Restaurant: Tom’s Family Restaurant
Address: 585 Sackville Drive, Lower Sackville
Date: January 8, 2010
Fish: Haddock
Cost: $9.99

Tom’s is one of the very few family style restaurants in the Lower Sackville area, and is owned and operated by the same people who used to run Zorba the Greeks in Bedford. We arrived around 7:00pm on a Friday night and it was packed with a line of people waiting to get in. We’ve been there several times before and have never seen such a large crowd. According to our waitress, crowds like this happen periodically.

The menu boasts of having fresh haddock, as well as home-cut fries and home-made tartar sauce. The fish and chips came in two sizes, Regular ($11.99) and Light Fare ($9.99)… we discovered that the regular was three pieces of fish while light fare was two pieces.

We ordered the two piece fish and chips and when it arrived it didn’t take Stephen Hawking to notice three pieces of fish sitting on the plate. Our waitress said this was because the pieces were small in size.

Another thing we noticed was the little packets of Kraft tartar sauce, which I guess you could call home-made… if you happened to live in a Kraft food factory.

All in all, we think Tom’s is probably a bit above average.

Fish and Chips Score: 76

FCP Review Crew

Rachel’s Thoughts

The restaurant was very busy which I took as a good sign! The fish was fresh and the batter was good, but I found it a bit greasy. Fries were home-cut and very good.

Their tartar sauce is normally homemade but today it was Kraft. The portion was fair. For a Greek restaurant this was a good fish and chips meal.

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Rachel’s Final Score: 78

Poochie’s Thoughts
The fish had a nice, fresh flavour with a hint of seasoning. The batter is the thicker type and had a slight crunch, but perhaps a bit doughy on the inside. The fries were home-cut and really nice… perfectly cooked. I thought they were the best fries we’ve sampled so far.

While you certainly couldn’t call the meal grease-free, I found it a bit above average for low grease.

The menu says the tartar sauce is homemade, but it came in little Kraft packets… which is either a misleading menu or a severe case of copyright infringement. I really liked the creamy coleslaw… it was exceptional. Finally, I thought the portion size was a bit smaller than average.

All in all I really enjoyed this meal… very tasty.

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Poochie’s Final Score: 82

Minnie’s Thoughts
I didn’t find the fish had a whole lot of flavour. While the menu didn’t say so, I think it was beer batter, which I found quite greasy. There seemed to be too much batter for the fish found inside.

I really liked the fries.

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Minnie’s Final Score: 72

Skippy’s Thoughts
The fish has a good taste to it… but something was missing, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. However I was easily able to put my finger on the bone I had to remove from a piece. (Hey – it’s bound to happen on occasion.)

The batter had a decent crunch to it, but I found it tasteless. The fries were nice and potato-y… loved ‘em.

Fish
Batter
Fries
Grease
Portion/Value
Condiments

Skippy’s Final Score: 73