Whittakers Fish Bar — Restaurant in Stockport

Feeling that the quality of food at our local chippy had gone downhill, we thought we would give Whittakers a go on the recommendation of a family member. And we were not disappointed - more of that later!

We decided to phone the order through then drive to Cheadle Hulme to pick the order up. We placed an order by phone and then asked how long it would take, to receive the reply 'If you leave now, your order will be ready when you arrive' at which point the call was ended. In hindsight, it did seem rather odd that the person taking our call did not take our name nor asked where we were calling from (they would surely need some idea of where we travelling from before they could give us an assurance that the food would be ready when we arrived).

Nonetheless, we got going and shortly arrived. While my brother was parking up, I went into Whittakers to pick up / pay for the order.

When I approached the counter and explained to the young lady serving that I had phoned through an order and had come to collect it, she initially didn't seem to know what I was talking about (not a problem unto itself cos she may have not been involved in the phone call) and then went to pick up a piece of paper. When I confirmed the order (which she read of the piece of paper), she said 'That's fine, we'll do this for you now.'

At this point, I was tempted to raise an issue - namely that we had phoned the order through, been told it would be ready when we arrived, only to find that on arrival that not only was the order not ready, it hadn't even been started.

However, I'm always reluctant to antagonise workers who are serving you food, just in case they 'get their own back' by giving you smaller portions or worse (i.e adding an 'extra ingredient' to your food. I'm not suggesting for one moment that the staff would have done that - I'm sure they never would - I'm just explaining my thought process and the reason why I decided not to make an issue of it there and then. In all seriousness, the point still stands- what's the point of placing an order by phone if its not going to be ready when the vendor tells you it is?

Its possible that they were just having a bad hour. At one point a lady in the queue stepped forward and asked what was happening with her 2 portions of chips that she had ordered 'half an hour ago'. I had the impression some confusion had arisen and for whatever reason her order hadn't been logged or written down. The lady's query was soon resolved though.

Maybe I'm getting more curmudgeonly in my (relative!) old age, but I did feel communication would be smoother if the staff there did not have the radio playing so loud - I had to talk uncomfortably louder than normal to make myself heard and also struggled to hear / understand the staff behind the counter at times (hence the '2 star' mark for atmosphere. I did also ask the young lady behind the counter to slow down when she was reading an order to me because she was going too fast for me to keep up.

Anyway, back home for our chippy tea - and I can fully see why Whittakers was recommended to us - the food was spot on! The chips (cooked perfectly), curry sauce and mushy peas in particular were very tasty - in fact the best I've had for a long long time. An excellent end to the evening.

So I'm sure we will be returning to Whittakers - would certainly take their food over our local chippy now. - If the other aspects of our experience can be improved on (as described above), it will be top marks all...

We went here a couple of weeks ago & we were all very impressed. We were a group of 7 with 3 kids & chose to sit in. The kids meals are fabulous value although my daughter was upset she didn’t get a juice on the ‘sit in menu’ like on the take out one! Maybe worth offering a cup of cordial?!? I’ve always been a huge advocate of Fosters however the last couple of visits both myself & husband have found the fish to be greasy not so here!!!

I ordered haddock & was impressed that you could have it streamed too - nice option if you’re feeling healthy (I wasn’t 😉). The fish was well cooked & not greasy. The chips whilst looking a bit anemic were very tasty & everyone loved the curry sauce!

Service was polite & efficient however, note that for parents it’s helpful if kids meals come 2/3 mins before adult ones so we can sort them out.

Hope they get issues relating to getting a credit card machine sorted however despite that I’ll definitely...

Awful experience at Whitakers tonight- My order was nearly ready but watched them use the chip shovel be grabbed and serve my gluten free chips and put back with the gluten containing tongs, highlighting a big cross-contamination issue. I brought this up to them in a nice manner and was repeatedly told “we have a lot of gluten free customers and they’ve never complained” then the manager was consulted, who only rolled his eyes and huffed and puffed. Luckily there was a lovely gentleman that said his wife was coeliac and completely understood what i was pointing out and told me it was great that i flagged it. I asked for a full refund which they gave, so as much as they didn’t take ownership, they gave me a full refund? so they must have realised they were at fault… i hope.

Would be okay if it was a dietary choice but not suitable for coeliacs unfortunately due to the cross...