Hehe, you eat it the way you want to eat it, I’ll eat it the way I want to eat it.
Deal! Both ways are delicious.
I’ve never been to the UK and I’m curious what I’d think of their fish & chips (and also some of their curries). As I’ve said before the best fish & chips I’ve ever had was served out of a fish & chips stand made out of a converted school bus on the shore of Georgian Bay where the fish was delivered daily by the fishing boats docked alongside. The excellence of the fish was partly explained by its freshness, but how they also made the fries so fantastically good was always a mystery.
Here at home I make do with Loblaws branded “President’s Choice” beer-battered haddock, fries from the air fryer, PC tartar sauce and malt vinegar, and sometimes Legal Seafoods brand chipotle tartar sauce.
I’ve had real British fish and chips, in England. My English hosts in Coventry were adamant that I could not leave without proper fish and chips served “in the newspaper,” and we did. From a fish and chips shop in a small town we passed through. “The smaller the town, the more authentic,” as it was explained to me. And the meal was delicious. Malt vinegar, of course.
That spoiled me for fish and chips. Nothing served here in Canada could compare.
Until I ran across a nondescript pub in a plaza in Scarborough, Ontario. It was run by a British couple. He was from Scotland and ran the kitchen; she was from Lancashire, and ran the bar. And holy hannah, did he ever cook good food. So good that I became a regular at that pub. Lots of great food—burgers and other American-inspired food, of course—but when it came to British cuisine, this place shined. Wonderful curries on top of rice, mushy peas, naan, shepherd’s pies, Beef-n-Guinness pie, Heinz Beanz, and naturally, fish and chips.
Once I had those, I knew that I had a new pub home. And I did.
I’ve had good fish and chips in London, but I’ve got a great F&C place within walking distance of my home here in Toronto. They are consistently rated one of the best.
They generally offer haddock, cod, pickerel, and a fish of the day. I’m a big pickerel fan if the have it.
I used to work for a company (now defunct) that made the machines that cut potatoes into chips.
We made two basic machines that could be set to cut different chips. One tended to cut across the potato, so it made shorter chips; the other cut longer chips.
The most popular size in England was a half-inch square, with one side being crinkled (apparently they cooked faster). The Scots liked them bigger and straight-sided and generally wanted five-eighths.
Both machines were capable of cutting smaller sizes, down to one eighth, but they were not popular and were prone to jamming. We also made a hand-cranked version for military use where electricity wasn’t available.
Cod used to be relatively cheap and was by far the most popular, although haddock was a strong second in the north of England. When I bought fish and chips, I often chose plaice, as they always had to cook it specially, which meant it would be fresh.
If it’s breaded, not battered, I would not call it proper fish and chips regardless of where it’s sold.
Hake is the standard for fish-and-chips in South Africa. Snoek is a possibility, but that’s always bony. You occasionally get other linefish like yellowtail.
In Britain, you mean? Yes, although I prefer the South African version, tbh. Slap chips make ours unique.
Nope. Never seen one for sale except in tourist chippies in the likes of Edinburgh for foreigners.
Both salt and vinegar are optional and asked about with every serving. I’ve rarely heard anyone skip them for any reason in a chippie though.
Maybe, seen a big fish and chips place in Leicester Square but the pricing was so ludicrous only tourists ate there, so comparisons aren’t forthcoming.
Ok, let’s get started on the UK ones, Fish. Cod was traditionally the fish of choice for a chippie, but it was fished into near extinction and coastal waters were fought over in decades (Cod Wars), and joining the EU lead to Cod being protected, fishing waters being shared and a bunch of complicated politics which often fueled the more stupid of the british voters to vote for Brexit (when in reality the people behind Brexit were part of the decline feeding the victim narrative). So you rarely see Cod by default in the UK chip shops nowadays, it’s often “fish” and sometimes cod with a premium here.
I’m talking now about Chippies (Chip shops), your pub fish and chips are the usual pub fare, generic, probably from the freezer, and the same chain wide.
US fish tends to be over battered, and has things in in, beer batter isn’t typical in any normal chippie (perhaps posh ones). US’s wide ethnic variations means they deep fry lots of things with lots of herb and spice variations and buttermilk featuring. Uk tends to be simpler.
