Rice Bowl Burger Bar

REVIEW LOCATION:
Wellington

Store: Rice Bowl Burger Bar, 17 Riddiford St.
Price: $5.50

Amount of chips:     3/5
Chip quality:        3/5
Size of fish:        4/5
Fish quality:        4/5

Total Score:         14

Well drained of oil?: 50/50
Satisfied?: Still pretty hungas


Comments: First up the faux vintage chairs in the waiting area are sick with gold Chinese fabric covered in clear plastic, they kinda look like they weren't properly unwrapped after being bought. The nostalgic Street Fighter II arcade machine is a feature often overlooked in modern chip shops, so I'm glad places like this are still holding it down. The menu board was a clever combination of vinyl lettering and areas of black chalk board paint for rotating menu items and specials.
They were a hold out with the chips and although they started out really nice, they got hard and tough to swallow as they cooled. They weren't just parboiled, they were fully double cooked and dried out to heck. The fish was a pretty fair size - it was real chunky and cooked v nicely but it was so drenched in oil that my hand looked like it was covered in the same plastic wrap as their tacky seating. I mean... these were okaaaaayyy - seasoning was great and all that but these guys are TOTAL HOLDOUTS! I'm still real hungas ay

Wadestown Seafoods

REVIEW LOCATION:
Wellington

Store: Wadestown Seafoods, 15 Sefton St. 
Price: $4.80

Amount of chips:     5/5
Chip quality:        2/5
Size of fish:        5/5
Fish quality:        3/5

Total Score:         15

Well drained of oil?: Not the best
Satisfied?: Kind of underwhelmed. 


Comments: so a regular at my work told me about this place and raved about it so I thought I should investigate. There was roadworks going on outside the shop and everyone seemed super confused because it's a weird shaped intersection where like 5 roads meet. The shop is tiny and run down and has posters stuck all over the place. The light box menu board has a big hole smashed into it. It seemed like a layer of dust covers everything in the shop including the two other customers I had to climb over to get to the eftpos machine. The chips were pretty much deep fried crisps and since they were home cut the size varied and the big chips were under cooked. They got super hard as they cooled and left lingering old potato, dirt, and bitter flavours in my mouth. I was even treated to bug holes in some of the chips. The fish was a fair size and the flesh was thick. Due to it being cooked at a high heat the exterior had a nice crunch but inside was real doughy. I have wax mouth and feel a bit bummed but on the brighter side, that view of the harbour when you head back down to tinakori road is stunning ay?

Athena Fish & Chips

REVIEW LOCATION:
Wellington

Store: Athena Fish & Chips, 138 Onepu Rd.
Price: $5.00

Amount of chips:     5/5
Chip quality:        2/5
Size of fish:        4/5
Fish quality:        2/5

Total Score:         13

Well drained of oil?: Not bad
Satisfied?: Not really. I'm full but true satisfaction depends on more than just a full gut. 


Comments: Well. I was really hoping this one would be good. The walls were covered in fake wood grain panels, there were two NZ commercial fish posters, a poster of a skydiver riding a surfboard real high up and there was one of those tiny windows through to the back room with the vertical one way mirror stripes. The menu was chaotic mix of pro vinyl lettering and crude blue chisel tip vivid and there was a plastic vine in a green planter hanging from the corner of the room. 
The chips started off ok but the more I ate, the less I wanted to eat them. They were home cut fries and cooked to the point where the bigger chips were cooked through to the middle but the smaller chips were burnt. I suspect that they were machine peeled or perhaps just poorly handled as a lot of the chips had a slightly sour bruised potato flavour. They had more of a chew than a crunch and became exponentially chewier and harder to swallow as they cooled. The fish seemed plump at first but with my first bite I realised it was just bulked out with flour-heavy batter. It was under cooked and felt like you were just eating bland dough and had a gooey mash potato consistency inside. Over all it was a poorly seasoned, poorly cooked, flavourless gut filler and I think I'm gonna be gummed up for days.

The Riddiford

REVIEW LOCATION:
Wellington

Store: The Riddiford, 16 Riddiford St
Price: $18.00

Amount of chips:     5/5
Chip quality:        5/5
Size of fish:        5/5
Fish quality:        5/5

Total Score:         20🎉

Well drained of oil?: Yes
Satisfied?: Yeah full af. I feel great!


Comments: Well after paying $18 for some potato and sea meat, I gotta say I felt pretty skeptical initially. The restaurant was empty, the decor a little tacky, Coldplay was playing on the stereo and I always feel a bit cautious about a place that refers to itself as a bistro. By time my order reached the table (which was not very long) quite a few people had filtered in. It seemed like everyone in the room gasped as my hefty meal arrived and the woman to the left of me even said "I'll have what he's having" in the most corny way imaginable. My first chip (Coldplay still playing) came with everything I look for in a chip - perfect crunch, creamy interior, large quantity, bang and hung like a pro and it was even seasoned with paprika! The fish was TWO massive Hoki fillets. The flesh was juicy and thick with a nice thin layer of crunchy batter. The oil drainage of the fish was also top notch. The added extras of giant side salad, tartare and tomato sauce really set it off and the wedge of lemon was pleasant to finish on. I'm going to go ahead and say they are the best quality fish and chips I have reviewed in Wellington so far. Even though the price was up there, I rationalised it by considering that the quantity was double the amount of my normal chip shop order plus the higher quality and all of the added extras. I feel like it was a relatively good deal. The guy behind the fryer knows what's up.