Stein's Fish And Chips (Rick Stein), Padstow, Cornwall

A little disappointing,

The fish as always exceptional!

However, the chips were far from satisfactory, dry tasteless and black

Resembled the end of the day last fry up

I of course will go back, and hopefully the usual brilliant standards will resume

As a post script went to Rick Steins Bistro two nights ago which was off the charts brilliant!

haven't really tasted such authentic cuideine and fresness in eating out. Have recommended to my brother in law who isd a big fan of this kind of food. Pricy but you pay for quality and style. Will visit again.

Having visited many times before and received good food, I was very disappointed with the offerings of my last (and final!) takeaway of fish and chips. The fish was good, the batter nice and crunchy in parts, soggy in other parts but the chips or batter bits as this is what they resembled were hard and mostly inedible, they all went in the bin. I am prepared to pay the inflated prices for a treat and acceptable food but this was a waste of money and unfortunately I will not be chancing the menu again. I will add that the cheesecake remains a must to try.

The cod and chips were always fine. Especially when all the sides are extracted, it is a bit pricey. Fish tastes fantastic.

Its all hot air, their food isn't much tasty and has to send it back to get reheated when they gave me cold chips. Won't be visiting in a hurry not recommended considering current service and food quality.

Served by a Polish girl who hardly spoke English, until her colleague could see she was struggling and took over to complete my order. This took something away from 'the experience'.

The Fish was nice but the chips were not good at all. When you are paying top money for Fish & Chips and Rick Stein has put his name to it, you expect something a little special, but it didn't deliver. How hard can it be to create good quality chips? My local chippy does so with no fanfare and low prices, so why can't Rick Stein do the same?

Overall, a very underwhelming experience.

Soggy batter, chips not fresh. Travelled a distance, what a waste of time and money!!!

Four of us were recently on holiday at Pendogget near Padstow, (September 2012) so while in Padstow, we, like many others just had to try Rick Stein’s Fish & Chips. I think I have been in better transport cafe’s, very noisy place to sit and eat and definitely not that comfortable. We decided to eat in the restaurant if that’s what it is, rather than takeaway and eat elsewhere. The meal was served up in a “cardboard box”, just as it would have been if taken away! It costs extra to eat in and I would have at least expected a warm plate to eat off of. Cod chips and mushy peas was the order of the day. The cod was ok though not that much of it especially for the money, but the batter was to my liking and not all soggy. But the chips were awful and the mushy peas were just a horrible green liquid, which I dipped a horrible chip into and put the lid back on. Nowhere near the standard I would expect from a “RICK STEIN” establishment. The best I can say from my experience is that, it is highly overrated and overpriced. Ok I expected it to be expensive, but I also expected something special. I have had better and I have certainly had much worse, but not from a celebrity chef? This is an establishment that many thousands of holidaymakers will go to just the once to say they have sampled Rick Stein’s fish-n-chips and as long as holiday makers keep doing so he will be raking in many thousands of our hared earned pounds and continue to serve up nothing more then average fish-n-chips at above average prices, knowing full well that we are only ever likely to go there the once. How lucky he is to be in that position.

My local chip shop Ian’s at Cullompton wins hands down.

Rick Steins's chippy in Padstow is my favourite in all of Uk. The few times I've visited when in Cornwall, the food has been excellent, service so-so, atmosphere outside on the harbour front fantastic and you only had to fight the gulls to get at your food. However, reading the reviews here, has been a little upsetting. With so many negative write ups, hasn't anyone from the business tried to improve the customer experience? Do these celebrity chefs actually care what the humble man, the paying customer actually think? Or is Mr. Stein busy looking after Australia?

Hi,

Actually, disappointment doesn't really say how I feel about the quality of the cod and chips that I was served at the Fish and Chip restaurant/cafe on the 12th of October - it was more a feeling of anger at being ripped off. We'd travelled 360 miles to visit Cornwall and part of the holiday was always going to be a day in Padstow and a chance to sample some Rick Stein tasty seafood. Whilst the Seafood Restaurant was always going to be too expensive for us to contemplate, we were looking forward to enjoying quality fish and chips that had the Rick Stein stamp of approval - well, it wasn't to be...

I expected beautiful flaky cod in a good tasty batter, but the fish was mushy and bland. A good half the chips were hard enough to be inedible and they were tasteless too. The tartar sauce was essentially just mayo with some bits of green leaf added - what happened to the capers and gherkin flavours? The staff were unsmiling and tired-looking and they put the top hat on things - in fact, the only good thing about the visit was that my wife came away feeling great about my compliments regarding the superiority of her cooking.

I'd like to suggest that someone takes the time to visit anonymously to check out the quality of the food - the Rick Stein name shouldn't be attached to what is a expensive and mediocre offering. As things are, I can't imagine anyone revisiting the place - do you have any info on customer satisfaction in recent times, or does the fact that there are always going to be lots of first-time customers in this busy holiday town mean that retention isn't an issue?

So, all in all, I reckon I can only give a score of 3 out of 10, how I wish it could have been a 10 out of 10 experience.

Yours, wondering if this business is just a cash cow trading on a name,

Pete Clayton

Hadfield in Derbyshire