Hobson`s Fish & Chips soho — Restaurant in London

On reflection, it seems that the further you get seated from the windows the smaller your fish will likely be at this odd place with management straight out of the Fawlty Towers playbook. Two friends and I were seated at the back, well out of sight, and the fish delivered was what other cafes might call "cod" or "haddock bites" not the fillet we had ordered.

At about twice the price of Wetherspoon's in nearby Charing Cross Road, it was probably less than HALF THE SIZE. The mushy peas were spherical, (i.e. barely mushy at all), and practically inedible due to some odd chemical aftertaste. We had all gingerly sampled them as they looked so odd and our tiny fish was at this point untouched.

Embarrassed, for we felt this was not her first complaint that sitting, the charming waitress fetched the manager for us who was instantly hostile, combative and rude. Whereas a better venue might have offered to change the three pea portions instantly and add to the fish, he decided to tell us we knew nothing about how such a (commonplace) dish should taste as if we were discussing the concoction of a delicate truffle souffle instead of chucking some bicarbonate of soda on a few peas the day before.

Then we mentioned the fish's size and the real risk of an aneurysm hinted at his bulging temple veins.

With no solution or replacement offered, (we'd have taken beans and a few scampi or something) I said I would review his service online, whereupon he flew into a rage and THREW US OUT.

Anyway here I am doing just that review; starving as I was I grabbed my fish in front of him and got two bites rising from the table, so tiny was it, that there was only one bite left and he screamed, without any sense of irony, that I'd practically finished the fish and his food couldn't be that bad as I'd nearly consumed it all.

We're three London residents and not kids, (with a collective age of over 170 years) we eat out a lot and were able to all agree that this was our worst dining experience ever. It may have been an off day (our guess was the peas needed soaking for another six hours and someone had forgotten to do it in an earlier shift) and to be fair, we didn't part with a penny and I submit this honest review, not out of vindictiveness but as a learning experience for the cafe.

See for yourself if the fish served at the windows is representative across the room. I doubt it but if so, put up a great review. For me though never again would...

I feel conflicted writing this, so giving the benefit of the doubt, I’ll keep it at 5 stars. I visited last week. This restaurant is either a tragic product of a perfect storm or a slightly opportunistic product of a perfect storm.

It gives so many subtle signals that devastatingly, it’s impossible to have a haven from prime central London within prime central London.

The only option is one size of fish and chips, I guess we can call it a medium.

The chips are placed in a bowl and look like a lot until you remove them from the bowl, when you see the amount is just average. (For the uninitiated, fish and chips generally come with a huge helping of chips). The fish is placed on its side and, flattened out, again looks average in size. The batter is prominent, and the batter to fish ratio, sadly I have to accept, slightly excessive (and that’s from someone who appreciates those crispy bits!) And then there’s a tiny helping of salad, and a tiny paper cup of tartare. Perfectly calibrated, for approx. £22.50.

More than £20 for this quintessential working class dish with a proportionate calorific value from the East End.

The dish is also odd in another way. They go for a batter more crispy than usual and the chips less soft than usual from a chippy. It’s closer to a pub style.

I have wanted to say nothing. The restaurant has suave air conditioning that kept me cool on the hot day. Fish supplies have been shocked by first the Russian invasion of Ukraine and now Norwegian fish quotas. And ditto for veg oil, supplies of which have been hit hard by the invasion. Not to mention energy, national insurance, minimum wage and more.

But to do so would begin to compromise the dish’s reputation. The perfectly formed, generous fish and chips which I had in Essex today for £11.80. A certain chippy in Bermondsey where you can sit in and eat an equivalent medium fish and chip dinner fresh from Grimsby for a more proportionate price under £10.

Perhaps it’s all in property prices. If Hobson’s don’t own their freehold, maybe they got a hike. Perhaps they face some other cost pressures specific to them.

But it’s also possible that they are just stretching the price to see what is possible. For context, Chinatown’s OG gem has just passed £10 for dishes much more than just fish and potatoes, for example.

That’s the uncomfortable part.

Tourists, do take note. There’s always zone...

We chose this restaurant because of its star rating, which was a huge mistake. They were very busy, but was able to seat us fairly quickly which was a plus. That along with the nice server we had are the only good things we can say about this restaurant. We were seated next to an open side door, which they were bringing bags of garbage out of only inches away from our son. We ordered water and when it came it was in a tall glass bottle of which the water looked very cloudy. The three glasses we were given all had greasy lip marks across the rims and fingerprints down the sides. My wife's fork was also dirty with food gobbed in between the prongs. When I got the server over she apologized and brought us new silverware, but we told her we weren't going to drink anything so we didn't get any new glasses. At that point we started to just go out the side door and leave, but we decided to stay because of the high ratings. When the fish came it still had the thick skin on it, which made the bottom side of the fish soggy. It also had an odd flavor and was not salted whatsoever. I added vinegar to it, but the vinegar had almost no taste whatsoever. It was as if it had been watered down. My son's chicken and mushroom pie was not too bad. He ate most of it, but the coleslaw was horrible. I hate that we spent our money there and I strongly suggest no one else too. I don't know how they got such a high star rating, but I would not go there again at all. We were so disappointed because that was our last dinner in London and we were looking forward to a good fish and chips place. On a good note, we did have extremely good fish and chips in the airport restaurant when we left London, which says a lot about Hobson's when a airport restaurant can produce better food. In closing, I do not suggest you to try this restaurant. There are plenty of other places that serves fish and chips that...