Fish, chips, mushy peas - nuff said
If you're going to call yourself after a single dish, you better damn well make sure that you can excel at said dish. The Fish & Chip shop does just that, so quite why they have decided to change the name to Vintage Salt is baffling.
Whilst there are all sorts of other items on offer (smoked salmon, whitebait and of course scotch eggs, natch), on a Friday lunchtime, all that was really needed was battered cod, some chips and mushy peas. The fish was lovely: moist, yielding, breaking into translucent flakes at the touch of a fork, the batter thin, crunchy and retaining just the right amount of fat. Chips too were a pleasure: not your artsy fartsy fries, or prima donna triple cooked, or chippie staple soggy, but big butch chips with the desired crispness encasing a fluffy interior.
OK, there are niggles: the terrace is pretty soulless, the bar can be a bit of a bore if a group want to stand and chat rather than sit an eat (they haven't really got that cross-over pubby feel but actually a restaurant quite right yet) and why tartar sauce doesn't come as standard is beyond me. But the fish and chips is as fine an example of the British classic as you'll find in the City. Nigel Farage would be proud!