The best Fish and Chips - it's offishal! (Stein's Fish and Chips (Padstow))

Member Name: magenta23

Product:	Stein's Fish and Chips (Padstow)
Date:	17/05/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully cooked fish and chips, good prices, big portions

Disadvantages: The seating set up

I've been to Padstow twice now and it's a lovely little village. Most people will know it for Rick Stein and when you get there you cannot escape him for the amount of business in the place with his name on them. The most famous of these is 'The Seafood Restuarant,' his main seafood eatery. The menu looks divine but the freshest seafood cooked by a celebrity chef (or his team at least) has a price tag to match and, alas, we couldn't quite stretch to eat there, this time.

For those with a fewer spare pennies but still dying to try the fresh Padstow fish that Mr. Stein has made so famous might want to opt for his Fish and Chip shop instead. This is just round the corner from the main restaurant, situated overlooking the harbour. There are two parts to it, the part where you can sit inside and have your order brought to your table, or the other side which is the take away part.

It was a fairly chilly day so we opted to sit inside. The amount of seating is limited and it was busy. The only seats we were offered were sitting next to each other on these long canteen style tables. Sitting opposite us was a man who'd taken over two seats for himself and just had a bottle of wine and was doing the whole swiiling it around and tasting it bit! Fine, but in a Fish and Chip shop? Plus I didn't particularly want to sit and watch him, I wanted to talk to the person I was with, but it was difficult considering the seating setup. Behind us was a table of very loud children that seemed to be taking two waitresses attention. After sitting for about 10 minutes with no one noticing us, I was about to tell the guy what to do with his wine so we opted to go to the take away next door and eat on the windy harbour.

The menu for the sit-in part and the take way part was the same, except for the prices. All the take away fish was £1-£2 cheaper than next door. They do all the usual Battered Cod, Haddock, Plaice etc that you would get from your local chippy but also Lemon Sole, John Dory and Monkfish. All of the fish you could have battered or grilled. I thought this would good for the health concious, but we went for battered anyway! All of the prices of the fish include chips with them which I though was good. Every other Fish and Chips shop I've been to you order them separately and it's a good portion to. Neither of us could finish them all.

My partner was ever so adventurous and went for Cod, I opted for Monkfish. The portions of fish we got were very generous too, and beautifully cooked. The Monkfish was meaty and delicious and the batter was fairly light and not too greasy. We both remarked on how little grease was in the bottom of our boxes when we'd finshed compared to the usual amount left on the wrappings from our local shop. I was expecting to pay around £8-£12 for Fish with Chips on top before we got there, being Rick Stien's chippy after all. In fact I was very plesantly surprised. The prices were pretty normal. My partners Cod was £6.40, remember that's chips included. My Monkfish was £10.75, ok that's a lot for Fish and Chips, but conisering it was Monkfish, I still think this is reasonable.

Overall, I was very impressed with the food and the prices. It is probably the best Fish and Chips I've ever had. Well if Rick Stein can't do the best fish and Chips, who can? I wish he'd sort out his horrible little sit-in part of the Chip shop though, it was much nicer sitting by the harbour, even if a hungry seagull did have his eye on my lunch!

Summary: Five stars for the food, but I have to knock off one for the sit in part.