We got a takeaway from there last night. There was over an hour wait, but I went home and went back to collect it.

They were definitely struggling with the sudden success, but having only one fish fryer, and cooking up one order at a time is not going to help them build their reputation.

The haddock and chips was great. The chips were just like UK chippy chips! The portion size was a little disappointing though.

We'll definitely go back, but hope that they do manage to sort out their initial teething problems. I was chatting to a guy when I was collecting mine and he told me it was his 4th attempt to get fish and chips from there!!

Wha... ???

yeh!!!!!

Consider the source.

Don't Mess With My Man


He's my boy

Ugh ugh



He told your ass not once but twice

Shouldn't took his advice

and left the man alone

You, still drive by here every night.

Coz you're not wrapped too tight

When he left, your mind explode


<be warned>

My turn.

Oh the youth of today with their new fangled rock and/or roll.

Youf? Moi???

Oh next time i am down that way i will have to pop in and try them.I do miss good old fish and chips from the uk now and then!!!!

Went on the first night, made the order, then was told 45 mins later that they didnt have any pies. They put us back to the end again. waited another 40 minutes food came out cold. Left...gave a break because it was the first night.

Went back 2 weeks later.....sat in restaraunt for 20 minutes!!!, nobody took order so left.

3rd times a charm??....NO. Decided to order out because ordering in wasnt working, there is a new sign stating that you may have to wait 45-55 minutes to get your food. Soooo ordered and left. Returned an HOUR later...still NOT ready. Came back 20 minutes later...guess what?....NO PIES!!!. Finally got food 2hours later. Food was nothing better than Joeys only or SEA also in Calgary. Being a Brit as are these folks, Fish and chips is a quick easy meal, the excuse here seems to be "its cooked fresh"...well it was in the UK, it takes 14 mins too cook fish, and less time to cook chips. Not sure what the problem is there, could have had great potential, but will never go back

Oh, DONT order the Steak & Kidney pies. They tell you they have them, so you order one, but then mysteriously they sell out and you have to wait another hour while they cook you the fish. WTF???

Emailed the owners.......got no reply. Seems a shame. Oh well of to McKEnzie Towne for SEA.

Sounds like the owners know how to win friends and influence people.

Is it possible to have a going out of business sale at a chippy?

Sounds like they are not going to be around very long unless the majorly get their act together.

<Idly reflects on it being a 'big thing' that there is a new fish and chip shop in town. Around here, you can't throw a stone without hitting a dozen chippies or more.>

Oh you prairie folk.

THE REPLY

Thanks for your email and giving us the opportunity to explain.

We would love to be able to work on the equipment we work on in England, but the equipment we can buy here is not a patch on our English Fryers. If we could work on the same equipment, we wouldn’t have the wait problem.

We basically have 2 fryers, one for fish and one for chips and in the fish fryer (even though we bought the biggest one we can get here) we can only do a absolute max of 8 fish at a time. (in England we do 12 to 14 in one fryer) Within 30mins of opening we have over 32 fish on order and that quickly gets us upto 40mins wait time and then as the orders keep coming that pushes the time even more.

I know you are probably thinking – well get more fryers – but its not as simple as that. All fryers must be under an exhaust hood and fire suppression system and the hood we currently have only fits the 2 fryers and the range/oven. We cant add another fryer because it wont fit under the hood and then we wouldn’t pass the fire inspection. To replace the hood is a huge job of a cost of over $25,000. We bought this restaurant and inherited the hood and we never expected we would be this busy, we honestly thought that what we had would be great to start with. We never anticipated the volume we have been faced with in the 9 days we have been open. It basically is too much volume for such a little kitchen.

Also we are working with new staff because we couldn’t predict it would be this insanely busy, so when we opened we didn’t have enough staff to cope with the volume and have been interviewing and training constantly.

Finally we have been trying to cook some fish in advance, but they go and then we are constantly scrambling to work on the volume of orders, so there is no opportunity to do more in advance. We also have to be careful about cooking too much in advance because the holding heat station here is not a patch on the English one we use (just doesn’t keep the same temperature)

So basically we feel your pain, cause we so wish we could go faster and turn more out. It basically is a simple math of too much volume for the size and number of fryers we have.

We are trying our best, I can promise you that and the wait time stresses us out, we hope that things will calm down and with the extra staff we have hired, that will also help ease some of the load

Thanks again for the opportunity to explain, hope this helps you understand

Best regards

Simone
The British Chippy

Even if you could get the same fryers as you had in the UK with 12 to 14 fish and 32 orders you are going to be in pretty much the same predicament with wait times.

A rethink of you business model might be in order.

Perhaps for a while you should do eat in only and no take out or take out only. One or the other but not both.

It seems obvious you are currently losing potential customers which will in short order kill your business.

All the best in whatever it is you choose to do.