Cockney Kings Fish & Chips

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips
6500 Hastings Street
1005 Columbia Street (Location visited)
New Westminster, BC

Despite there were interesting options during my trip to Scottsdale (again, there were several dozen restaurants in the couple of block radius near my hotel), I have to mention I wanted to come back to Vancouver. Sure, weather was nicer in Scottsdale but Vancouver is the place I now call home. The night after I came back, I wanted something “Vancouver” and, being a coastal city, what “better” option that fish and chips? Of course, given all the options in the city, the usual question is “where”? Not wanting to drive to Steveston, I looked for other options and, as a result, I ended up in Cockney Kings Fish & Chips.

I must mention they have two locations, one in Hastings in North Burnaby and another one in New Westminster. I chose to go to the New Westminster location as I was planning to do something nearby after dinner. I mention this because the location is a bit… Strange. I think this has something to do with New West as it looked empty, yet there was people around (shopping at a local grocery store, for example). But, then again, I am not a person who gets bothered by things like this… Enough of this, to the food!

When I walked in, I was given the option to sit anywhere. Let’s just say I have a really bad track of choosing the worst possible sit in an subconscious attempt to shield myself from the staff (and me taking pictures). However, in this case, I will blame the time of the day as my seat was quite good when I sat myself but as soon as it got “dark”, lightning started to be an issue.

After perusing the menu and made my order, I took my usual condiments snapshot. Being a British type establishment, you have the usual suspects, specially the malt vinegar. However, there is one that might freak a lot of people: the leftmost bottle which had tartare sauce. Of course most of us know that tartare sauce has mayo as base but left in the open and not refrigerated??? Well, I am almost sure they used commercial mayo; if that is the case, since there is acid added (in the form of vinegar, et al), that might kill some of the bacteria. This is not something that can be assumed if it is homemade. As a result, you might not necessarily get food poisoning from unrefrigerated commercial mayo, though, if let outside long enough, it might get funny flavours, too (at which point I might just as well skip it).

I ordered the seafood platter which has shrimps, fried oysters and a piece of fish of my choice and, in my case, I chose salmon. Along, there was a roll and the coleslaw. I will leave the bun out because, well, it was mostly a token piece of bread which I could live without. The coleslaw was good and I wish there was a bit more. Hey, I need my veggies, you know! It had a mix of creamy and vinegar-y taste but, most importantly, it kept certain level of crunchiness. I won’t say too much about the fries other than it could have been better. The shrimps were, well, flat. I found them overcooked and, as a result, had the odd thought they might have used cooked and then frozen shrimps. Might be mistaken here… And then the oyster. They did not have that strong cooked oyster flavour which I think could suit people who are have not get used to its taste yet. And, as expected, it had a slippery, almost custardy texture to it. Should I say acquired taste?

I found the salmon to be somewhat overcooked which appears to be a constant on what I had that night. However, it kept some of that salmon flavour most of us is used to. One thing that really made it was the batter. Unlike a lot of places where it would call the batter “tempura batter”, here, they do not make such claim. Instead, it was regular batter, but a really light one. Furthermore, it was cooked evenly, i.e., no semi-raw batter. Could it be the reason the fish was slightly overcooked? In the end, nothing the tartare sauce couldn’t fix. (Though, in this case, a wedge of lemon could have done wonders).

While having my meal, I started to notice something about the tables next to me: Based on their accent, I could swear they were Brits. If they would come here for fish and chips, I would it be good for me? I will have to say, despite some soft negatives, in the end, it was good for the price point – the meal was ~CDN $14. Too expensive? They also have all-you-can-eat cod on certain days of the week at $10 so you might want to go on those days.

Tagged under: Fish • New Westminster • Seafood