The Anchor Fish and Chips

The hubby and I ventured out to The Anchor Fish and Chips recently to see what all the hype was about.  I actually was more interested in trying it than he was - the idea of Fish and Chips just sounded appealing.  We had an event to go to in the evening, so we hit The Anchor around 4:45 pm.  It was packed!  There are pros about being a party of 2 as we were seated immediately while larger parties had to wait.

The place is small, but not confining.  I'm borderline claustrophobic and small enclosed spaces can sometimes bother me.  This was not that way.  While the waiting area is small, the actual dining area was comfortable.  I wouldn't necessarily go there to have a serious conversation with someone - others will hear you.  But really, who has a serious conversation over fried food?  My one complaint on the space (and one that I have with other smaller restaurants) is the lack of a vestibule from the outside to the restaurant.  There was not much between the guests and the outside air.  In the middle of winter that can make for some drafty dining.  The decor of the restaurant was simple and on the dark side.  Very cozy, minus the drafty door.

We placed our orders relatively quickly.  I went with the restaurant namesake, the Fish and Chips.  The hubby went with the Sausage and Chips.  I think I had a Diet Coke and he had water, so no commentary about the beverages on this review.  Although a cold beer probably would have tasted pretty good with the fish and chips, I'll save that for summertime.

The wait for our food didn't seem to take too long.  The fish portion was a generous serving.  Technically there were two fillets, but they were huge.  I think we could have easily split this and maybe an appetizer to go with it.  There was one sausage in his meal.  It was quite large and definitely filling.  The chips were very good - especially with the white vinegar.  I ordered a side of tartar sauce (ahhh....childhood memories of fish stick night)!   This was not your Mrs. Paul's tartar sauce.  We shared it between the fish, sausage and chips.  Hints of garlic.  Mmm.  Very refreshing and worth the 50 cents extra it cost.  The fish was an Alaskan cod deep fried to a golden brown.  The fish itself was flaky and oh so tasty.  I tried it with the vinegar, then the tartar sauce, and by itself.  All 3 ways were appealing.  The breading was good, but I quickly tired of it as the portion was so huge.  I ended up leaving quite a bit of the fish...next time I'll split it!  I didn't have them box it up for leftovers.  I just don't think it would have lived up to the hype had I reheated it later.  The sausage was presumably good as well.  I didn't try it as it just didn't appeal to me.  I like sausage for breakfast, but later in the day...not so much.  He enjoyed it though and I think would recommend it to others.

We finished the meal and gave up our table for the waiting crowd.  We both agreed it was a good choice and one that we would go back to again.  However, the food was fried and heavy and stuck with us for awhile.  We actually contemplated blowing off our evening event since we were uncomfortably stuffed.  Thankfully we didn't as we had fun at the event and the uncomfortable full feeling went away fairly quickly. 

My overall opinion is great restaurant for good pub food.  Split the Fish and Chips with someone.  Go early as it is busy.  Looking forward to trying it again in the summer.