Cracroft Fresh Fried — Restaurant in Christchurch

I hate giving negative reviews on anything. However, this restaurant was so infuriating, I feel as if I should be giving this review, both to warn others, and in hopes that the owners will see this, and either up their game or change what they're doing entirely.

I'm not really sure how this place has so many positive reviews saying things along the lines of "The food tastes great!" and "Best fish & chip shop in Christchurch." as I had a terrible experience with both the service and food here. First off, I asked for 2 Akaroa cod and 1 crabstick, I actually ended up repeating my order 2-3 times for other reasons, but that was my bad. Anyway, after asking for this and getting home with this order, I found that they did not include the crabstick in my order (I do not believe they charged for it or wrote it down in the first place, despite me stating my order multiple times.) Also, once I went to pay for my order, I used pay wave (which their eftpos machine had an option for). However, once I scanned my credit card to use pay wave, I was told by the person working at the counter that there was an extra fee for using pay wave on their eftpos machine. (There was no marking or signage around their eftpos machine saying that pay wave adds an extra fee onto your order either) It was a 30 cent fee, which isn't much, but all the other shops and restaurants I've been to, I have never been charged for using pay wave. Finally, once I got to eating my food (Battered Akaroa cod) there was an insane amount of batter covering the fish, and half the amount of fish you would usually get from any other fish and chip shop. I couldn't actually taste any of the fish, it just tasted and felt like I was chewing on batter, which was revolting. Not only all of this, but the fish was also extremely greasy, to the point where the grease seeped through the inner layers of wrapping, and made it difficult to even unpack it. I will never go back to this fish and chip shop, nor do I think any one reading this should.

TL;DR Terrible restaurant, they charge for pay wave, overly battered fish, with not enough fish, disgusting food, very greasy food, and they got my order wrong, despite me repeating it 2-3 times. I will never be coming back here, nor do I recommend that anyone reading this...

It is a crying shame when great ingredients are not given the respect they deserve. Somehow this fish and chip shop are supplied with a large variety of fresh fish fillets delivered to them ready for there window display. To buy your fish from them raw, as displayed, is fine. However if you choose to have them cook it, be prepared for it to be ruined. They do not take care of there oil. Whether it is left unfiltered after each day or unchanged for a fortnight and topped up or both, it leaves the stomock churning. The result of there misuse of deep fryer oils is soggy chips, dark brown batter and as with any bad oil, saturation. On top of this, as one often finds in New Zealands South Island, the fish pieces are sliced along the length, so for what ever size they seem to be, they are actually halved. I am sorry owners, but excessive amounts of batter do not hide this fact and only make the whole experience worse. Please respect your fish owners! Don't over batter. Keep...

I have been here a couple of times and had food poisoning the two times I bought takeaway fish and chips. Yesterday topped the cake for us when I decided to give it one last chance to buy fresh fish. Upon entering and asking for some fish for homemade chowder the lady proceeded toward collecting the fish from the display window, until the man spoke to her in Chinese telling her to get fish from out the back. We went to use it tonight, but after giving it a smell test, it smelt so rancid and had obviously been old stock. We will never go here again, despite this being our closest store. Would definitely never recommend to anyone due to...