Now Chips, this is something more complicated too. There are local traditions, variations on a bag of chips. Some parts of the country like them soggy. Others crisp. NOWHERE likes them like US thin fries. Small parts (west midlands) batter them in a mild tumeric batter making them orange (Local article how to make) but they’re often unheard of outside of that area. Accompaniments are varied too according to region. Mushy peas are not popular everywhere (though you can buy them normally, they’re just not popular), tends to be more of a northern thing. Curry sauce is often chinese style curry (rarely indian) and there’s even a sweeter Irish Curry Sauce I’ve never tried. Gravy added is common in some areas of the country (this often shocks some brits), a brown gravy, not the US style white stuff, and places like Edinburgh have a watered down brown sauce they might call gravy too (never had it).
It has been decades since newspaper was typically used as a wrap, and good thing too. But tldr; it’s not a simple thing except for the one constant, the US version is slightly wrong versus all UK variations.
(* I’m not sure if I’ve seen Tartar in chippies, or ever heard it ordered, but it does get offered with pub servings though).
I think that any place that sells something labeled as “fish and chips” is making at least some attempt to mimic the British dish. Of course, some attempts are less successful than others.
Apparently I come from a chippy family - my great grandparents had a shop in central Manchester around WWII. My mum recalls helping to peel and cut the chips in the back of the shop (by hand, strikes me as excessive labour). Growing up, our local chippy had a machine which cut the chips - you feed the whole potatoes into a hopper, and it spits out chips at the other end.
Standard fish used tend to be cod and haddock (equally priced), sometimes you might get pollack, plaice or hake. The fish are whole sides of fish rather than small portions, so can be pretty substantial. The best places use fresh fish, and their own home-made batter, made with with beer or sparkling water. Sometimes beef dripping for the fat, but I suspect most places now avoid that in order to keep the pescatarians happy.
Many fish and chip shops have been operated by Chinese immigrants since the 70s, so it’s not unusual to find a place serving both take away fish and chips, and chinese. My local chippy also serves kebabs.
Classic sides are tartar, curry sauce (more like japanese katsu curry than Indian), mushy peas (which I loath but some people love them, my mum included), or gravy, which tends to be more popular in the North of England. Scotland has this thing called ‘sauce’ which is like a vinegary brown sauce. All of these are designed to go over your chips, so you may be saddened to learn that baked beans are not a standard side in most places.
There’s other options in most places besides battered fish; usually sausage, battered sausage, a kinf of sausgae called a saveloy, fish cakes and various kinds of meat pies.
Sadly newspaper is a thing of the past, likely because it wouldn’t pass modern food standards. Some places use newsprint paper (unprinted), but most places these days just use a cardboard box, which is a shame, as there’s was something lovely about how the chips get steamed in the paper wrapping and come out a bit soggy.
Purely personal preference. Chippies don’t tend to have an alcohol license so serve all manner of fizzy drinks - I can recall a craze for ‘dandelion and burdock’ when I was a child, probably because it’s excessively sweet. In the pub it would be a pint of whatever takes your fancy. I like a light ale.
If you’re interested, this is my local chippy, so pretty typical as a menu goes: Seven Seas Fish Bar Menu | Ross on Wye | Seven Seas
They aren’t like peas I’ve ever experienced outside a chippy or pub. They are the large ‘marrofat’ variety, and are served mushy with a touch of vinegar flavour. They are a very common side if you order F&C in a pub, and will almost always come in a little pot so you can avoid it touching your food, which I do at all costs.
I add a little mint jelly and some butter (no vinegar).
You’re still not selling it.
I think I’ve only ever seen the stuff that comes out of a tin 
And a negative for me and a lot of other people.
Last one I went to was Chippy on the Corner in, I think, Islington. It is a dedicated chip shop, that mostly has fried seafood, and some other stuff. There were multiple choice, and that one was closest to the tube stop. Definitely not a tourist place, just a neighborhood independent fast food place.
I’m willing to try pretty hard to avoid tourist places, and with all the modern internet stuff it’s easy in a big city.
My late partner liked vinagar, I don’t - so I’d get them with just salt and she’d
add the vinegar at home.
This is my local chippie …