PEGGOTTY'S

Some days, the only thing that works is deep fried food and Tuesday evening was one of those nights. Our son suddenly asked for fish'n chips which he's only ever eaten one other time. Since I had often heard about a little fish and chips place near us, we decided to try Peggotty's, which is probably the most popular fish and chips place on the Costa del Sol. It's located in El Paraiso behind the strip mall which has the British supermarket and the English Butcher.

The place is similar to a diner - brightly lit and clean with checkered black and white floor tiles, metal tables and chairs and cheerful waitresses (all of them English) in light blue uniforms with caps on. We sat down and were given the menus. There were three types of fish: cod, haddock and plaice plus cod roe and whole scampi accompanied by fresh-cut chips. Also on the menu were hamburgers, Southern-fried chicken, chicken sandwiches, baby back ribs, three kinds of pies (steak and kidney, mince and onion, chicken and mushroom) and a list of sides from green salads to onion gravy.

J had the kid's menu cod and chips, A had the chicken ringer which came with crispy onion rings, bacon, lettuce, tomato on a sesame seed bun and I had the haddock and chips.  All were served in about 10 minutes.  The fish was crisp, hot and flaky and the chips were excellent - just the right combination of crunchy on the outside and mushy on the inside.  Portions were  large but I have to say that we all managed to finish our food except for a few leftover chips on the plate.

Peggotty's is open from 6 p.m. daily except Sunday and is a great place for a quick dinner.  The food is not fancy but it's freshly-made and tasty and the prices are reasonable.  Takeaway is also available from the counter near the entrance and the prices are less than what it costs to eat-in.  I wish we found this place sooner so we could have done our Lenten fishy Fridays here.