INDULGE RESTAURANT REVIEW

KRAKEN FISH AND CHIPS

293 Elizabeth St, North Hobart Phone 6234 4444

Open 11.30am to 8pm Wednesday and Thursday, 11.30am to 1am Friday and Saturday, 4-8pm Sunday

Growing up as the child of a fishing-obsessed father, freshly caught flathead from Frederick Henry Bay was frequently on the family dinner table. But, as a rare treat, we would stop at the Sorell fish and chip shop on the way to our seaside shack for a salty, battered piece of flake and more chips than we could ever possibly eat.

I remember the smell filling our Ford Escort sedan and feeling the warmth of the food radiating through layer upon layer of paper wrapping. I often poked a hole through it to extract a sneaky chip or two before we pulled off the road at the Lewisham boat ramp to dive into our Friday night feast.

To this day, almost four decades after my father died, flake remains my favourite fastfood fish, so I was interested to hear about a new purveyor of piscatorial delights opening on the North Hobart strip.

Kraken is the new enterprise of Toby Cannon, who was most recently executive chef at Glen Albyn Estate at Taroona and partowner of Seagrass Long Point at Sandy Bay. It’s located just a few doors down from the Republic Bar and Cafe in what was The Fish Bar for many years and, before that, Fat Albert’s burger shop.

The name refers to a mystical cephalopod-like sea monster of Nordic origin, which inspired a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson and a book, The Kraken Wakes, by one of my favourite sci-fi authors, John Wyndham, of The Day of the Triffids fame.

Cannon, who’s worked everywhere from Michelin-starred restaurants to roadhouses, says he was keen to get back to grassroots cooking and open the “kind of fish and chip shop that I grew up with”.

“There was a bit of a gap in the market of people doing it properly,” he says, deriding the freezer-direct-to-fryer approach.

Together with my regular movie-going mate Annie and another spry retiring type, I visit on a chilly Wednesday lunchtime after watching an at times arduous but strangely captivating movie called Beast at The State.

It also happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which seems an appropriate time to be dining on fruits de mer.

I suggest Annie order our meal in a jaunty pirate voice to qualify for a free potato cake — an offer spruiked on Kraken’s Facebook page — but she thinks I am winding her up. Aaargh!

We take a seat in the compact space as a smartly dressed older couple finishes their meal. “Thank you, that was absolutely delicious,” the woman says to the counter staff as she walks out the door.

Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here is playing and I can hear the gentle crackle of a deep fryer in the kitchen.

We have already started on our shared Greek salad, with thick-cut cucumber, tomato, red onion, chunks of fetta and iceberg lettuce, when the fish and chips arrive.

Annie has battered flake, while I try the gluten-free crumbed flake and we share a basket of chips and some tartare sauce from a selection of house-made hot and cold condiments. The retiree has a fish burger.The crumb is beautifully crisp, covering a moist and well-cooked piece of fish. The batter is also light and crisp, almost tempura in style. The chips are also good — a skin-on, homestyle variety — and a $3 minimum serve easily feeds us both. It’s quick and satisfying fare.

Cannon says flake and ling are particularly popular, with the most expensive fish on the menu being salmon, at $18, which is sourced locally. His potato cakes — including a sweet potato variety — “are flying out the door”.

“I am not quite a cafe, I am definitely not a restaurant, but I am a step up from a corner fish and chip shop,” he says.