Fish & Chips in the Lake District: Our Summer Holiday, Part 3

It's a well known fact that the British love their fish and chips and they certainly know how to do them well. A trip across the pond wouldn't be complete without getting a portion of a one and one. On our recent(ish) summer holiday we tried out Ambleside Fish and Chips. This takeaway is situated by the jetty for the ferry and could at first glance be mistaken as a bit of a tourist trap but there was a steady stream of locals visiting it.

The menus in fish and chips shops in Cumbria seem to be a bit more varied than Irish ones and offer a range of items we never see here. Indeed the boyfriend has his mind made up as soon as he saw that they offered battered black pudding! I got myself a one and one as I can't resist some good haddock. We sat outside on the terrace overlooking Windermere Lake and the slowly setting sun. Who knew fish and chips could be romantic!! 

The portion sizes were huge and I'm not even sure the pictures do them justice. The battered haddock was lovely with a crispy light batter while the chips were exactly what you want from a chipper. The boyfriend's came with an full sized black pudding and was surprisingly delicious. I wouldn't be able to eat a whole one but it wasn't as heavy to eat as I thought it would be.

During our stay in the Lake District we kept finding ourselves drawn back to Keswick. It's a great little village with probably the best shops to have a wander about in. On one of the days we visited the Old Keswickian, a local fish and chip shop, at the end of the square. On this occasion we got smoked sausage and chips and this time just shared them! The smoked sausage was great and was an unusual addition to a normal takeaway. I know you might ask yourself why would you get fish and chips - it's just fast food!? I think though that a trip to the Lake District without getting some would be like visiting Ireland and not sampling a pint of Guinness!!

As a little sidenote there is a lovely weekly market in Keswick. It was the only local market that we came across during our stay and it was full of local produce and crafts. I spent about a good ten minutes questioning the man at Cartmel Cheeses but came away with a bagful of local cheeses!

If you would like to read a bit more about our holiday to the Lake District have a look at the posts below:

Ambleside & Grasmere: Our Summer Holiday, Part 2

Nolita Cantina - American Style Dining in Liverpool

Conwy, Wales - Our Summer Holiday, Part 1

Conwy, Wales - Our Summer Holiday, Part 1

Summer holidays for us tend to take place in Ireland like last year's one in Kerry. We like the ease of just being able to put everything in the car and drive off without any delays. This year though we had to go abroad as a good friend was getting married in the Lake District. We have always wanted to go there so we used it as an excuse and worked her wedding around a two week holiday. So we packed the jeep to the brim, drove to the ferry and in under two hours we were in Wales. Who knew the ferry was that easy!! I always assumed it took hours for some reason but the Irish Ferries 'Swift' got us to Wales in an hour and 50 minutes. From there we were to drive to the Lake District but made a few stops along the way including one which involved a lot of shopping at the Cheshire Oaks Outlet!! 

First off though we made our way to Conwy which was onroute. The boyfriend is a big weaponry fan and had heard that there was a sword shop located near a castle in Conwy. What we hadn't realised was how well preserved and absolutely stunning Conwy Castle was going to be. The castle itself is huge and is still surrounded by its battlement walls. You can walk all the way around the battlements and there are lot of places to stop and take lots of pictures. The boyfriend was in his element!

After all the exploring it was time for lunch. We found ourselves in The Press Room, a lovely local cafe which was located by the entrance to the castle and which had an outdoor courtyard. We ordered two different types of rarebit: an original Welsh rarebit and mackerel rarebit. They were oozy cheese covered parcels of goodness. The mackerel was beautiful in it and gave the rarebit a nice bit of texture. One lovely touch was that the tomatoes had been roasted and they worked really well with the rarebit. We had just been expecting a small lunch but this was much more and kept us filled for the day. Lunch with two coffees cost £19. There is also a fairtrade shop located downstairs in the cafe so once you have eaten you can do a bit of shopping if you want!

Mackerel Rarebit

Welsh Rarebit

During our holiday I had read about a fabulous sounding fish and chips shop in Llandudno junction which is also in the borough of Conwy. So on our return visit we went about five minutes out of our way to find Enochs Fish and Chips. Enochs is split into two areas; the takeaway area and the restaurant area. It's a bright, airy place with comfortable seating and as one would expect a fishy theme adorning the walls.

 
 

All Enochs' fish is cooked to order and served in batter, golden crumb or poached in milk with parsley sauce. We ordered the Scottish hake and the Scottish haddock. All fish is served with chips and peas. Since I am not a fan of mushy peas the staff kindly allowed me to substitute them for beans.

Hake

Haddock

The batter on both fish was light and crispy and the chips were perfect, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Another lovely touch is that Enochs have bread and butter on sale so you can make yourself a chip butty. We do this all the time at home so it was fun to see this on offer here. In total our meal cost us £23 and that included drinks. 

Conwy is a beautiful town and one that we can't wait to go back to. From Holyhead it takes only a hour so it would also be well worth a weekend visit if castles and great food sound like fun to you too!

