The BEST Fish and Chips in Central London?

In today's video I'm going to be visiting five of the most central fish and chip shops in London and I'm going to be reviewing on six criteria. Maximum marks is going to be 60. Be sure to stay tuned because I'm going to be going to a really touristy spot at the end of the video to see can a tourist trap stack up in the world of fish and chips. I'm excited for this. Hobsons, Villiers Street, we're right next to Charing Cross so in terms of central London fish and chips it doesn't get any more central than this. They've had success for 25 years in the fish and chip industry and they also were behind Oliver's of Belsize Park. Other locations include Soho, Portchester Road or right here. Let's go. Cod and chips. Beautiful. No that's perfect like that. Thank you. Have a good one. Quite a new addition here in the Charing Cross area. Oldest fish and chip shop in the country That is textbook I would say. That lovely golden colour cod. Good chips. Let's actually have a look at the cod shall we. Oh yeah. It's a little bit moist. That's okay. Sometimes that's nice. This one's got foil on the bottom. Normally you get like newspaper when you go to some places. Now let's try some of this fish. I'm quite excited. Quite a soft texture. That batter is very sort of oily and soft. There is some crispy bits to it. It's nice but it's kind of binded together almost mushy like. Skin is essential to good cod and chips. Do not get why people would ever not want the skin. It's the best bit. Oddly enough the underside was quite crispy. Normally it's the underside that gets a bit soggy because it sits there. I don't know if that's the foil playing a part there. Who knows. Let's try a chip. They're good. There's not the crispiness to it. I think a key to a good chip is you want a bit of crispiness but not too much. They can't be too overly soft. They're good but there's something not quite complete about them. Especially that one. That was a little bit too potatoey that one. They're not quite there. There's something missing about those chips. Good but not a 10 out of 10 I'm afraid. So that's spot number one done. Now we're gonna head over to Soho for an OG London fish and chip shop. Let's go. Poppies. Let's do this. To take away can I get cod and chips please? Yeah. Brilliant. They've got four sites in London. Portobello Road, Spitterfields, Camden and this one in Soho on Old Compton Street. In fact it's actually next door to the best sandwich in London. We've done that before. I feel honoured to be having this sandwich right here in London in a deli that's been here since 1961. Poppies was established in 1952. We've just ordered regular cod and chips £13.60. It's a good price. Let's see what the quality's like. I mean look at the presentation of that. This cute little box. It's similar to the old school newspapers that you'd get it in. They even do do their chips in newspapers so for that OG fish and chip shop establishment. I mean I've just read some of the stuff on it. They've got Jack the Ripper stuff on here, bits about the Blitz, the ghost of Hanbury Street which you'll know that Hanbury Street is where their Spitterfield site is. And that batter looks so good. It's soft in places but the odd bit of crunch as well by the looks of it. I'm going to have to get straight in and give that a go. Cod's a little bit moist. I like them when the cod's a bit more sort of flaky or a little bit drier but the fish goes really well with that batter. There's kind of a real harmony between the two. This, my American friends, it's not a fry. It's a chip. Yeah, good bit of crunch to it. Solid chip. That's the thing I love about fish and chips. It's just about sitting down, nice summer's day like this, seeing the people coming up and down and Soho is probably one of the best places in London to do that. Rock and Soul Place, Covent Garden, here on Endell Street. We're just a four minute walk from Covent Garden tube station or a 15 minute walk from Trafalgar Square. Rock and Soul Place was established in 1871 so it's the oldest chippy on our list with a recipe that hasn't changed for 152 years. Let's see how it stacks up. So the other creative thing with fish and chips is figuring out where you're going to sit. They have got seating here but I feel like it's more like restaurant eating in so I'm going to creatively find somewhere to sit. That's the great thing about the fish and chips experience. It's finding a wall or a bench or something. Look at that. Complimentary tartar sauce. Really big, thick chips. I'm not too sure how I feel about these but that is a chunky bit of cod. Look at that. It's quite flaky cod. Not as moist as it was just the poppies a moment ago. Good taste. How about some batter? Some batter. Batter up. Batter's very good as well. There's not really any sort of taste to the batter though is all I will say. Importantly let's try some of that skin. There is a good wealth of skin here. Skin in the game son. Don't really