Vintage Salt (Islington)

• I'm told that Poppies (Spitalfields and Camden) are worth a try too
• Bringing (we were promised) proper battered cod
• Haddock and plaice to a part of town not hitherto blessed with options in this field
• We'd turned up earlyish but still the only available space was at the bar
• Whatever reason I had envisaged some kind of crunchy snack made with beer batter
• Instead we were presented with three croquettes
• Compared to what was to follow though
• Fish restaurants in London particularly the snobbier ones although this is not always the case have a problem with serving proper marrowfat mushy peas
• Ignoring for now the question of whether they taste better than garden peas (of course they bloody do) or whether they're more appropriate to serve with fish and chips (of course they bloody are)
• Most of the time all you will have available is crushed or whole garden peas
• Ordering a side of mushy peas and receiving a sad little tin of crushed petits pois is like ordering a lobster sandwich and being given a frozen prawn cocktail
• They're not the same thing AT ALL and not only are you possibly in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act (1968)
• The one thing as a Fish and Chip Shop you are not allowed to cock up
• Encasing a fish so overcooked it had lost any bright flakiness it may once have had and was now a mushy
• Proper thick chip shop chips are as integral to the chip shop experience as brown sauce in a bacon sandwich)
• Curry sauce was too runny despite having a decent flavour
• This poor beast was closer to mashed potato
• The skin was nicely seasoned with tarragon and you could tell that it had once been a good fresh fish
• (gherkin) and one pickled onion but were told in no uncertain terms that it was £
• 1 for the lot (there was also egg) and so we reluctantly ordered the two portions
• What arrived was a plate of three massive gherkins and three huge pickled onions
• Why on God's green earth anyone thought forcing three times the amount of required pickles on customers was a good idea I don't know
• With a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (annoyingly kept in a non insulated bucket lined with a couple of inches of crushed ice great if you like the last half glass of your wine to be ice cold
• I realise this is North London
• The mistakes with the cooking and mushy pea gate just added insult to injury
• Fish curry and rice (which I thought was fairly bland)
• The Fish and Chip shop was set up in June 2013 by Des McDonald
• Again someone with a background rather more ambitious than managing a deep fat fryer
• The dining room is narrow and the tables are
• Despite this the place was rammed even at 10 p
• These came with a good mustard mayonnaise
• What was nice was that the crab was both fresh and quite generous in portion size
• Were OK but tasted a little sweeter than I was expecting (11/20)
• Unusually well drilled for what is notionally a chippie
• The Fish and Chip Shop is exactly what it advertises
• They have a few options of fish and chips which are pretty classic and that's pretty much it
• They don't really need to do much else because the quality of the meal is quite high
• I really like the haddock and the goujons that I've had here and their tartare sauce is really good
• The service is great and the waiters are friendly and like to get to know the local customers which I thought was really nice
• Came here 5th November and was really impressed
• I had three courses but felt like I was going to burst afterwards
• Food was spot on and service is very attentive considering how busy the plaice (get it
• I think it is slightly more expensive than it perhaps should be
• S trendy interior juxtaposed with the take away connotations of its name &ldquo
• Means that the place is able to sell exactly that for inflated prices
• The food itself is well cooked and undeniably of a better quality than your local takeaway
• In keeping with the restaurants image
• The batter is made by beer from London&rsquo
• The service was quite slow
• Well seasoned but some of the food was lacking in flavour and others were a mystery
• The food that was nice was lovely
• It is a little overpriced for what it is basically good fish
• Glass of fizz with your meal brings it to around £
• Falling into stride with its fellow sister restaurants in Liverpool Street and on Selfridges&rsquo
• I felt like I was consuming some of the freshest
• I took my friends here who were over from Istanbul
• Kerbisher's was already closed but these guys were thankfully open and accommodated us at around 10
• The fish fingers I ordered were okay and were low on seasoning

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