For $10 you get two generous pieces of fried flake, and $1.50 buys you more than enough chips. Not only do you get a lot of chips, but they’re also hand cut and fresh, rather than coming out of the freezer. They’re cooked well, as is the fish, and it’s the sign of a good fish and chip shop when you can walk in and not be overwhelmed by the smell of oil.

While another Brunswick Street fish and chip shop may pack the punters in, Ol’ School Fish & Chips is my pick of the bunch.

Now Hooked (384 Brunswick St, Fitzroy), which has been wowing the residents of Windsor for quite a while, has entered the mix.

Ol’ School is superb, so Hooked was going to have to be pretty special to gain my custom. Based on my first visit, I don’t think it’s got what it takes. Not by a long shot.

I bought a Box for One, which comprised two small pieces of fish, six good sized pieces of salt & pepper calamari, a generous serving of chips, sambal, and some fried sweet potato shavings. That’s a lot of food, but for $17.50, so it should be. Despite the fact that I chose to eat in, and thus my meal was very fresh, none of it was actually particularly good.

My fish was coated in a tempura batter, which wasn’t nearly as crisp as it should have been. The calamari pieces were hit and miss, with some being overly chewy, and there was very little of the promised salt and pepper flavour. As for the chips, they were chunky (almost wedges) slightly greasy and quite heavy, so perhaps the oil wasn’t quite hot enough.

In the Box for One, instead of chips, you can choose from salad and corn, or sticky rice and bok choy. I almost wish I had, but then it wouldn’t have been fish and chips.

I’d already had a burger and chips from the latter, so that seemed like a safe bet. There are nine different types of fish to choose from, but I opted for the standard flake. Three pieces of flake and minimum chips (not all for me) cost $18.60 and arrived pretty quickly, despite it being a busy night.

Each piece of flake was a generous size, very fresh, and cooked perfectly in clean oil. The batter was crisp and flavoursome, and the fish nice and moist. The chips were also well cooked, again in clean rice bran oil. This oil gives the chips a distinct flavour that’s quite hard to describe, and may not be be to all tastes, but I don’t mind them.

Next time I’ll try The Ol School Fish & Chips, but it will need to be good to better The Seafood Shak, which I think is the best fish and chip shop in Melbourne.

I ordered a piece of flake, the grilled fish of the day (marlin) and chips. The flake was very good, crisp batter surrounding a nice juicy, fresh piece of fish. Equally well done were the chips. Unfortunately the meal was let down badly by the grilled marlin. It was obviously left on the hotplate for 2 or 3 minutes too long, and as a result was very dry.

Still, the take away prices are reasonable, and the fried fish was pretty good, so I’d give it another shot. There’s a small bar with a good range of beer, so it might even be worth eating in.