Are Fish and Chips worth it?

[girlfriend44]

Normally cook my own, but last night went to the Chippy.
Had 2 large Cod and Chips and a pot of mushy peas.
Cost 23.80.
Found it very underwhelming.
So glad I normally do my own.

I know costs have gone up, but do you think it's worth the cost?
Do you enjoy it?

I would never pay for grease on a plate

Fish and chips still the cheapest takeaway by far.

Round here £12 gets you a massive cod, large chips and peas and tastes good as well. Feeds 2 people or 1 very greedy person who has starved all day.

I can see how if you live in some sort of posh Southern place they might look a lot less good value for money but that's one of the prices you pay for living down South.

all takeaways are under whelming these days yet still expensive

It depends on the quality of the food and of course what you are comparing it to. If you can make the same meal at home for a tenner then probably not worth it. If you were planning to go out for a fancy dinner that would've cost £40 then £23 is a bargain.

It also depends how often you get it. I rarely eat out or have a takeaway so on the rare occasions I do, that £23 is a price I'm willing to pay to avoid cooking and washing up!

Chip shop chips done right are brilliant. We are in London and a large chips feeds the whole family, and I can’t finish a whole portion of fish so we share. Where they do a kids portion I have that for £6 all in.

I think it’s worth it

Ours was the same
Ordered through Just Eat. Me and 19 yr ds.

£23.99
Plain sausage large chips large gravy each.

It was yum

The local chippy their chips are really good.

It all depends on how good it is.

The problem I have here is that one chippy does amazing fish. Like the best fish I've had, but their chips are distinctly average. The other chippy does fantastic chips, but their fish is very poor.

And then by the time you go one place for fish and the other for chips the hassle is too high and it's not fun.

The saying ‘cheap as chips’ is long gone.

Massively overpriced for what you get now. Even just the chips!

I make my own chips in the air fryer which are really tasty but I wouldn’t bother making batter and frying a fish. I usually buy a frozen battered Haddock portion from the supermarket which is pretty decent.

However, I had Fish, Chips and mushy peas in the pub yesterday for €18 and it was bloody lovely. Light crispy batter and really tasty fresh cooked chips.

I’m lucky in that I live in the south of Ireland on the coast and we have fresh fish shops in all the nearby local towns. We also have an award winning chippy not too far away that does fab fish and chips. In contrast, we have virtually no decent Asian restaurants outside of the city. 😩

You get good fish and chip shops and not so good ones. Around us they are very good (lots of awards etc) and at least 2 have gf fish and chips available.

In Scotland its usually haddock rather then cod which I find a much better fish for it.
We generally order 2 portions of chips between 4 of us and still have leftovers typically!

Depends on the chippy. Round here we have 3 that are all more than worth it, so yes.

The cost of all takeaways are ridiculous these days. It was going to cost us £29 for 2 KFC meals delivered the other week - just fancied it as not had it for a long time. Needless to say we didn’t bother!

Fish and chips are a similar price round here.
We only ever have them if we go to the coast as I’m not fussed really for them.

Ocado/M&S do this Gastro Haddock for £11, we had it today, two big pieces of fish which we did in the airfryer (the batter was very crisp and golden) and it came with two little pots of delicious minted pea puree. I thought it very good value and just as good as a fish shop's.

It doesn't come with chips though (the ones in the picture are a 'serving suggestion' 😉) and I missed them! I absolutely LOVE chips from a chip shop, nothing else comes close (especially not the abomination that is 'oven chips' 😖 but for the reasons given by pps, fish and chips has become very expensive lately (about £23 here.)

We have a great chippy it would be a couple of quid cheaper than yours and the large fish supper has two large fish fillets in it and a generous portion of chips (realistically it is enough for two people), we don't have one often perhaps 2-3 times a year, as going to the shop, waiting in the queue, then rushing home to keep them hot takes a good hour, but when we do it is usually a nice treat.

Where are you based? I just priced it up at my local chippy and two large fish, two large portions of chips and one large pot of peas is £12.40.

Alternatively you can get large fish,chips peas in one for £5.20 each.

I’m in the north west.

I remember reading a longread article in the Guardian a year or two back about the difficulties of fish and chip shops https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/20/a-funeral-for-fish-and-chips-east-neuk-fife-anstruther-scotland

Yes, I have a really good one near my house; the other ones I have tried are not good. We buy 2 for 4; otherwise is too much food.

I do get disappointed many times when I eat out these days; mostly average food at a extortionate prices. A few are worthy though.

I think it’s worth it. Our local chip shop is pretty good but no way I could eat a large fish and chips, I usually order 2 fish and one portion of chips (regular)for dd and I, it’s usually around £16 ish. I think as a treat it’s worth it.

Omg! Where are you?

Same here mrsm43s. We have a van that visits our village - we recently got 2 regular cod and chips for us, a chicken nuggets and chips for our daughter, plus 3 small curry sauce and it came to £45. I nearly wept when DH returned home with the bag of food. I don't think he'll ever recover from being asked to part with that much for chips.

Fishing can be dangerous. I'm not surprised it's expensive these days.

I expect good quality fish decently cooked which isn't always the way so the chippy needs to be good. There's none near me 😞

Whitby has the best fish & chips 😀

We have 2 very good ones indeed in Bath - owned by the same person and award winning - but at around £32 it's an occasional thing and then I always think - I feel stuffed and sluggish -not sure I like that feeling much these days. Even if it's top rated ones in places from Whitby to Weymouth I still feel the same - the idea is nicer than the reality -I actually enjoy a beer battered fresh one from Waitrose with some potato croquettes or triple cooked frozen chips , tartar sauce and a can of mushy peas more at around £8 for 2

My OH owns a very good and popular fish and chip shop so I am biased but the rising costs mean he is struggling to make a living now and he doesn’t know how much longer shops like his will survive.
Instead of a cheap takeaway it will be an expensive treat from the few ones that manage to survive.