The Superior Fish-and-Chips Debate

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed a new fish and chips spot that had opened in West Edmonton.

This garnered some reader reaction, both in the form of emails and people simply coming up to me and informing me that I needed to do some more homework before I shared my fish-and-chips opinion with the world.

This is not a criticism of the place I reviewed a couple of weeks back. It’s about the background I provided in the piece — namely, the part where I waxed poetic about getting a really good order of fish and chips from a food truck in London.

I was told by a few Brit expats that they couldn’t possibly take me seriously because I had the audacity to write that London had good fish and chips. To the northerners and Scots, this was a comment that exposed me as a total food tourist.

But, I was told by several people that I should try a hidden gem of a fish-and-ship spot. In fact, some told me that they knew of British expat families that travel from all across the province to get their fish and chips here. So off to Superior Fish & Chips I went.

As fate would have it, my son’s baseball team practices and plays games just a couple of blocks from this spot — it’s like fate was telling me “you MUST eat here, and repent.”

So, I walked into Superior Fish and Chips, was saddened to see the sign indicating that the restaurant was out of deep fried pizza, and soaked in the London-themed wallpaper. Double deckers and tube stops — they all have them, don’t they?

I went for the one-piece haddock meal deal. The fries were done right, fluffy inside but not overly crispy, so they can soak up that malt vinegar. The batter was light, not salty, not heavy. It’s a thin layer, really, and the fish wasn’t dry. Like the chips, it’s made to soak up whatever you want to add — lemon, vinegar, tartar sauce, all of the above. The breading is flaky rather than crunchy, and I think this is a good thing. A couple of weeks ago, I would have written I was sure that this is a good thing, but the reader comments have made me unsure of myself. The cole slaw was not overly creamy, actually, it felt more “New York deli” than “English fish and chips.”