Hip Fish, Surrey Hills by Obelix

Fish and chips for me fall into two camps - posh fish & chips eg Tank and Peter's Fish Market with its market fresh fish; then there's weeknight standard fish and chips such as Hip Fish. All have a place and a niche.

Hip Fish is place you would go to feed yourself fast and cheaply. Kiddo and I came up to under $20 between the two of us and we had plenty of leftovers. We ordered one of their meal packs which came with four calamari rings; four pieces of fish; four potato cakes and an avalanche pile of chips. Quite frankly we were being greedy. It could have fed a family of four. So technically speaking, it could work out to be $5 per person.


Family pack

This is not the place for bespoke fillets of fish in which you actually would know the species of. The meal packs come with battered white fish (species unknown). They were innocuously bland (read tasteless) which was not a bad thing as I would find it disconcerting to be presented with intensely fishy fish (species unknown) at that price point.

The calamari rings were actually very good quality. I was expecting faux calamari ie cephalopod mush shaped into rings, but they were fair dinkum calamari pieces.

The dim sims were a bit on the charred side but I haven't had a fish and chip shop dimmy for such a long time, I wolfed it down out of the sheer kitschiness of it all.


Plenty of spuds to feed an Irish army. The menu was a bit sparse on salads or healthier side options but I was getting into the spirit of a greasy pig out so I didn't mind on this occasion.

The chef at the time of our visit was a high school student in his school uniform. He was being guided at the fryer by his mum. Bless.

Verdict

We liked it.

Overall

Hip Fish is not a bespoke fish and chippery. But it has it's place. If you need to feed a crowd cheaply and for times when only a greasy fry up would do, then this is the place to go.

Find it at

Hip Fish
500 Whitehorse Road
Surrey Hills Vic 3127
Phone: 9880 7321