The Best Fish and Chips in Town @ Fish and Co.
Posted by Lauren | Under Restaurant with 1,526 views
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Tuesday Sep 22, 2009
Marco and I returned to Fish & Co because I had a serious craving for fish and chips that demanded to be satisfied. Normally, we go to Teriyaki Boy when I crave for fish and chips, but after a recent bad experience where it took 30 minutes for our food to arrive, we decided to avoid the place for a while (though they do have very good fish and chips). I’ve been told that fish and chips was the specialty of Fish & Co, and we decided to check it out and see if the best fish and chips in town really is as good as everyone says it is.
Our meal began with a carafe of apple green tea with grenadine and orange juice. We normally have house water with our meals to save money (Marco) and to avoid the liquid calories (me), but at just P80 for a pitcher we couldn’t resist it. Plus, it’s green tea. Can’t get any healthier than that, right? I know that most commercial green teas have more sugar than actual tea, but we could tell that this was the real thing because of its refreshingly fruity taste and the orange pulp settling in the bottom.
Since we were both starving, we decided to get appetizers to quiet down our hunger pangs. It took us a while to choose which appetizer to pick, but we eventually ordered the Mussels in Garlic Lemon Butter Sauce (P380) because it was one of their best-selling dishes. I thought it was a little too pricey for mussels, but my eyes literally widened when they finally arrived at our table. I’m used to our small local mussels where the meat doesn’t even fill up half of the shell, but these mussels were HUGE and MEATY. Easily the largest mussels I have ever eaten! Despite being smothered in lemon butter sauce, it was not the least bit greasy to eat. I think it could have used more salt, garlic, and lemon, but even with the condiments pared down the mussels were a delight to eat – they were chewy, moist, and absolutely filling.
Halfway through the mussels, our main course arrived. Naturally, I ordered The Best Fish and Chips in Town (P405) but I had almost gotten the cheese-stuffed New York Fish and Chips (P465) or the Philadelphia Fish and Chips with cream cheese and lemon butter sauce (P465). I decided on the plain fish and chips because I wanted to taste the dory fish without all those toppings, and because cheese is fattening (I’m very careful about what I eat these days). I did not regret my order one bit. My eyes again literally widened when my pan was placed in front of me. This picture does not do justice to the size of my food, but trust me when I say that the dory fish fillet was half the size of the pan. It tasted just as wonderful as it looked too – the batter was light and crunchy, and the fish was absolutely soft and not-fishy-tasting. I thought it could have used some more cream of tartar sauce, so I asked the waiter for some. It was too much trouble for me to keep dipping the fish into the sauce, so I poured it all over the fillet. I then understood why they served the fish with very little sauce; pouring all that sauce all over the fillet made the batter soggy and not much fun to eat. The fish still tasted great though, but it was far more excellent with the satisfying crunch of the batter.
Marco loved the chicken barbecue from the Just for Me Meals so much, he ended up ordering them again. The photo above is from the Fish & Co event because I was too busy stuffing my face with dory fish to take a picture of Marco’s food. But when I glanced at his plate, I did notice that the chicken was considerably smaller than the one that was served to us at the event. It still tasted great though, and the barbecue sauce is still the best sauce I’ve ever had.
Overall, Marco and I were both satisfied by the size and quality of our meal. The Best Fish and Chips in Town were excellent, but they’re not something I’ll eat very often because of the price. P400 is a lot of money for one dish, even if I do share it with my boyfriend; he won’t get full with just half a dory fish fillet. I can easily get fish and chips at half the price at Teriyaki Boy, and be able to feed my boyfriend with leftovers. Price aside, Fish & Co’s fish and chips are definitely worth trying if you enjoy light and fluffy dory fish as much as I do.
If you really want good fish and chips, I suggest you try Chelsea Market in Serendra.
Thiers is even pricier than Fish and Co. but it is definitely worth it.
They serve it on a wooden board and the fish is in a paper cone. The chips are wedges of potato with a slightly spicy, smokey coating. They are accompanied by red cabbage coleslaw which is just ok. But the kicker is the garlic aoli and the malt vinegar. The tartness of the vinegar really compliments the salty fish and the creamy aoili. Yum!