On the Hunt for the Perfect Fish n’ Chips

Spending my summers in the UK with my mum and the family, I learned to like a few…non-American items. Most of them I have been able to find in this country in one form or another. I still have my Marmite for breakfast in the mornings, and I go to the local British depo stores for a number of things, but I have yet to come across the perfect Fish n’ Chips.


How hard can this be…really, it is a simple item…Fish n’ Chips! I remember how good they tasted and every time we go home, I always get some. . I miss standing outside and unwrapping the vinegar reeking Fish n’ Chips from the white paper. Picking up the crisp chip and tasting the tender fish…yum…I can still smell it. So why can’t I find a good one here.


I have tried a number of different places since moving to South Florida. I figure, closer to the sea then St. Louis Missouri…gadda have good, fresh fish right. Gadda be able to come up with a really good Fish n’ Chips….WRONG.


I have tried the Ye Ol’ Falcon Pub…supposable famous for their Fish n’ Chips…WRONG…Maybe a few YEARS ago…
I have tried Kingshead Pub…which was run by a Brit and even had my Welsh flag flying…not bad, but missing something….I had to add so much vinegar!
I have tried Jet Runway Café… such an American version it wasn’t even funny
I have tried Flannigan’s – really I know what was I thinking?? I knew it wasn’t going to be good at all!


I have tried a lot of places….the list could go on and on and on…..


But none as bad as last night…(YET)!

Taylor and I went to South Port Raw Bar in Ft. Lauderdale.


Side note - Whoever said this was the next Bimin Boatyard was confused and really lacking in taste. This is NO where NEAR as good as Bimin Boatyard...SORRY! 


Anywho.....Everything we ordered up to the point of the atrocious Fish n’ Chips was ok, and I would actually go back (if Bimini Boatyard is full). Conch Salad, Raw Oysters, and Conch Fritters (I was on a Conch craving last night for some reason)…but when the Fish n’ Chips (or supposed Fish n’ Chips) came out…standards fell to a point well below bad. I was starving, so I ate it, but wow it was the WORST Fish n’ Chips I have ever eaten. It shouldn’t have even been called Fish n’ Chips, just because you bread & fry a piece of fish and toss it over some standard blah French Fries does NOT make it Fish n’ Chips. Fried Fish and FRENCH FRIES maybe, but seriously, no. I just want to smack whoever put that on the menu. Have they ever even tasted TRUE, REAL Fish n’ Chip. No, they obviously have not; they obviously wanted to torture me instead with this crap on a plate.


We split the Fish n’ Chips (it was funny watching him try to eat it with a spoon…but I must admit he was doing rather well) and we paid and left. Riding in the car home, I had to say…


“I liked it, except the Fish n’ Chips were horrible!”
“Thank You! I wasn’t going to say anything” he responded….


Not only did we have an interestingly horrible and lame version of Fish n’ Chips, we had the loudest guy behind us at dinner. We couldn’t help but laugh. He was one of those guys who knows a little bit about a lot of things, and to compensate for not knowing more about it…he just talked REALLY loud. Guess the guy lost his job, moved to S. FL thinking he would get a job working on a Yacht…without realizing that those jobs aren’t ones you just wake up and decide to do one day…in your early 40’s. So laughing and smiling at each other Taylor and I were engulfed in this maddeningly loud man’s conversation…


So my never ending hunt continues for true Fish n’ Chips. I am beginning to wonder if I will ever get it in this country…