know how I sit with these chunky chips. It's not the fish and chip shop experience for me. I'd want that to be sliced in half more but we have our personal preferences. Not for me. There's just too much potato going on there. It needs to be like a skinnier chip. The cod was really good. The batter could have been a bit more flavourful. The chips, they're just too chunky in my mind. They're like potato wedges and it just changes the flavour profile of the chip entirely. Presentation, basic box. Complimentary tartare. Nowhere to sit you know. I guess they have got seating for like a restaurant. Even if I was to sit there I could do takeaway there. I want organic benching from Camden Council or something so I can sit and enjoy people walking past. Not being part of the restaurant itself. Nice. Fish and chips I think if I was on death row would be my very last meal. Just many happy memories you know. Fish and chips with Midnight Anne and Grandad or down at the seaside going out on a long day at the motorbike. Just sitting in the sun. People watching. That's how to do fish and chips. So come to Fishco Tech. We love a punny fish and chip name on Waterloo Road. Place has been here for 70 odd years. Famous patrons include Tony Blair, Lee Evans, Tom Hardy and best of all, wait for it, John Prescott. Now that is an accolade for fish and chips. Let's go. Let's see what we're dealing with. Yeah there's some real nice colour to those chips. That's more the sort of shape and size I want from a cod from a fish and chips. Let's have a little look. That batter's very nice. Look at that. It's a much more flakier kind of cod. I think the batter is very good as well. You've got the crispy bits of batter on the end but you've got these sort of softer bits in the middle. Now let's open up one of these chips. There's more of a lightness to that chip. There's more of a fluffiness to it. They're all good chips. They're very moorish. This is a very good experience. I don't know if I'm slightly tainted by the fact that John Prescott enjoys this. How could I not enjoy this if John Prescott comes here? Now that is a gem. That's the only one that's new to me. Don't know why I haven't tried sooner. Fish go tech. What's this place called? Fish Place. Get it? Fish Place. This is the wild card for me because we're in spitting distance of the British Museum. Cod and chips £14.95. They're also specialists in Korean fried chicken. This could go horribly wrong. This could be the most genius idea ever. We're in a very touristy trapped area. The British Museum is the most popular attraction in London. Is it tourist trap or is it real genuine fish and chips? We're about to find out. I couldn't find out as much information about this one. It's clearly the newer on the list. Didn't tell me when it was established. Let's give it a go. The packaging is good. Just generic sort of box fish and chips. A bit of paper in there as well. The old classic newspaper. Let's go with the fish first. I'm not going to lie, when I saw the fish, I thought it was a battered sausage. I nearly said to the guy, I'd ordered cod, right? It already marks off, I think, for the fact that it doesn't look truly fish like, but what's it taste like? It's a lot more sort of firmer cod. A lot more tougher, chewier. I kind of like that rather than sort of being too moist and sort of slippery. Let's try some of the batter. The batter is a bit more crispier. It's definitely more of like a battered sausage or something. Have we got any skin in here? I think we have got some skin. Also generously with this was a good amount of tartar sauce as well. So plus points on that. Let's try a chip. I can't discern the chips. It's not as nice as some of the chips we've had, but I mean, I'm still going. Closing thoughts. I feel like this kind of blew my expectations of what it would be because of obviously the area of London that we find ourselves in. It can be really easy to think, I'm in a really touristy area, it's going to be a tourist trap. This is great fish and chips. Stumbling points, I'd say it's probably just the batter where it's not as harmonious with the fish. The presentation, it wasn't a nice slab of fish, but maybe if I got a larger one, maybe that would have been a larger slab of fish. Did we get everything? So five fish and chip shops, ultra central London, reviewed. I'm thinking Fish Codec was my favourite. Waterloo Road, everything about that was just perfect. Chips, the right consistency, the fish, the perfect mix of the soft batter with the crispiness to it. Fish tastes amazing. Location was pretty good as well. And the best value out of all five that we tried today. I'd be interested to know if you have a favourite fish and chip shop in London. Maybe I should expand a little bit further out than central. I'd love to know your suggestions. And if you want to know more of good food in London, then check out my best lunches in London video. I'll leave that on screen for you now. See you again soon. Bye-bye.