You can get fish and chips just about anywhere. Pubs that also pour Guinness. Restaurants that also serve everything else. Jack in the Box. Today we will focus on the fast-food and food court variety. We pit the product produced by The Chippy, an Irvine food court denizen, against that from Farmer Boys, a local chain I used to frequent exclusively for their fish and chips.
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First let's talk about price.
There is no denying its failure, though. The batter, which has always been heavy and mealy, was especially leaden this time. Where it wasn't uncooked and clumped like raw paste in parts, it was overdone, taking on a dark, almost burnt color instead of golden brown. Worse, the predominant flavor was of rancid, bitter fryer grease. And on the fish, there were bald spots left uncovered. The flesh of the pollock used was greyish in places, and often so mushy it's hard to tell the fish apart from the uncooked batter stuck to it.
The fries, of a thickness just slightly heartier than shoestring, became limp inordinately fast.
This is all in contrast with The Chippy's product, which is just as good now as the first time I had it. The batter is pristine, uniformly covering every inch of fish and fried to become an airtight cocoon of crunch. The batter's golden color glows, the crispiness is consistent and the flavor, delicate as tempura. Breach the crust and the fish inside flakes in supple white chunks.
And The Chippy's chips? Well they're standard, garden variety fries–a filler more than anything else. But they still maintained their integrity much longer than Farmer Boys'.
The clear winner this week: The Chippy.
The Chippy, 2222 Michelson Dr., Ste. 216, Irvine, (949) 833-2322.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.