Gourmet Shoot Out Fish and Chips

http://www.thefishmongerswife.com/ versus http://swampdog.com.au/

The Champion versus the Contender

One of my staples over summer and for many Australians is the humble serving of fish & chips.  I'm not sure why, but during the colder months I don't often think of eating fish & chips, but once the warm weather strikes, I eat it pretty regularly.  The thing about a meal like fish & chips is that everyone has their favourite place to go and ends up being quite parochial, and I am no different, usually sticking to my own favourite.  Every so often though, along comes a challenger that makes you sit up and take notice of what they have to offer and my post today is about the two vying for my attention right now.

The Champion

The Fishmonger's Wife (FMW) has been around for over 10 years and has had the reputation of being Brisbane's premier gourmet fish & chip location for much of this time.  Looking at the awards that the FMW has won is quite impressive, with the awards presented with pride at the front counter.  There are too many awards to mention them all in my blog as they started in 2003 and have happened pretty much every year since.  I will however focus on a couple of more recent awards; 2009 winner of Crisco's best fish & chips in Australia; 2011 Brisbane Times best fish & chips in Brisbane & the 2012 Lifestyle Channel - I love food awards QLD - best seafood.

I have been going to FMW for a few years and consider it to be my default position when wanting seafood.  Being a gourmet fish and chippery, there is a wide range of options on offer from FMW both traditional and more exotic.  On this occasion SC ordered Lemongrass Snapper with a refreshing mix of Thai herbs, along with a serving of chips.  Snapper is pretty much the king of fish in fish and chip restaurants and the lemongrass snapper was lovely.  The fish itself was grilled perfectly and infused with lemongrass and other Thai herbs, which were subtle at first but built with each mouthful.  There was no need to add any lemon to the fish to give it some acidity as it was perfectly balanced as it was.

There are a number of chip options when it comes to FMW and SC chose the traditional chips cooked in vegetable oil, with aioli sauce.  The chips here are really good, crunch on the outside and quite soft through the middle.  I have nicknamed SC the chip monster in the past as she really does love to finish off all the chips on a plate, however today was unable to do so.  The snapper fillet was quite big and filling, so there was no need to get through them all.  In the past I have heard complaints that there are not enough chips with the meals at FMW, but this has certainly not been the case in recent times.

I chose a more traditional option for my meal, sticking with the snapper, I went for beer battered king snapper and beer battered chips.  There was a lot of food on this plate, with two large pieces of beer battered snapper delivered on a huge plate of chips.  I normally love the beer battered fish at FMW but today the balance of fish to batter was slightly off and there seemed to be too much batter.  I think it was because the fillet was split in two.  The fish inside the batter was cooked really well and was very sweet and in need of a squirt of lemon juice to cut through the sweetness.

The chips however, yum.  While these are not the best chips I have eaten in Brisbane (Tank has that title) these were superb.  With a fantastic crunchy outer delivered through the cooking process and being covered in beer batter, they were delicious.  The beer batter delivers a unique taste to the chips as well, you can still pick the potato but the batter has a deeper flavour which must come from the beer that they are cooked in.  Very nice

Overall the dishes we ordered were great and as expected.  However, when looking at the menu and the fish on offer, I can't help feel that the FMW offering is safe.  While FMW prides itself on providing the best quality fish available, there is not a lot of variety in the fish itself (although the cooking options are many), with snapper, salmon & barramundi the main options.  The other thing about FMW is that the restaurant and its surrounds are looking and feeling a bit dated and dare I say it, a bit old fashioned.

The Contender

The name says it all in Swampdog.  The boys who run Swampdog do things a little differently and you can tell immediately upon walking through the doors that this is a Gen Y establishment with iPads available for use on the huge wooden table that takes up most of the room inside & free lemonade available when ordering.  While Swampdog has only been around for just over 12 months, its garnered a huge following with a great social media presence and a blog attached to their web site that tells of their fishing exploits and their social conscience.

