The Chipping Forecast (Notting Hill)

My only gripe with the interior of this venue is that the chairs are not the best for comfort – they are efficient for the space but I think these could do with an upgrade at some stage, which won’t erode the space or bank too much.  I wasn’t staying long anyway, so, unfortunately, I could only do one thing and that obviously had to be the fish and chips but there are a range of starters and some other options such as prawn cocktail, croquettes, pan-fried seabass, pies and whitebait.

The fish itself comes from bespoke fishermen in Cornwall and you can choose whether to have your fish in beer batter, gluten-free batter or Panko breadcrumbs and fried in either rapeseed oil or beef dripping.  Clearly vegetarians and vegans will need to opt for the rapeseed oil but this good to have the choice which others I have been to such as Bibendum Oyster Bar, Poppies and even Mayfair’s iconic Scott’s do not offer for fish and chips.  I was delighted that the tartare sauce was home made but on asking for a side of curry sauce there was none available which leads me to believe that this is not homemade and is ordered in.  Ahhh, the bonus of making your own sauce – the chances are that you will not run out.

The haddock itself was indeed fresh and I actually opted for Panko breadcrumbs cooked in beef dripping and this proved to be a very pleasant combination and texture.  The beef dripping was a little hard to detect and I suspect would have been more obvious if boosted with beer batter, but this was decent quality fish and the breadcrumbs not overflowing with oil at the same time.  The mushy peas were a mix of the larger and plumper, marrowfat peas and smaller garden peas and crushed as opposed to mushy.  Then again, they were advertised as a pea and mint ‘puree’ which seems a bit of a stretch, but these had a freshness from the mint and lack of gooeyness as a result at the same time.

I didn’t ask but the chips were slices of a whole potato including the skin which I don’t know is a temporary fix or how they are now done at this venue, but these were an original touch – with the quantity of crispy skin, you are certainly getting bang for your crunch buck, but perhaps a little too much and a slightly thicker cut size would make them less like crisps.  The ketchup was a brand I hadn’t come across before (Rubies) and was good to see something other than Heinz, although a bit of housekeeping on the bottles would not go amiss as my one had very old remnants of sticky ketchup at the top of the bottle which is easily fixable to give a better impression.

Overall, the £15 for fish and chips in the evening which is more than enough to fill someone up and stop feeling hungry in a lovely neighbourhood restaurant specialising in fish and chip restaurant is a frankly lovely change from the norm.  It is very difficult to score somewhere based on just one dish, but in the fish and chip quest for London, this placed fractionally below the others on overall fish and chips (none so far can top the Corinthia which, apart from the absurdly expensive price tag), but in terms of solely a fish and chip venue, it by far the most attractive and homely.