Top of the chip shops
Lifestyle editor Kathryn Williams ate at the two Welsh fish and chip shops named among the UK’S top 20... which one is really the best?
TWO Welsh chip shops have found themselves listed among the top 20 best fish and chip shop takeaways in the UK. They are now hoping to be included in a shortlist of 10 before the National Fish & Chip Awards in 2023 – but which one really is the best?
Our two fabulous fryers are Fish Kitchen 1854 and Ship Deck, which are a mere 15-minute drive away from each other in Caerphilly borough.
Maesycwmmer’s Fish Kitchen 1854, found a stone’s throw away from the famous local viaduct from which it gets its name, is run by Lee Humphreys and wife Samantha. Lee is a headteacher by day at Barry’s Pencoedtre High and serves up fish suppers two nights a week.
The shop has already been placed in Fry magazine’s top 50 takeaways and Lee told the Western Mail back in April that the shop is “more than a bog-standard chippy”. During the Six Nations, specials included frog’s legs when France played and ‘Scotland in a box’ with Scottish mackerel.
Over in Trethomas, Ship Deck opened in 2019 and is run by Ryan, who’s been in the industry since he was 15, and Kimberley Hughes, who also run Valleys delivery service RCT Eats.
We decided to put them to the test to see which chippy sated our Thursday evening teatime hunger pangs. To keep it fair we ordered straightup cod and chips with a pot of – my favourite – Irish curry sauce.
My friends also ordered a few extra bits and bobs, like jumbo sausages and a fruity curry, as well as Fish Kitchen 1854’s new Christmas in a box (turkey, cranberry, pigs in blankets in gravy over chips), but we’ll stick to the main staples for our comparison.
FISH KITCHEN 1854
The Maesycwmmer takeaway was busy, with people awaiting their orders, which come packaged in a very slick-looking brown paper bag stapled shut. But, despite the small queue, we were served quickly and efficiently by the polite team who were busily processing orders.
I ordered a regular chips (£2.80), a regular cod (£6.45) and the curry sauce was £1.80 for a standard pot. We were in the shop for about 10 minutes in total between ordering and collecting, so not a bad wait at all considering how many people were waiting for their fish suppers.
I was also asked if I wanted a lemon wedge added, which I appreciated because sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t – this time I did and it tasted great on the chunky, lightly-battered fish.
The portions were decent with the regular chips (they do small, regular, large) comfortably enough to share between two if you both had fish and sauce. The fish here was slightly smaller in length but it was still chunky. And the Irish curry sauce was deliciously thick, unctuous and had a lovely kick – I bloody love curry sauce.
The chips here were my favourite. By the time we got them home they weren’t squishy and soggy, but neither were they dry – the two extremes you can often get with chip shops – they were chunky, had a lovely golden hue and great flavour. A really good chippy chip.