Dining in Kenmare: Prego, Wharton's, Cupán Tae and Kenmare Icecream

As a general rule myself and the boyfriend tend to holiday in Ireland and as much as I hate the word, we are ‘staycationers’. I crave peace, quiet, good food and lots of walking and holidays in Ireland tick all these boxes. For our summer holidays this year we got to spend a lovely week in Parknasilla Resort down in Sneem, Co. Kerry. This resort would generally be waaaaay out our budget but I recently had a lucky streak where I won a week’s holiday, a cookbook and cinema tickets. Well sure it never rains but pours as the saying goes!! 

Parknasilla is a beautiful resort based in the Ring of Kerry and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It is surrounded by acres of land and there are tons of activities to choose from. We stayed in the villas there and used them as our base to explore the surrounding areas of Kerry. Kenmare was half an hour away by car so it was one of the places that we ate out quite a bit in. 

Kenmare has some great restaurants and seems to be cheaper than the more touristy Killarney though maybe it is because Kenmare seems to be filled with families and it has taken that into account. First off the list was Wharton’s Fish & Chips, this is a takeaway/small sit down restaurant that we wandered past, turned around and came back in to read the menu. They had us at hake burger!! We ordered two at four euros each and got some chips as well. 

This has to be without doubt the best fish burger I have ever had. They batter and fry the fish right in front of you, place it in a fresh bap and add some tartar sauce. It is simple but damn it was good! The chips were also fried to perfection, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. They weren’t greasy at all and I could have almost kidded myself into believing it was half healthy. We went back a second time ordered the same thing and got onion rings as well. These were a little disappointing as they were a bit greasy but no worse than anywhere else I have ever eaten them. Be warned though the take away portions are huge, if sitting down they are less so but still substantial. You will not come away hungry!

Hake Burgers and Chips

For lunch we tried Cupán Tae, which after having recently tried out in Galway I was raving about to himself. I did warn him before that everything was fine china cups, very flowery and totally girly but he is well used to that by now! Cupán Tae in Kenmare didn’t disappoint on the crockery but it did disappoint on the food. The menu here is very limited and nothing at all like the Galway Cupán Tae. Himself had a good enough tuna melt while I had a chicken sandwich. I probably should have known better it was literally two pieces of bread with chicken and butter, no relish… nothing. It brought me right back to days spent on the beach as a kid in the 80s!! It was literally what it said on the menu but after being in Galway my expectations had been set very high. For five euros it felt a bit like a tourist rip off! Thankfully though the lime and courgette cake was exactly the same – delicious and moist and always a treat. So if I head there again it would be for just tea and cake. 

During the week we also headed to Prego, an Italian Restaurant, which had enticed us in with the promise of potato pizza. We traipsed up at about 9.30 on a Wednesday evening and were lucky to get a seat as the place was packed. It is a small restaurant and it was cosy but there was a great buzz in the place. We started off the evening with Salmon Crostini and Raviollo Al Gambaretti. The crostini was toasted bread topped with Kenmare Smoked Salmon with a lemon & red onion mayonnaise while the raviollo were small ravioli filled with spinach, cream & garlic.

Both were great starters though the raviollo almost made me wish I had ordered pasta for my main it was that good. Then it was onto the pizza where I ordered the sausage and potato one and he got the Noble Pig. The Noble Pig was topped with slow roasted shredded pork, rocket and apple slices while the sausage and potato pizza came fully loaded with local sausage and baby potatoes. The pizzas were thin, crispy and had great flavor combinations. Having lived in Italy the concept of potato pizza wasn’t new to me but I haven’t seen it outside Italy before and I actually think it was better than what I have had there before.  Having eaten every last scrap it was a struggle whether or not to end with dessert but as the food was so good we got a tiramisu and a tarte au citron. The tiramisu was lovely if a bit heavy for me at that time of night though my lemon tart went down a treat. The whole bill came to just under €50 and that was including a good espresso. 

One other thing to note about Prego is that they do not offer a children’s menu they instead offer smaller portions of all the grown up food so that kids are eating exactly the same food as Mum and Dad. They also offer gluten free pasta and will try to cater to other dietary needs especially if given a bit of notice. We went back the following Friday night starving after a walk up and around Torc Waterfall (it’s a lovely walk try it if you get a chance) but alas they were fully booked. That’s what we get for being too relaxed on holidays!!

One final must try is Kenmare Icecream and with 21 flavours to choose from I used that as justification for the four times we went there during the one week!! It is the good sort of creamy icecream that tastes like the flavour it is meant to be and on the plus side it isn’t that expensive. For two waffle cones with one scoop each cost us €3.85 which is quite a difference to Murphys in Killarney which cost us €7. This place would also be perfect for children that have an intolerance to dairy as they did have sorbets on offer. 

 

   
Kenmare is a beautiful part of Kerry and if you are deciding on somewhere to stay for future holidays I would highly recommend it. It would be a great base to explore the Ring of Kerry from and has great food and pubs to come back to after a long day out exploring the countryside, swimming in the sea or just enjoying everything Ireland has to offer.