Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Winsborough's Fish 'n' Chips, Shepton Mallet

Winsborough's is Shepton's "other" chippie - it has something of the architectural style of an American roadside diner and you'll find it at the Charlton crossroads. There's ample parking available, but be aware that the opening hours are a trifle strange.

The place is pretty popular, both with "eat in" diners and the various take-away crowds - the early evening cod-and-chips-for-dinner type and the late-night chips-to-soak-up-the-lager lot.





So what's the food like? Well, nothing too special to be truthful. I've paid a few visits to the place and have found the quality to be consistent, so I'm not looking at a one-off sample here. The chips - which come in *enormous* quantities, BTW - are leathery (but that is I guess pretty traditional) and require mayo to give them a lift, at which point they're fine. The cod is (just) OK portion-wise and the batter's fine, but every time I've eaten at Winsborough's the fish has been decidedly stale. Not good, not good at all. The onion rings are, frankly, inedible. Please don't bother with these.

As you can see, the stuff comes packaged in "take away boxes", of which I'm no sort of fan, though sadly even kebabs are coming in the things these days.





Overall impression? Good friendly service, substantial (except for the fish) portions, but the food itself just isn't up to scratch. Steve's is only a short walk from Winsborough's (and there's parking there too) so if you're more concerned with quality than with quantity I imagine you can guess what my advice is. Oh, and Steve's delivers, too...