Reviews Shoal

The fish and chips here is the best one I had in the UK so far. The portion is a nice size, the fish is perfectly cooked and buttered with crispy flakes on top. 😋😋😋😋 Sooo good. The chips was crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. Just perfect. You can also ask for more complementary chips. Saxon Bronze is a local beer served here and goes very well with the food. Amber was the waitress for our table and she is truly amazing, friendly and helpful. Will definitely be coming back again.

Shoal is a lovely fish and chip restaurant and takeaway. My friend and I were on a coach trip to Winchester and needed some lunch. We had the "Lunchtime special" for £15, which includes a drink, homemade roll with butter and extra chips if you want them. We had the haddock and it was really nice. The service is very good and the staff are friendly. We made chip butties of course!

Great experience, good quality and decent size portions. We had to wait 30 minutes for a table a two to become available, although this was to be expected on a busy Friday night. Not a problem for us as it allowed us to visit on of the many nearby pubs for a refreshing pint of London Pride. Once seated the we were treated to friendly service out waiter read back our ordered to make sure they were correct and check backs were plentiful. The food is clearly good quality, with crispy batter and chips cooked well (not soggy!!). We went for a cod fish and chips and a vegan "fish" and chips, which consisted of battered banana blossom. Washed down with a glass of red wine (syrah). Not the cheapest place for fish and chips, but a great experience. We left sufficiently full and looking forward to our next visit.

We've been here a few times over the past year - it's our little treat. The first time was really good (maybe because it was new to us). Can't really fault the food and the ability to ask for more chips when you need them is a good idea. The chips come out fresh and hot, cooked to order. You sometimes need this, as the amount of chips served up when food arrives is not consistent - sometimes more, sometimes less. The service can be a bit hit and miss. On a recent visit I had a pie, which came with plenty of chips to keep me going. My wife's fish came with literally a small scattering. I'm not expecting a full plate to gorge on but at least a 'portion' would be acceptable. With half her fish left she asked for more chips. Until this point nobody has come back to ask if everything was ok, so this was the first opportunity to get someone's attention. Sadly, the additional chips took ages to arrive. The fish was almost finished when the chips finally arrived, which was kind of pointless. Had our server returned sooner to check all was good, this could have been resolved satisfactorily. We weren't the only table to comment on this on that evening. Despite this though, the food was still really nice. Our latest visit was a week or so ago. We were seen to our table and we're waiting for one other guest to arrive. We were asked if we were ready to order but we were not. After that, our server didn't come back to ask again. We weren't asked if we wanted any drinks. After a while of no service, we got their attention. Order placed, no drinks order taken. The order took over half an hour to arrive. The table next to us, who were seated after we had ordered, got their food first, which was odd. Staff felt generally distant and unavailable. They always look busy but I don't get the feel of them being as attentive as maybe they could be. I tried to get someone's attention to get a drink but was unsuccessful. By the time our food arrived I had lost interest in having a drink. Never mind... From our previous chip disaster our server said they'd place an order for some extra, at the time our main order went in. They never arrived and we had to endure further delay for some extras because our server never came back to us. On a positive, the ice-cream and sundaes are gooood. I love the cherry sundae, which makes up for everything that goes before it. We'll definitely be returning and would recommend this place for a nice meal. It can be a little frustrating though, when it comes to a service that is sometimes quite obviously lacking.

Best fish and chips I've ever eaten. The fish batter was light and crispy and the haddock was so fresh. The chips were also crispy and light on the outside and soft on the inside. Tastiest mushy peas I've ever had. Restaurant manager was efficient and very friendly. What a fabulous lunch experience.