Restaurant: Hellas Restaurant
Address: 664 Sackville Drive, Lower Sackville
Date: June 24, 2011
Fish: Haddock
Cost: $10.00

A spot many of our readers have highly recommended is Hellas Restaurant in Lower Sackville. This place has been around for a long time and fills a desperately needed niche of a family restaurant in the area.

After two unsuccessful attempts to dine here (who knew some restaurants aren’t open on Sundays?) we finally caught them open. The staff were friendly, and the place was clean. In the end, two of our intrepid reviewers thought the F&C was good enough to be Highly Recommended, while the other two felt it was a little shy of the mark. So we’ll have to leave it up to you to decide.

Fish and Chips Score: 78

FCP Review Crew

Rachel’s Thoughts

It was a good portion size, but was a bit too greasy for my liking. Fries were good and the fish was quite nice and fresh… however my piece did have a few dark spots, which I’m not a big fan of.

The coleslaw was great (tasted home-made).

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Rachel’s Final Score: 75

Poochie’s Thoughts

The fish was very fresh, white and flaky with a nice subtle flavour. The pieces of fish were quite greasy. It seemed like clean grease, but it just oozed out when you pressed down on the batter. Having said that, the pieces seemed to be cooked perfectly, with the batter a nice golden brown on the outside. The more I ate the fish, the more I liked it, which is a great testimony, because at some places we eat, the F&C gets worse with each bite.

The fries were of the frozen variety, cooked perfectly, but there is still only so much you can do with frozen fries.

The portion was nice… lots of fries and two decent pieces of battered fish.

The tartar sauce was Kraft, the coleslaw a home-made creamy, crunchy mixture, which was quite good.

All in all I felt this was a good experience… the fries and grease detracted a bit, but I feel the fish was strong enough to highly recommend this place.

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Poochie’s Final Score: 80

Minnie’s Thoughts

The fish was obviously fresh, and really tasty, but greasy… but I didn’t mind the grease. The batter was thin, crunchy goodness. I really quite liked it.

The fries were decent, and the home-made coleslaw was really good. Overall, a better than average dining experience.

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Minnie’s Final Score: 80

Skippy’s Thoughts

Let’s start with the fries: not great. And when I put ketchup on them in an attempt to improve the quality… even more not great. It wasn’t Heinz (and yes, there are no other kinds), and whatever brand it was had too much of a… hmm… a vinegary* sweet taste, so since this is my only condiment to accompany F&C, I didn’t let any of it near my fish.

The fish fared much better. There seemed to be more batter than required to cover the fish (air pockets?), and there were some wet (soggy) spots to the batter… but it tasted great. The fish and the batter both tasted great on their own (take your fish and batter apart next time and try it separately first, and – voila! – you too are now a Fish & Chips connoisseur), and then combined: even better. And the grease factor was nowhere near as bad as what I heard coming from my dining cohorts.

Overall, I wanted this to be a higher score than it was, because the fish portion was so durn tasty (which certainly deserves honorable mention), however it is a complete package, and must be judged accordingly. Solution? Ask for fish only!

*(Thanks to Minnie for pinpointing this flavor-that-didn’t-belong.)

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Skippy’s Final Score: 76