“I’ve had my fuel. Now I can run again!” This is what the elegant elderly lady said to us after finishing her fish and chips on the adjacent table at Van Looy's.
“It saved me cooking at home today. Sometimes you have to treat yourself,” she said. We delightfully agreed. Our Chip Tour is all about treating ourselves, and also letting others know where to find very good fish and chips.
As you can imagine there are dozens of fish and chip shops in Southend-on-Sea. A short stretch of road opposite the pier entrance is practically all chip shops. The Chip Fiends, however, made our way up the High Street to find Van Looy's as one of us wanted to try the skate middle we had seen on a picture of their menu.
The shop has a takeaway area at the front and a restaurant at the rear. Beyond this is a garden room with a few more tables. Each table has a basket with a selection of sauce sachets and a bottle of Heinz ketchup as well as salt and vinegar.
The restaurant was busy on the day we visited but it didn’t take long to be served.
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| skate middle and chips |
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| cod and chips |
Between us we had skate middle, cod, chips, and mushy peas, with tea to drink.
Both fish were excellent. Freshly fried and in a thin, light batter. The chips were nice and chunky. No grease at all.
Disappointingly, the mushy peas appeared to be tinned. Oh well. They didn’t taste as bad as some tinned peas do.
It was the first time we had tried skate middle. This is a thicker piece of fish than the wing, so a bit more expensive. The pieces of fish between the bones were therefore more generously flaked and satisfying. The fish was very tender. One of the loveliest morsels we had ever tried. Highly recommended!
Treat yourself, just like the sage advised us to on the next table...
Ratings out of 5:
Fish: cod: 5
Fish: skate middle: 5
Chips: 4
Shop / service: 4
Over all: 4
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| skate bones: evidence of a satisfying meal |
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