East Coast — Restaurant in Scotland

Really disappointing. Drove down from Edinburgh for what we thought would be excellent fish suppers from this apparently award winning fish and chip shop.

To be fair, I'm going to lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of that slightly portly Peter Kay knock off guy who does takeaway reviews on the youtube. We were watching him earlier today reviewing some incredible place in Newcastle serving up fantastic looking thick, crisp battered fish and a lightbulb went off in my head as I recalled this place had recently been voted as having the best fish and chips - maybe in Scotland? Or the whole UK? I can't remember... But anyway, that's how we landed up here tonight.

Unfortunately, just opening up the box was disappointing. No massive, fantastically battered piece as expected. Instead a smaller, weirdly trapezoid (yes, looked that up) shaped piece which immediately has you questioning the authenticity of what you're about to have.

To make matters worse, they did that horrible thing of just dumping the fish directly on top of the chips. So by the time we got down to the sea front and got the box open, the chips had steamed the lower batter into a congealed mess with the chips. It was literally impossible to break off even one piece of battered fish to enjoy on its own. At best, a bit of the top batter and a bit of not particularly thick fish. Additionally, as has been pointed out in other reviews as well, some of this fish was grey.

The only real positive any of us had was that the chips were "okay". And the caveat to that was that none of us came close to finishing them! That was because they were massively under seasoned. We had asked for salt and vinegar but the taste of either was hard to distinguish. Combine that with half of them being covered in the residue greasy batter which fell off the bottom of the fish and you get why half of them landed up binned on the Musselburgh sea front.

Given the premium price you're paying here (compared to other fish and chip shops) and the horrendous expectation to actual quality ratio, I'd definitely recommend giving this place a miss.

If you're in this neck of the woods and looking for fish and chips, you'd be much better off taking a short drive along to the chip shop on Portobello High Street instead and getting your supper...

East Coast absolutely do deliver when it comes to belly busting takeaways and meals in the restaurant but they also cater for wee-er appetites too and I was delighted to see them introduce their Afternoon Sea (£17.50pp) recently which includes (not that this is wee in anyway!) wee battered haddock twice cooked chips homemade mushy peas house tartare sauce homemade pickled onions lemon wedge sourdough bread and butter pot of tea sweet treat of the day

You can upgrade to a Royal Afternoon Sea with a glass of Prosecco for an additional £3.50pp.

There are restrictions on this - Afternoon Sea is only available Friday to Sunday between 2:30pm and 4:30pm but you should definitely fit this into your weekend plans. It’s so bloody good!

Firstly, plenty of sourdough bread and butter at the table. The bread is fresh, slightly chewy and so good with fish n chips.

The fish is a perfect size, its fresh and coated in the most crunchy, non greasy batter. Breaking this piece of fish open will bring you immense happiness. The chips are big n fat n fluffy and so good for dunking into the mushy peas or for building that ultimate chip butty!

The peas were so good, I asked for another small bowl!

With a short break after demolishing your fish supper, the staff are kind enough to give you a wee break before bringing you tea and cake. The staff do ask you in what order/how you would like to have your Afternoon Tea. We chose to have the fish supper first, then tea and cake. You could of course have your tea with your fish supper followed by cake or have your tea and cake first. It’s totally up to you and the staff are so brilliant that they’ll accommodate your choice any which way.

Cake was a vanilla sponge slice with cream and blueberries. It was light, slightly sweet and went down so well with a fantastic cup of tea!

The Afternoon Sea gave me so much joy and we raised a wee cuppa in remembrance of my mum!

This deal is great value for money and you’ll leave with a very full and happy belly. Seriously,...

Service was excellent, friendly and professional front house staff. Great vibes. But food-wise was a bit disappointing. The mussel was great, but other than that, nothing impressive. We ordered a scollaps starter, the blood orange butter sauce and a wedge of grilled clementine was not matching and even over powering the frozen scollaps meat, which the flesh were bland. Visually nice but taste meh. Also a piece of unsettle truth is the scollaps shell will be reused. It is not unusual but definitely not the best practice, and it proofs that the scollaps isn't fresh. I ordered a mix grill, it was dry and bland, squid was chewy, prawn was flavorless, langoutine was alright, the cod was dry like roasted chicken breast, the thick chips was not crispy enough. My friend ordered a fried seafood mix, the calamari were fishy, that's the first time in our life. The pork belly was overall nice, combination makes sense, just the pork skin was bit tough no crisp, the belly was very lean though. The last dish was the octopus pasta, no surprise the octopus is from the tin, the pasta we all agree the al dente was too much, it is in the under cook side. This meal cost us £110+. It started by an impeccable mussel and heartwarming service, but end with unfresh seafood and disappointment. But anyway we left tip for the host staff. Kitchen staff need to up their...