Harry Ramsden’s 2 Jumbo Battered Atlantic Cod Fillets “Review”

Our first food product on the website took us to Iceland supermarket — not Iceland the country, haha! I’ll be honest, I don’t usually buy from Iceland, but I saw you can now order from them through Amazon, and I just wanted to see who actually arrived with the food: Iceland or some Amazon person.

It was an Amazon person!

So I thought I would try Harry Ramsden’s 2 Jumbo Battered Atlantic Cod Fillets, which I bought for £6.75. I’ve just checked now, and they cost £8.50. At that price, you are really expecting quite a lot.

Harry Ramsden’s go by the whole “World Famous Fish & Chips” thing. Twenty-six years ago, I had Harry Ramsden’s fish and chips at Butlins Minehead. Let’s just say the experience was memorable for all the wrong reasons: overpriced, batter hard as a rock, and the fish being very average for the price they were charging. And guess what? They were very expensive then as well!

So I thought to myself, maybe it was just a bad staff member who couldn’t cook fish and chips properly. You never know, right? So I bought these to see if they were any better.

This was for my first YouTube video, so I’ll be honest, I was very nervous. I did originally cook one, but as I was eating it, I realised I’d forgotten to turn the camera on!

So I ate half of the first one, had half of the second one for my dinner haha, and then had the two leftover halves the next day.

So I had to wait another 45 minutes for the second one to cook in the oven. Yes, they take 45 minutes in the oven. I thought I would go by the packet instructions because I didn’t want any excuses from anyone saying, “It would have been better if you cooked it in the oven.” So no air fryer was used here!

They do look pretty impressive when cooked, I must say. But it’s not all about appearances. It’s what’s actually inside that counts.

Would this be average frozen fish, like the fish I had 26 years ago as an 11-year-old, or would it be takeaway chippy standard?

Sadly, it was the first one: average. Just very average.

The memories of Harry Ramsden’s fish and chips came flooding back, and for all the wrong reasons. They remind me a bit of Little Chef. People always reminisce about Little Chef, but when it was actually around, you would pop in and think, “Maybe it was just a bad day.” Then you’d realise their prices were meant to reflect quality, but the food didn’t always back that up.

The fish was very mushy and basic, with not much flavour to it. I’ll be honest, I’m not a massive cod eater anyway. Plaice is my favourite, otherwise it’s usually haddock. Cod, for me, is for people who don’t really like fish.

Back to the Harry Ramsden’s fish I was eating — it had more batter than actual fish. So from the outside, it looks mind-blowing. Inside, it’s rather disappointing.

Every bit was just mush. The batter was tasteless. Nothing stood out about it that made me think, “I want to buy this again.”

I suppose it’s good if you want to pretend you’re eating fish and chips from a chippy, but for me, that would just get me down and eventually make me want to buy proper fish and chips from a good chippy instead.

Overall, I think they are very expensive for what they are. They live off the name, but for what, I’m not really sure. No one I know remembers Harry Ramsden’s being especially good. Do you remember when they were good? Because from my experience, they have always been average.

Like I said in the video, they are world famous for somehow surviving as a business, but that’s about it from me.

I give them 5/10. The appearance probably helped the score a bit, otherwise I’d say don’t expect great things, because you will probably be disappointed.

One thing I will say is that I do like their tinned mushy peas. Maybe they should concentrate on being a mushy peas company!