Having a British heritage (not me, but my partner in crime) means that you inherently crave fish and chips on a regular basis and not just any ol’ fried piece of fish will do. There are a few great places around town, located in obscure strip malls in and around the suburbs of Toronto that we’ll mention at a later time, but this post is about our newest discovery. Sea Witch Fish and Chip restaurant is found on St. Clair, just west of Bathurst. They’ve been open since the end of August and have been frying up a storm since. Once you taste the grub, you’ll know exactly why they are worth writing home (or on the internet) about. They’re open everyday of the week for most of the day so you can drop by for lunch/dinner. I believe that they also do take-out and you can find their number on Sea Witch website (www.seawitchfc.com) if you want to call your order in.
The restaurant consists of one big open room showcasing the frier station in the middle of the space. Everything is impeccably clean and barely smells of greasy goodness. Church pews serve as the banquettes for the few booths available and a giant communal table becomes the main focal point of the room. Children’s books are scattered among all the tables serving as reading materials for the kid within all of us. The staff is very friendly and quite capable of running a full restaurant. The whole place filled up while we were there and our server never missed a beat, taking orders, running food, etc.
The menu is very short and sweet, offering 4 different types of fried fish with fries and coleslaw on the side. We opted for the cod and didn’t regret it. The two giant portions of fish were very fresh, seasoned beautifully and battered in a thick and crispy batter. They were cooked to perfection lacking the greasy aftertaste that one often gets from the mediocre fish & chip places. Second item in terms of importance on the fish & chip rating scale are the fries: they need to be crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Sea Witch definitely did them justice by serving very thick fries that were cooked as one would hope. And I will mention that the portion of potatoes was almost beyond generous. Last but not least, you always need a bowl of creamy coleslaw to cut through the high amounts of oil that one ingests with this meal. The salad was great, a little tart, not too onion-y (we all know that happens much too often) but unfortunately a little flat. A little kick of the spicy variety or some sort of fresh herb would really spruce the slaw and bring it on par with the rest of this dish.
I think the summary of this review is pretty straight forward. Sea Witch Fish & Chip restaurant in Toronto is definitely a new favourite and may become a staple with the Notes On A Meal crew. We’ll be seeing you guys there for dinner!
