Fish and chips in a cafe

[CeciliaMars]

We went to a cafe attached to a fish and chip shop today - basically a chippy that had a few tables. We had two adult cod and chips, 2 kids’ sausage and chips, 2 mushy peas and 3 small bottles of water. £66!!!! I feel like the world has gone mad.

3 large cod, 1 bag large chips £39 in Jan, takeaway, I was a bit gob smacked.

our local Chinese does a bigger meal for less money and there’s always some left for lunch the next day.

I agree. We used to take the kids out for a nandos quite often on a weekend. I viewed it as a small affordable treat... nothing hugely special. Now by the time we've added drinks and maybe a dessert, we don't get much change from £80/90. I really do feel like, is it really worth it?

Well I presume the cafe costs are going up to buy it all and then they have to pay staff, electricity, rent?

Cod and chips is £12 in South London. Massive portions so can easily share 1 with DC

Just looked at the local chippy restaurant menu, we have take away and it’s £25 for four portions.

It’s £9 for cod and chip with peas, bread and butter and tea and £4.30 for sausage and chips, no water on the menu assume you can have tap water.
So £26.60. For an extra couple of quid you can have a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. No idea when it got an alcohol licence as haven’t been for a while.

This is an ex mining area. I grew up on the South coast and DH is from Surrey whenever we go home to visit, not lived there for over 30 years we can't cope with the prices.

I think that is expensive. We did takeaway in north Wales yesterday - pretty much the same order as yours actually! 2x adult fish and chips. 2x jumbo sausage and small chips, 1x mushy peas, 2x ketchup, 2x tartare sauce and 4 soft drinks- £37.50! I was pleasantly surprised that it was similar to our northern town as expected seaside tourist prices!

Fish should be treated as a luxury and yes, it has to be expensive. Our oceans have been over-fished - basically they are being fished at a higher rate than they can breed so soon there will be very little left.

Bloody hell! Haven't you got a Wetherspoons where you live? Or any other pub chain.

Only two of us even had fish! The other 2 meals were a single kids sausage and chips. I just think our days of doing this kind of treat might be over. I’m a teacher and just feel like I’m getting poorer all the time but working longer and longer hours. It’s a bit depressing.

Agree it's expensive but running costs are insane. They can't exactly operate a loss-making business.

However individual portions are usually huge - we never get a kids meal, and instead get 2 cods and one large chips for 2 adults and one child. No way any of us could finish an individual portion so maybe worth sharing in future as a treat and getting a bigger dinner later on etc to still enjoy it but to keep costs down? We're by the seaside now and a gastropub portion is £15.50 btw

Blackpool on Monday, 2 fish, one chips, 2 cans pop, £24. Was utterly crap too

I've mostly given up on getting fish & chips in London. Our local chippy is charging £15 for fish and £6 for a small bag of chips. A local pub is charging £25 for the same. That's not including peas or bread or even a pickled onion. A few chippies in London have closed because they can't get the business. It's such a shame!

cod is £££ in most chippies

It’d be £48 getting that for takeaway where I am. They’d charge for sauce too. Honestly it is a really expensive treat nowadays.

I do fakeaway at home Aldi beer battered cod in the air fryer for crispness, mushy peas home made tartar sauce it’s just mayo with chopped gherkins and capers. Chips also in air fryer. Feed five for about £13. I know they are not “chippie chips” but I just feel like there are so many better uses for the money.

Hanburys in Torbay (regular winner of Best Fish&Chips in the U.K. award) never reopened their restaurant after Covid. They were definitely in the “doable at a stretch” price range for us but they were thriving and had just invested in state-of-the-art cooking equipment. After Covid they put the blame for not reopening on the rising cost of supplies.
Now their cheapest takeaway deal is £6.95 for small cod and chips. They’ve had to dumb down to keep in business and pay off their investment.

I paid £12/15? per person recently in a chippy on the harbourside at Whitby but my guide is a canny one and the place was packed.

Please don’t do this!! You’re probably talking about the massive factory trawlers. But by saying it in the way you do, you’re including the small sustainable day boats who hand line. These guys get a terrible price for their fish yet it is the most sustainable.

If you live on the coast then buy direct from the boats and cut out the middle man.

I think I would rather pay £18 and have a proper looking fish and chips that’s a decent portion size 🙈

1 large cod & chips , 1 regular fish & chips , 2 teas & 1 side of mushy peas just under £37 in popular Lake District tourist town .

That is very expensive. I took my kids for breakfast this week. 1 small cooked breakfast (1 sausage, 1 rasher of bacon, hash browns, beans, 1 tomato, 1 flat mushroom), a croque monsieur, a round of toast and then drinks (2 super expensive smoothies as no OJ on offer plus one coffee). It was nearly £50 for 3 people and one of them only had toast. Prices are insane now.

Not in my part of east Anglia

I feel you @CeciliaMars Barmouth Beach in Wales this month £88 for:-
1 fish and chips
3 mini fish and chips
1 battered sausage and chips
3 curry sauces
5 cans of drink
And that was takeaway no tables to sit on so had to find a bench on the pier on eat on the actual beach.

At a seaside cafe recently (it was raining with 40mph winds so we didn't want to eat outdoors!) DH and I paid £33.00 for two portions of fish & chips and two small lemonades. The service and food quality was good, portion sizes generous and we were glad to sit down in the warmth; price still felt high - I guess my brain hasn't caught up with inflation yet. If we have fish & chips to takeaway, DH and I usually share one large portion between us which keeps the cost down, but that isn't something I'd feel comfortable doing in a cafe (would happily share a pudding but not a main for some reason).

Our chippy charges 10.95 for large cod & chips to take away or 12.95 to eat in (Hampshire)

If you allow £6 each for the children's meals and another £5 for the water/mushy peas, that would be £43 at ours.

£66 is expensive. Was it in a pretty touristy little town right on the coast?

Fish and chips is one of the few things DS1 reliably eats.

A small cod and chips takeaway is now £12.00. Granted the 'small cod' is a good size. Not a whale. A small battered sausage and chips is £10.00. God knows how much eating in would be.

However- this week i went to lunch at a 'specialist' fish restaurant that i last went to about 3 years ago. A piece of 'blackened cod' that was less than half the size of my palm was £18. It had no dressing and no sides and no garnish. And the scallop dish for £23 was literally a single butterflied scallop (without the roe which is the best bit!) with a butter and wine 'sauce'.

Not a chippy granted. But I have not eaten out for a while (except for McDonalds) and I was floored by the prices.

I always think this- we are fortunate to have a pretty decent household income. Yet i cannot imagine eating out again any time soon- not even in a cafe.

I get chips and beans for a fiver from our chippy.