Masters Super Fish

Took my teenage children today and we had a great meal, a very good quantity of food and the fish and the chips both tasted excellent, accompanied with prawns, bread, lots of sauces and nice tea or cool drinks. The price was great for such a big meal and the service and cooking were fast and good. Looking forward to our next chance to return there and know it will be long before we taste such good fish and chips elsewhere.

Fantastic fish and chips, I’ve visted this place many times and it’s certainly the best I’ve found in London. Their fish comes fresh every day from the fish market and they use ground nut oil which gives the fish a lovely flavour. The portions are large and the fillets are always big and chunky, especially the ‘masters special’ which is an enormous cod fillet. There is a sit down restaurant which is usually frequented by a good mix of locals, cabbies (always a good sign) and business people / tourists, and they also have a takeaway which has hundreds of old event tickets and football match tickets pinned to the walls which I always find fascinating to look at while I wait for my order (they always cook to order so everything is fresh). Prices are a bit on the high side but it’s London and worth paying the extra for guaranteed good quality. Highly recommend.

What
4 Shell-Prawns, Picked Onions, Gherkins – Complimentary
All dine-in customers received a few prawns and some bread and butter to tide them over until the main event arrived. We appreciated this as our mustard and pepper fish took a very long time to prepare. Onions and gherkins were chilled, crunchy and vinegary.

Masters Skate Fried in Pepper – £9.25 (includes chips)
This huge fleshy skate wing was covered in a fine black pepper and fried perfectly, the dense flakes peeled wonderfully off the spiny bones making the crispy skin and juicy skate a delicious mouthful. The pepper crust would have hugely benefited from seasoning with salt and lemon as this had to be liberally and constantly applied. Because of the density of the fish and it’s peppery jacket the skate retained heat, the last bite as delicious as the first.

Masters Cod Fried in Mustard – £9.50 (includes chips)
The strong mustard flavour worked perfectly with chunky cod and was seasoned very well, we preferred this dish to the skate as there was less hassle with self-seasoning. Chips on both were good, crispy but lacking a smooth puffy interior. We ordered haddock but they only had cod left, with cod depletion issues it is a shame it was not the other way round.

Mixed Salad – £2.00
We were too full for this so it came home with us. Even so it was not the most appealing salad, a few leaves, grated carrot, tomatoes and tonnes of sliced raw onion.

Mushy Peas – £1.50
Chunky, thick and tasty, served in a sensible sized portion for two to share. The addition of salt, vinegar and pepper made it irresistible and it was finished off pretty quickly.

Drink
4 Pots of Tea – £4.00
Tea was fine but the milk was UHT and spoilt the taste.

Atmosphere
We sat in but there is also a takeaway window for speedy visits. The dining room is clean (if a little chilly) and showcases a wonderful mix of customers. We joined single cabbies who all seemed to order the Master Special (247g prime cod), a family, a couple and a few business men with overnight trolleys straight from Waterloo station (3 mins walk away).

Offers
Lunch Special – Cod/Plaice/Huss with tea or coffee/soft drink – £6.50/£7.00 (with chips)

Verdict
We will definitely return when we feel we can take the calories of a battered fish. Looking at other tables made us pretty jealous as the majority had ordered the huge crunchy fish that curled up off their plates however we really enjoyed our meal and left satisfied.

I personally believe that this is the best fish and chips Ive eaten in the past 2 years that I have been living in the UK. They use groundnut oil to fry in, cut fredh potatoes for the chips and make their own gerkins and pickeled onions....my husband and I love it!

As close to the best fish and chips as London gets. Shattering batter, brilliant fat chips, and pickles to go round. I could eat here every Friday night and be happy. Not as cheap as it gets, but hey, neither's cod any more.