The Fishermans Wife, Designer Outlet, York

 

The Chip Fiends found ourselves in the unlikeliest of locations. One of those palaces of hell called a ‘Designer Outlet’. 

Thankfully amongst the usual burger and noodle mega-chains was the Fishermans Wife. One of us had visited the shop in York a few years back and were pleased that there was another one of their chippies out of town.

It was incredibly busy on this shopping day in the lead up to Christmas but the staff were working like the clappers to keep the queue moving. 

Unfortunately, a haddock shortage in York meant that only battered cod was on the menu. However, The Fisherman’s Wife were selling homemade haddock fish cakes so we ordered one of those alongside our cod, chips, Chinese curry, and a scoop of batter scraps.

Incidentally this chippy was selling Bao buns with tempura prawns. It seems there was no shortage of these buns in York. We saw them for sale on several occasions in the city!

Our fish n chips were served in thin card recyclable trays to reduce waste, and the food was perfectly seasoned with salt and vinegar.

We found a table in the Food Quarter of the shopping mall and tucked in.

The meal was of excellent quality. The cod was moist and fresh. It fell apart in juicy flakes and was enhanced by a very tasty batter. It was more like a crispy coating than the usual batter shell. We don’t recall having such a light batter before. The sensational scraps were also a great bonus.

The chips were cut quite daintily and fried to a pale colour. These too were very tasty with a good bite on the outside but overall being quite soft in texture.

The homemade fish cake was very good. Almost spherical rather than flat, with a generous ratio of fish to potato. It too had a thin crispy coating like the cod.

The curry sauce needed to be mixed thicker. It was too thin for dipping so we poured it over the chips and its peppery flavour mixed nicely with the scraps.

If you find yourself at the designer outlet we recommend you forgo the plastic food chains and treat yourself to some fish and chips from unit F2.

We hope the haddock shortage is soon over.

Ratings out of 5:

Fish (cod): 5

Chips: 5

Homemade fish cake: 5

Curry sauce: 3

Shop / service: 4

Over all: 4