t was Friday night and as we were round at my mum's we thought we would save her the bother of cooking a get fish and chips in. Now as someone who grew up in 80's West London I know the only place to go is the "Seashell" on Lisson Grove however a quick drive up there showed it is still shut after the fire and there seems precious little activity to suggest it will re-open. What is a hungry West End family to do?
Well we decided to give the Golden Hind a go. We had been put off using it previously as they had refused to sell my wife a portion of chips on it's own during a previous visit. However we were prepared to put such eccentricity aside and give it a go. We weren't dissapointed. The room is tiny set up with rustic basic wooden tables and the counter/servery hatch at the rear of the room. It is very post war austere. However they took the order in a friendly fashion and suggested we came back in 10 minutes to pick it up. We popped into the "Angel in Fields" for a quick drink and 10 minutes later exactly it was ready to pick up.
It has to be said it was extremely busy in the "Golden Hind" and a touch chaotic as you had dining in punters, people like us who popped in to takeaway and also a large volume of telephone orders. However our order was correct and we proceeded back to my mum's to eat it. It has to be said it was extremely good. Really fresh fish beautifully cooked, not too greasy, not too heavy on the batter. Perfect really. My plaice wasn't huge but it was delicious and the ladies loved their cod. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with chip shop chips. They can be really stodgy and not cooked through. These however were in a class of their own. Really tasty and crispy.
All in all a great experience and better that "The seashell" had been prior to it's fire. I would definetly go again. It came to £16 for 3 of us which is great value. Not sure if I would eat in as it looks a bit cramped but as a takeaway that was faultless.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 8
We did this a fair bit but it gets very busy and there is nowhere to stand when waiting for the takeaway orders. I don't like to feel in the way so we switched back to the Seashell and then eventually The Fish House in Notting Hill.