Please note, this visit was made in early 2020 prior to lockdown and social distancing. The Jubilee are re-opening on 4th July. Their Instagram says "plates, cutlery and condiments on request". You best check if it's OK to take chips in!
This Chip Fiend was in Norwich and on the hunt for fish and chips of an evening. I came across Massingham’s on St Leonard's Road.
There is a cosy pub almost across the road called The Jubilee where chip shop customers are allowed to take their food to eat.
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| The Jubilee |
The Grosvenor in Norwich have a similar relationship with The Birdcage pub. The Chip Diaries likewise took chips from Mrs Seas in Loscoe to the Tip Inn a few years ago.
At the Jubilee plates and cutlery are provided. It is clearly a popular set-up because a family of chip eaters were also eating in the pub on the evening the Chip Diaries visited.
Back to the chip shop...
Massingham’s chippy is adjacent to a Chinese food takeaway run by the same proprietors. A window from the inside of the chip shop looks into the takeaway next door.
Before I ordered I noticed that there were a few plaice and cod already in the cabinet. The menu said that if you want haddock or rock you should order them specially. However, I went for the cod. I noticed a plastic washing up bowl behind the fryer full of chips. I think maybe they had been fried once but were ready to go back into the fryer. It wasn't a very appealing sight.
Verdict:
The bad: Chips. They were cut rather thin. Probably the thinnest chips this Fiend has eaten that weren’t fries. They were greasy and needed lots of vinegar. I left a lot of them uneaten.
The good: The fish was rather nice. I went for the medium size which was plenty big enough. It was quite a chunky fillet with big flakes. The batter was dark, but it was crispy and tasted good. The cod had the skin on as is usual in Norwich.
The novelty of being able to carry the chips over to the pub and using only paper (rather than a box or carton) to serve the food was also a brilliant idea. Maybe the paper for ‘open’ servings is a clever ploy to make customers walk to the Jubilee! The food was hot and might have been difficult to hold through thin paper whilst eating al fresco.
My conclusion is that the chip shop is handy for locals, especially if wanting to eat in the Jubilee with a lovely pint.
Ratings out of 5 is a mixed bag. Imagine how much better the experience if the chips were decent:
Chips: 1
Fish: 4
Shop / service: 2
Bonus: Novelty and usefulness of eating in pub: 4
Over all: 3
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