Balgownie Fish Shop

This was the best fish and chip shop I have ever been to. It has been in business for over 50 years, with Anna and her husband Tony serving multiple generations. Balgownie would not be the same without this renowned fish shop.

I decided to try this restaurant based on the positive reviews on TripAdvisor and another website I found online. Although most of the reviews were from tourists, as this was not a local spot for me, I have to say that the reviews were accurate. The food was delicious and the prices were very affordable. The scallops were especially fantastic. The restaurant has an old-fashioned feel and we had to wait a bit for our food, but we didn't mind as it allowed us to soak in the nostalgic atmosphere. As mentioned in other reviews, the owners are planning to retire soon, so I recommend visiting before they do. Wishing them all the best for the future.

The prices at this restaurant are unbelievably low, and the food is absolutely delicious. It is definitely worth a visit, as the staff is very friendly. Make sure to come before they close!

Anna and Tony have been serving customers at their fish and chip shop since 1964. I'm a more recent customer, I've only been dining there since 1973 ;-)Visiting their shop is like taking a trip back in time, I doubt it's changed much in all that time. No skinny soy lattes here, they provide good old fashioned takeaway at more than reasonable prices. Their chips are in all honesty the best I've had anywhere, and I could never resist having a battered sav or two. Just as importantly, they continued to provide the same friendly service - Anna would take the orders ("Who's next, love?") with Tony beavering away in the background.I recall an occasion many years ago when, to my surprise, they were open on Good Friday. I tried to order a hamburger, but they refused to serve any meat products that day! So, fish and chips it was.I live interstate now, but whenever I'm in town my family and friends know one of my first ports of call is the Balgownie Fish shop.Anna and Tony are about to start their well-earned retirement, and I wish them both the very best for that. And to everyone else, do yourselves a favour and get the best takeaway in town while you still have the opportunity.

I’ve been going to the Balgownie Fish Shop since I was four years old. It was an institution when I was a kid growing up in the area. Great moments in my childhood and teen years such as sporting events or just going to the beach were followed by and marked with a visit to the Balgownie fish shop. As soon as I could ride a bike I’d be up there on a Saturday morning at the counter ordering ten or twenty cents worth of chips. But the prize amongst the golden fried objects of edible desire were their home made battered potato ‘scollops’ (sic). Nothing beats a Balgownie scollop in my opinion, especially if it’s been liberally dosed with lemon juice. Having moved out of the area long ago I haven’t visited this hallowed institution for several years, so when I heard that the owners, Anna and Tony Vangelovski, were finally hanging up their aprons after fifty-one years long and dedicated service at the deep-fryer and wrapping station, and selling the shop to make way for a new development, I had to make one last pilgrimage to that southern Mecca of greasy goodness. I wasn’t disappointed. Nothing had changed. Nothing. It was still exactly as I remembered it. The old wood panelled countered once just varnished wood has been painted at some point, and there is a more modern looking freezer where the old one used to stand, but just about everything else is the same. Same cash register, same rainbow-coloured park bench to sit on while you wait, same lino floor, gumball machine and lime green porcelain sink, in case you want to wash your hands before you dine - although I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use it. The owners, Anna and Tony even look exactly the same as they did when I was a kid, albeit a little greyer all over. I guess after dusting seafood in flour and dunking it in hot oil for 51 years, you’re bound to end up a lightly battered and gently fried. Even the menu hasn’t changed and the prices don’t seem to have changed a great deal either. We ordered four potato scollops, six cocktail fish pieces and the smallest order of chips which, with an added lemon (which Anna chopped in half and thoughtfully stuffed in a chiko roll bag for us) the total was a mere seven dollars. Seven dollars for enough deep fried goodness to permanently clog the arteries of an entire footy team! That’s value, right there!After paying the paltry sum, and bidding the couple a fond farewell and happy retirement, we took a butcher’s paper-wrapped bundle of joy directly across the road to the beer garden of the Balgownie pub, (a proud old institution itself) ignoring completely the sign on the wall that asks patrons not to eat food that they haven’t purchased from the hotel – a sign that was never there in my youth. Back then it was traditional to eat your fish and chips in the Bally beer garden, even if you weren’t legally old enough to drink beer.In the beer garden we unwrapped our greasy prize and were delighted to find that the food hadn’t changed either. The chips were hot and salty, the cocktail fish pieces were chunky, crisp and juicy and the scollops… It’s impossible to describe their exquisite scollopyness with the limited vocabulary the English language provides. But I’ll give it a shot. The first sensation as you draw the scollop towards the mouth is the aroma of batter and cooking oil, oil that I’d wager hasn’t been changed in 51 years either. Next is the crunch as the teeth penetrate that deep fried outer surface. This is followed by the soft, airy inner coating of batter, then the cooked-to-perfection potato centre, capped off with a hit of salt and the tang of the lemon juice. All washed down with a long cool Cooper’s Ale, first raised in honour of, in my opinion, the best fish and chip shop in the world! So hurry, they’re only open for another three months!