Duckworth's Fish and Chips — Restaurant in Toronto

Nice little restaurant, but it seems to be carried today more on its past glories than its present offerings.

We have lived three blocks from this place for the past eight years and because I love fish n’ chips, we often stopped there for take out dinners. We even bought an insulated bag, the same as the pizza delivery guys use, that we kept in the car to keep the meals hot and grease-free over the three-block trip home.

We loved what we got from this place until just over a year ago when we noticed the fish was getting greasy. This problem got worse over time and as a result of our last dinners that we had in January 2018, we have stopped patronizing Duckworth’s altogether. The fish was so greasy, I couldn’t eat it.

I will also mention that there was always a problem with the chips not being as hot as they could be, but because the fish used to be so good, we didn’t care. As the fish became greasier, our forgiveness for mildly warm chips diminished. Why they were like this is easy to explain; the fish was freshly cooked while we waited but the chips were always precooked.

I know many will say our problem with the greasy dinners was the insulated bag we used to keep them warm for the less than five minute dash home. If that is the case, please explain why the fish always arrived home hot, even the fish in our last dinner, but the greasy issue didn’t show up until a little over a year ago. If you keep fried fish close to its cooking temperature, it won’t become greasy. If it cools, it will. While I do not believe the bag is the issue, I will mention that even if it is, the meals were kept in the newsprint paper wrappings all Duckworth’s fish and chip dinners are sent home in.

The other problem with them is their 7:00 pm closing time. Actually, it really isn’t 7:00, but 6:50 instead. You can walk in the place at or even after 7pm, but you can’t order anything after 6:50. In this day and age, getting off work at 5, home by 5:20, and getting to your local restaurant by 6 is only a faint memory of a bygone era.

To summarize, I’ll be damned if I will kill myself any night of the week to get to Duckworth’s before 6:50 pm, so I can pay top dollar for a greasy piece of fish and...

Update: nothings perfect. I have returned and the food was amazing.. was bad day for cook maybe.. original review…. I moved into the neighbourhood... 30 yrs ago. I've been a customer for that long. Tonight for the first time I learned they have undercooked french fries.. and over cooked french fries and you are suppose to ask which you want. Dropped too soon, all those cold fries will delay the fryer oil's return to cooking temperature and the resulting fries will be undercooked. Fries I received first where undercooked.. tasting like frozen fries before you put them in the fryer.. just shy of being cooked... and the fries I got after .. over cooked.. and had to toss half of them in the garbage.... too hard to eat.... ! Never has this ever happened.. ever.. in the history of 30 yrs.. eating at this restaurant.... never have I been told.. ask for well cooked fries.... What happening duckworths..? Expensive treat.. but needs to be worth the cost.....

My family has been coming here for fish and chips for as long as I can remember. Probably darn near 2 decades or more. The fish and chips is the best you’ll ever have, the bread & and coleslaw on the side are fantastic too.

The other day we decided to order on uber eats and I mistakenly checked out with fish only, which we didn’t realize until the food arrived so I placed a second order for chips only and we stuck the fish in the oven to keep warm.

To my surprise I got a call from the restaurant informing me that they noticed the mistake I had made and they sent me 6 new fish and chips orders to ensure that everything would be warm and fresh when we sat down to eat. We couldn’t believe it as the fish isn’t cheap whatsoever! This just goes to show the type of business they are and that’s hard to come by these days.

Thank you to the entire...