The Mayfair Chippy | North Audley Street, W1K

This Mother's Day, in an effort to take our domestic arguing into the public sphere, I took my mother to the highly recommended Mayfair Chippy, on North Audley Street.

Stepping inside, its all black and white chequered tiling on the floor, mirrors, marble-top bar seating and old-school wooden booths. Very bright and contemporary for a chippy - but this is no ordinary chippy. I had heard such amazing things from friends who had been here, as well as on the world wide web, in an effort to find somewhere good enough for the princess that is my mother, Bonnie. I wished myself luck.

To start we ordered the Cornish Salt and Pepper Squid and Crispy Salmon Skin. The chilli, lime and ginger sauce served with the squid was delicious. And, being the spice fiend that I am, I was all for the sprinkling of chilli and coriander all over the dish. It obviously had that whole Asian, soy, dancing on your palate vibe which I loved. A far cry from the standard, frozen calamari which you might get from your local chippy. Though, the batter was quite soggy, not crisp at all, which was quite disappointing seeing as it had so many things going for it.

I was, initially, excited at the prospect of crispy salmon 'crackling', though I ended up a little underwhelmed. Dipping faintly fishy salmon skin into yoghurty dill sauce is not necessarily something I will be doing again very soon...It was quite odd. There is no pleasure in eating crispy salmon skin without delicious juxtaposition of a juicy salmon fillet. To call this 'crackling' is quite the insult to everyone's favourite crispy animal skin, pork crackling. It was like eating very robust nori sheets - without being as delicious as nori. You don't see people flogging chicken skin and calling it 'crackling' do you? (On that note, feel free to peruse my little write up of Good Friend Chicken, where they serve up delicious, greasy bags of  deep fried chicken skin, with the option of tossing them in no less than 11 seasonings.)

On to the main course and I ordered the 'Mayfair Classic' which is comprised of fried cod or haddock (I chose haddock because it's more sustainable **smug**), mushy peas, tartar sauce and the choice of gravy or curry sauce. And your gal went for curry sauce. I made a poor rogue choice when I asked for cheesy chips... So the chips arrived not only with a lovely piece of battered fish but were also covered in Berskwell cheese, truffle salt and spring onions. And I love truffle cheese fries as much as the next gal but all together this made an otherwise appetising and crisp batter rather stodgy. I blame the stress of sitting with my mother for an extended period of time on this poor choice. 

The haddock was great (firm and flaky) and the bits of batter that weren't fixed to the cheese were really light and crisp. Pretty damn good. 

The curry sauce, on the other hand, was really quite weak and overly vinegary. I like the kind of chip shop gravy that is so peppery it burns the back of your throat and that when you dip a chip into it, it stays upright. This is was not the one. The tartar sauce was great, however - I only wished that there was more of it. And if you do want more it'll cost you - £1.50 to be precise.

The best part of the meal by far was the desert and we decided to share the warm chocolate pudding with salted caramel ice cream and cinder toffee. Perfectly gooey fondant-style middle and deliciously creamy ice cream in my favourite flavour. What's not to love? 

All in all, I did enjoy The Mayfair Chippy, and the decor here is spot on - the tiled tables are beautiful. Definitely worth a try for a decent fish and chips and a menu with a little bit more to offer - soft shell crab burger anyone? Some pals have spoken very highly of this place so I will be back, probably to give the lobster macaroni and cheese a go... Oh, and Bonnie seemed happy, so that's good! 

The damage: £60.47 **

**I ordered a bottle of sparkling water, which arrived in one of those unmarked uber trendy swing-top stopper bottles. Re-fillable, without the need to recycling the glass bottles, which I am totally on board with...I just don't want to be charged £2.50 for it.

The Mayfair Chippy

14 N Audley St, 

Mayfair, 

London 

W1K 6WE

Sidenote...
My favourite chippy is actually Tailend in St. Andrews. If you sit in, you get unlimited chips and as much of their home-made tartar sauce as you want. It's basically bloody delicious and I am yet to find anywhere down South which is able to hold a torch to this place. I recently went back to St. Andrews on my birthday and it was closed. When I saw the 'closed' sign, the blood ran cold in my body and I lost the will to live momentarily. I ended up at the awards winning Cromar's 2 minutes up the road and had a glorious meal...but it wasn't quite the same...