By The Beach — Restaurant in Portugal Cove - St. Philips

I am a self proclaimed fish and chip professional assessor. Growing up in Hamilton we had the luxury of Hutch's at the beach, a staple for all Hamiltonian's and passers by on the way to Niagara or Toronto. This is the fish and chips I use as my bench mark for all contenders. A vacation to Newfoundland this month presented can opportunity to try the local version the island is best known for. After carefully surveying the locals about were to go and what to order, I settled on By The Beach as Hutch's prospective opponent. So this was not an experiment, I went the entire week not tainting my taste buds with less than formidable contenders, I was going to tease myself by holding out until the last moment of the trip. Once at the restaurant it was exactly as I expected, unadorned, no hostess, a gravel parking area beside a small dockyard facing the Atlantic Ocean which provided the ocean scented air that ignited my olfactory senses prior the to experience. First, no credit or debit so bring cash or use their ATM. Ordered at the counter from the friendliest local I've met who guided us through the menu, ironically he told us he doesn't eat fish? When was the fish caught? I asked...well this morning of course. BOOM that is fresh and the lightly battered flakey cod was without exception the freshest I've ever had. Fries were good and crisp, I ordered them well done, "no problem" he said. Overall the week long wait was well worth it, our entire party were overly satisfied at the abundance of food on the plate, 2 pieces of cod, overflowing fries bread stuffing and deep rich brown gravy (a new one for me and the only thing that I did not think added anything to the meal, but it is a local thing so why not try it?) and coleslaw, home made or not Im not sure, but it was good. finally I am not a tartar sauce guy, I prefer lemon or malt, but I'm sure they could do better than pre packaged tartar sauce, but it seemed to be the standard in every restaurant offering fish and chips, maybe it is a covid food safety thing? The verdict, is it better than Hamilton Hutch's and is my loyalty about to come into question? I can't say yes and go home not expecting to be berated about this, but if you are in the St John's area of Newfoundland give By the Beach a shot it is excellent, and If you are in the Hamilton area don't miss out on great fish and chips at Hutch's on...

Just left this restaurant/take out with a small plate of fries, dressing and gravy. It cost me $8.75....which I think is very expensive. Then the cashier said it was cash only...and I only had debit. It cost another $2.00 plus my bank fee to withdraw from the atm. I paid, figuring it must be really good quality and taste. Then to my surprise, a young lady (while talking on a cell phone with one hand) scooped out the dressing from a bucket which was located on a windowsill in the direct sunlight. Then placed fries on top, got off the phone and put a ladel of gravy from a crackpot over the fries and dressing. I said to the lady " has that dressing been in the sun all day? It is the very last of the dressing in the bucket" She came back with "we make it daily and we've only been open since 11:30am." It was then 2:25pm.... I had a few bites...it was decent but I just couldn't get past the dressing in a bucket in the sun and the lady on the phone while taking it up. Seemed very unhygienic to me. Not worth the nearly $15 for a small plate of fries, dressing and gravy that I only managed to eat a few fork fulls of..... Never going...

MOST EXCELLENT fish and chips with a gorgeous view out onto Portugal Cove. Husband and I were just staying in Portugal Cove on a recent trip to Newfoundland. Our BnB was so close to this place we had to give it a try. We agreed, we had never had such amazing fish and chips. Owners told us to try it the Canadian way—with gravy and dressing on the fries. We are from the States and didn't know this was a thing, but decided to try it. WOWWWW was it amazing. The dressing gave the fries an herby flavor, the gravy was rich and tasty. I also got peas on mine. The star, though, was the fish! They explained that it was caught just out in the bay that morning. It was the freshest tasting cod and the batter was the lightest and crispiest I'd ever tasted. Holy cow! It was DELICIOUS! As we drove all over the Avalon Peninsula, all locals we chatted with said, "You have to go to By The Beach fish and chips! It's the best!" The owner was very chatty and friendly and was so excited for us to try it like a Newfoundlander would eat it. Go and give this place a try. We loved it so much we went twice during...