Chippy at Raffles Marketplace

C says:

We finally tried this place for lunch on Saturday. It’s a little stall in the new basement Marketplace of Raffles City, and is supposed to be a traditional British chippy. There are no actual seats – everything is served in little paper bags or cups, and they provide a bench and bar countertop for you to eat. Although it strictly isn’t necessary, because they convenient cut everything into bite-sized pieces that you can easily eat while strolling around, using the satay sticks that they provide.

A and I shared a regular fish and chips, and a cheesy sausage with mashed potato. For the fish and chips, you have an option of 2 sauces – salt and vinegar, and mayonnaise and ketchup. Since we wanted an authentic British fish and chip experience, we opted for the salt and vinegar. The fish is cut into 12 pieces, with each little piece battered and fried separately (i.e. it is not battered as a fillet and subsequently cut, cos then the fish would just flake into bits), and the chips are more like potato wedges also battered and fried. This was actually a lot better than I expected. The fish was liberally doused with malt vinegar, and there was a substantial amount of fish; it wasn’t all batter like I was afraid of. Even the battered potatoes were thick chunks of potato, not processed and tasteless fries. Didn’t taste particularly oily either.

The cheesy sausage was a whole sausage on a stick, and the mashed potato was at the base of the cup, so that you could dunk the sausage into the mash as you ate. The sausage was good, but I found the mashed potatoes to be slightly too salty and processed-tasting.

They also have some crispy curry chicken bites, which I may try next time, and deep fried Mars bars, which sound like a heart attack waiting to happen. A and I would have ordered the Mars bars just for the sake of trying it, if they sold them by the piece. Unfortunately each serving is 4 Mars bar bites (each bite is probably the size of a quarter of a Mars bar), and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to order and be compelled to finish that many.

If anyone dares to try them, do tell us how they are!

A says:

It’s a bit much to have all 12 pieces of fish on your own but the sausage is just nice for a quick meal. I had no problems with the mash, which was just chunky enough so it wasn’t the usual KFC slop.

Standing around and eating is a bit of a turnoff, especially when you have to squeeze with other customers, but I guess it’s all part of the experience. I think it’s great for takeout though (if you eat them before they get too cold and soggy).

Overall, top marks for a quick, affordable (food under $5/pax) meal.