As would be expected, one dish all four of us reviewers gravitate to when dining locally is fish and chips. It’s pretty much of the most balanced meals you can eat based on the Canadian Food Guide. You’ve got your fruits and vegetables (fries, tomato based ketchup and coleslaw), your breads and cereals (the batter), and your meat (duh… the fish). It may lack a component from the Milk and Milk Products section but… come on… humans are the only mammal that doesnt’ wean it’s young. Milk Products are highly overated (Unless, of course, you’re gonna visit StoneCold Creamery after your meal… then milk is a pretty decent ingredient).

However, when we decided to offer our opinions in the form of online reviews, we realized some sort of formal scoring system needed to be used.

We chose to score the actual food being served and not the restaurant experience. Rude waitstaff or a run-down restaurant doesn’t change what the fish and chips taste like. If there is something significant we feel our readers should know about the restaurant experience, we will include in it our comments, but it will not affect the score for the food itself.

After careful thought we chose six categories the fish and chips would be judged on:

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value 
Condiments

You will notice the first five categories are considered major and are scored out of 10, while the final two are considered somewhat minor and are scored out of 5. This adds up to a total of 50 which is then doubled to receive a score out of 100. All four of our scores are averaged out to get the meals final mark.

Because of this scoring method it is extremely difficult for a restaurant to get a score in the 90′s since every point deducted is actually two points removed from their final score. In fact, every restaurant that receives a score of 80 or higher will be HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by us.

What we look for:

Fish: It should be nice, white and break apart easily. It shouldn’t taste or smell fishy! Obviously finding bones in it would be a negative.

Batter: What we’re looking for depends on the kind of batter being used. If its a thick batter we don’t want it to be wet & doughy on the inside but we also don’t want it to be overcooked on the outside. With thin batters we’re looking for nice, crispy coatings that are not overdone. We don’t like the bottom of the pieces of fish to be soggy from water (or grease for that matter… but that’s discussed in another category).

It’s nice to have a bit of seasoning in the batter to accent the taste of the fish.

Fries: Home-cut fries will always get a better score from us than mass-produced fries. However, regardless of the kind of fry, they should arrive hot and not over or undercooked. We’d rather a well cooked, mass produced fry which arrives hot than a lukewarm, undercooked home-cut fry any day.

Finding small pieces of dark brown, massively over cooked fries in with the rest is also a no-no… it just screams that the oil isn’t changed often enough or they don’t care whether there are floaties hanging around for five or six cooking cycles.

Grease: While we understand that grease is an accepted reality of dining on fish and chips… that doesn’t mean the meal has to be on par with the Alberta oil sands. Proper cooking technique along with quick reheat deep fryers mean the fish and chips will not sit and soak in the oil longer than necessary.

When we pick up a piece of the fish what will we see underneath? If it’s a puddle of grease, that’s a no-no. When we press down on the fish, or bite into it we don’t want to see a patina of grease greeting us.

We also want the meal to taste fresh which means the oil should be replaced often. Fish and chips that taste like onion rings, or chicken balls, or a myriad of other foods cooked in the same fryer is a no-no.

Please note that a high score for Grease means the meal wasn’t greasy… which is a good thing.

Portion/Value: While taste reigns supreme, size does matter. In our experience most restaurants are pretty standard with the portion of fish and chips they serve. We give ourselves a bit of leeway to reward those restaurants that go above and beyond, and penalize those who skimp on size. And woe to those restaurants who feel they can charge big bucks and give small portions… not good value!

Condiments: This is a bit of a tough one, and probably the most subjective of all the categories. While most of us agree that too much grease is not good, and that home-cut fries are better than mass-produced… the same unity is hard to find when it comes to condiments.

Some like a bit of fish and chips to go with their ketchup while others wouldn’t dare defile their meal with the stuff. What about coleslaw or vinegar? Some like it, some don’t. The same is true of tarter sauce, which adds the dilemna of what is best, home-made or a commercial brand like Kraft?

To understand the scores we give for condiments it is best to read each individuals comments for the meal. It is there they will highlight their thoughts about their preferences. For example… Skippy bases his entire condiment score on the ketchup. If it’s Heinz and the bottle is clean, they get a 5 out of 5.