This is also evident in their menu, which has a focus on sustainable fishing and has quite a wide variety of staples and specials that looked quite exciting.  A massive chalkboard has the day to day menu with the specials just chalked onto the wall and rubbed out as necessary.  What is also on display, plastered all over the walls, is their ethos about changing the way you eat fish and chips and their motto 'good for you, good for me and good for the sea!'  I have to say I felt right at home walking through the doors at Swampdog, but let's be honest, it is all about the food.

While there were plenty of fish and chip options to choose from, SC went for something a little different and opted for the Tempura soft shell crab with asian salad.  The first thing you notice is that the meal comes in a recycled cardboard bowl and that the knives and forks are made from wood, not plastic.  The second thing was how pretty the tempura crab looked in a bed of greens and asian salad.  There was a distinct smell of mint in the salad that really hit home the asian influence in the dish.  The soft shell crab itself was cooked perfectly in light tempura batter and was juicy and tender and tasted of the sea, while maintaining the lovely crab flavour.  The only problem with this dish was that there was not enough of that delicious tempura crab.  

SC being a chip monster, also needed to order a side of chips to go with the tempura crab, which also came out in a recycled cardboard container that reinforced the Swampdog ethos of sustainable dining.    The chips were very well cooked with that crisp outer and soft inner that you really want with chips.  There was just a hint of salt which brought out the starchy potato flavour that we know is not great for us, but also makes hot chips so delicious.

I ordered the special fish and chips and today the fish was Sea Mullet.  The Sea Mullet was described to me as a flakey and delicate fish with a strong flavour, which sounded great to me.  Once again, the fish and chips came out in a recycled container with a lovely fresh looking salad.  I ordered my fish crumbed today and was pleased to see three perfectly crumbed fillets of fish on a bed of hot chips.  I really liked the way the fish was presented, coming in three smaller fillets that were long and skinny made it much easier for me to pick the fish up and eat it without burning my fingers.  I was a bit worried that by being smaller fillets I would lose the flavour of the fish, but my fears were not realised with the fish being supremely cooked and packing bags of fishy flavour.  The salad added a nice way to finish of the meal with a refreshing salad dressing.  I really liked the Sea Mullet.

The Verdict

There are things that I like about each of these gourmet fish and chip restaurants.

Both Swampdog and Fishmonger's Wife have excellent chips but the FMW has a couple of options including the beer battered chips, which I believe are close to the best in Brisbane

Chips Winner - The Fishmonger's Wife

While chips are important they are really just an adjunct to the main show, which for me is the fish.  Both establishment have extremely fresh fish, but take very different approaches, with the FMW mainly going for traditional winners like Barramundi, Atlantic Salmon & Snapper.  Swampdog goes for more sustainable fish which are often caught locally with a special that is dependent upon what is caught that day.  Both have a range of ways for the fish to be cooked, however I found that Swampdog has some more interesting dishes and methods for the fish to be cooked.  Also, when seeing what comes out of the kitchen, Swampdog provides a much more visually appealing array of dishes

Fish Winner - Swampdog

An important part of a meal for me is the environment in which it is eaten.  FMW provides a fairly traditional fish and chip shop feel to it, with booths inside and stainless steel tables underneath umbrellas out the front.  Swampdog feels different, the tables outside are huge wooden doors that are used as tables and inside there is a massive wooden table with stools around for casual eating.  The iPads, magazines, cool colour schemes and the much loved lemonade all give Swampdog a huge edge to the feel of the place, one that resonates extremely well with me.

The Space Winner - Swampdog

You can't argue that the Fishmonger's Wife is a Brisbane institution, its been around for a long time, has bags of awards and a really loyal following.  There is plenty of parking and it's easy to get to.  The food is great and the chips divine, but has a bit of an 'established' feel about it, in fact it's the type of place that I would (and have) taken the in-laws to for a good meal.  Swampdog is something different, it has a hip 'now' feel about it that resonates well with gen x & gen y patrons.  I will be honest, its bugger to get to, with very little parking nearby and being in South Brisbane has a bit of an industrial feel to it.  However, their philosophy about sustainable fish is spot on and the quality of their meals is superb.  While it has not won any major awards (yet), it did get a special mention in the Brisbane Times Good Food Awards.

For my money, the new kid on the block is the champion elect

@FoodMeUpScotty