Fish House

126-128 Lauriston Road
Victoria Park Village
Hackney
London
E9 7LH

Find Fish House on Google Maps

Quick Ratings
Food : Very Good (if you stick to the fish and chips) average otherwise
Coffee : Don't know
Price : A bit high for fish and chips - but worth it!
Service : Friendly and efficient
Meals Served : Breakfast Lunch Dinner

The Food
The Fish House is not your average chippy. It is a chippy, but it's also a trendy restaurant with glass tables and modern art on the walls, befitting the upscale Victoria Park location. Their fish and chips (£9.50 eat in/£6.50 takeaway) definitely rank in the Premier League of this particular British delicacy - and at that price they had better. The batter is golden brown and very crispy, the fish underneath is succulent and meaty, the chips usually perfect, and the mushy peas are among the finest I have ever sampled.

But, as this is a restaurant as well as a takeaway, they also do restaurant food. On a recent visit my dining partner and I hesitantly ventured away from this place's staple dish and tried a few of the other things on offer. I had the crab, avocado and endive salad (£8.95). It was a bit uninteresting and bland - with raw red onions totally killing my palette. At home I usually soak my raw onions in salt water to bring down their volume before adding them to a salad. My partner had the fish cakes with a poached egg and hollandaise (£7.95). Again these were not very impressive - they were basically potato cakes with a little fish added for flavour. She felt that there was not enough hollandaise and another egg would have been better.

This being a traditional-ish chippy they also have jars of pickles on the counter. I felt I had to do my duty and try a pickled egg (50p) - which I only enjoyed after a little salt and pepper were added. For those who are health conscious, all the fish is available grilled as well as fried.

The wine
Fish House has a good wine list but annoyingly, the only glasses they offer are massive 250ml ones - the equivalent to a third of a bottle.

Pudding
I would really like to try the desserts here, but am always too stuffed to even attempt it. The last few times I've been here, they've had a tempting rhubarb Eton mess (£4.50) on the blackboard.

Breakfast
While doing a bit of research I just found out that the fish house now does breakfast. Go to the London Review of Breakfasts to read what they have to say.

Open
Monday to Friday 12pm to 10pm
Saturday and Sunday 11am - 10 pm (breakfast menu from 11am to 2pm)

Why am I doing this?

I have been living in the East End of London for three years now and I often marvel at the quality and diversity of the restaurants, cafes, and markets that are practically at my doorstep. In the many other cities I have lived in there were usually only one or two places that I enjoyed frequenting that were within a short walk from my apartment and I often found myself taking journeys to other neighbourhoods far afield. But living in Bethnal Green I rarely have to leave this little village within a city to find a wide variety of foods. So through this blog I hope to chronicle my gastronomic adventures within Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, Broadway Market, London Fields, Victoria Park, Dalston, Hoxton and other areas that are nearby. Hopefully this blog will prove to be a useful resource to those who live in and visit this vibrant community. If you have any suggestions for places I might not know about by all means leave a comment.