pack from Young's, perhaps.

He had a “large” cod and chips. It was £15.50 and the fish was not large. I tasted it and it was certainly passable, but on the bland side. Chips were nice- I took a couple and they were decent

Just to add, this place is a fancy spot. Only does takeaway but other items on the menu included tempura prawns, scallops in garlic butter, and mackerel. That’s on top of the usual stuff- cod, haddock, fish cakes etc.

I’d never order squid in a typical chippy I’m unfamiliar with because I’d expect it to be shite, but based on all the info around boats and batter, I was expecting better.

Oh goodness, you have to move. Our local (from where I'm from, not where I live), does the best onion rings - ever!!

Only standard for a chippy that buys in bags of frozen processed onion rings - BOKE! For real chippies who actually chop up onions, batter them and cook them from scratch, what is actually pictured surely is an abomination indeed.