Chain Restaurant for Fish & Chips

[Shel_B]

Is there a half way decent chain restaurant that serves fish & chips? I'm not looking for, nor do I expect to find, excellent quality, (although that would be nice), rather, some place that offers reasonably acceptable fare for the times the mood strikes when I'm traveling and other options are unappealing.

[LB Howes]

If you are traveling up to Seattle, Ivar's is the place to go. They also serve a nice chowder and have many locations scattered around the Puget Sound region.

[Darienne]

We've tried fish and chips in a number of places in the USA and found none of them satisfactory. Now this is starting at Indiana and heading west...hardly fish country in Utah.

Long John Silver's is terrible.

In Ontario, Canada, we have Joey's Only chain. It's decent. Not incredible. Crisp, not greasy. I like it.

[SueJD]

Well being English I'm hard put to THINK of a national chain. Most fish and chip shops are independents.

Harry Ramsden shops are an exception. You find these sometimes in London or at airports. I always thought they erred on the side of bland.

[BeeZee]

Bonefish Grill does fish pretty well for a chain...they show fish+chips on the menu online (haven't tried them).

[CureCraftKing]

If your in or around Orange County, Ca, H.Salt Fish and Chips is great quality

[SueJD]

Just as a matter of interest here are the best of the fish and chip shops reported by the Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6993960.ece

[Shel_B]

Bonefish Grill does fish pretty well for a chain...they show fish+chips on the menu online (haven't tried them).

If you've not tried them, how do you know they're done pretty well?

[BeeZee]

Bonefish Grill-I've had their grilled fish, not their fish+chips. Just a comment that they, for a chain, prepare fish pretty well so I made a conjecture that their fish+chips might be acceptable.

[Shel_B]

Bonefish Grill-I've had their grilled fish, not their fish+chips. Just a comment that they, for a chain, prepare fish pretty well so I made a conjecture that their fish+chips might be acceptable.

Gotcha! Thanks for clarifying that.

[abooja]

Arthur Treacher's used to do fish & chips well enough to my liking, but that was when I was, maybe, ten years old. I rarely see them anymore, and certainly haven't eaten there in years. Besides, I believe it's strictly an east coast phenomenon.

[Kouign Aman]

Some 20 years ago, my British parents rate H.Salt fish & chips above most of the little individually owned shops in Britain. While the occasional small shop excels, the occasional small shop also serves rancid-grease-laden glop.

H.Salt was consistent, crisp, not too greasy, acceptable chips.

Been a while tho. Now I feel the need to verify the recommendation on my next trip north.

[ChefCrash]

The Claddagh Irish Pub. Excellent Fish n Chips and great beer selection.

[Pierogi]

Some 20 years ago, my British parents rate H.Salt fish & chips above most of the little individually owned shops in Britain. While the occasional small shop excels, the occasional small shop also serves rancid-grease-laden glop.

H.Salt was consistent, crisp, not too greasy, acceptable chips.

Been a while tho. Now I feel the need to verify the recommendation on my next trip north.

What a rush.....

My first job, several bazillion years ago, was at an H.Salt Esq. shop down the street from my house. Yes, they were pretty decent, I remember I absolutely loved their tarter sauce. One of the perqs of working there was that the employees could skim the excess, crispy-fried batter (no fish) out of the fryers. That, and the chips, dipped in tarter sauce was manys a working night dinner.

The other thing I remember about the Salt was that I started on Good Friday Yikes.....

[brucesw]

Fish & Chips as the British specialty never caught on here. We had Arthur Treacher, H. Salt and Alfies but except for a sole Alfrie's down in Texas City, they're long gone. We had Capt. D's and LJS (I thought the former was a bit better) but all the Capt's have closed up that I know of and it's just LJS now. Besides that you just don't find fish & chips on many menus, chain or not. Around here you'd have to toggle your cravings over to catfish/tilapia in a corn meal/corn flour/flour coating/batter. At independent shops, especially u-buy/we-fry markets, you're likely to have additional choices like flounder, redfish, maybe some variety of snapper. Those would be my choices but I don't know of any chains.

A guy from Britain has been reviewing the local outposts of the Brit Pub chains over on the CH Houston board - Sherlocks'?, Fox and Hound? - I think those were a couple of the names. Seems like there's several of those now which would be an option in some of the larger cities. I haven't tried any of them.

[haresfur]

Hmm, I'd order fish and chips at Red Robin again. I don't know their geographic distribution, though.

[Tastebuddy]

There is an Alfies in Lompoc,CA that is great.

[Mr Pie]

Some 20 years ago, my British parents rate H.Salt fish & chips above most of the little individually owned shops in Britain. While the occasional small shop excels, the occasional small shop also serves rancid-grease-laden glop.

H.Salt was consistent, crisp, not too greasy, acceptable chips.

Been a while tho. Now I feel the need to verify the recommendation on my next trip north.

What a rush.....

My first job, several bazillion years ago, was at an H.Salt Esq. shop down the street from my house. Yes, they were pretty decent, I remember I absolutely loved their tarter sauce. One of the perqs of working there was that the employees could skim the excess, crispy-fried batter (no fish) out of the fryers. That, and the chips, dipped in tarter sauce was manys a working night dinner.

The other thing I remember about the Salt was that I started on Good Friday Yikes.....

In my neck of the woods these are called scraps (and they are free). The server normally asks you if you 'want scraps with that?' when they are wrapping your fish and chips. As a child I used to think they were great, but I seem to have gone off them over the years. Maybe my furring arteries got in touch with my brain.

In my experience (in the UK) the best fish and chips shops are the tiny ones hidden in a row of houses that open for a couple of hours a day around (5:30 - 7:30). The best ones will have people queued out of the door the entire time. I have never had good fish and chips from a chain.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Mr Pie (log)