Fish and chips just might be the national dish of England, or even the whole of Great Britain. As one would expect from late-night drunk food, some experimentation happened. Like dipping everything that wasn’t moving into batter and throwing it in the fryer. Soon there was everything from deep-fried Mars bars to deep-friend mushy peas. Here in the States, we tend to associate crazy fried food with the County Fair. In the past we have had fried Oreos, pickles, avocados, cheesecake and Jell-o.
Batterfish on Ventura opened its doors this year (well, singular door) to provide you with your daily requirement of fried things. The owner, Jason Killalee, who hails from Ireland, has previously worked in such high-end kitchens as Providence and Bastide and he doesn’t screw around. He makes sure the batter is cold and the beef fat is hot so nothing comes out greasy. An order of fish and chips only has three grams of fat! If you go for fish and chips, you can choose between catfish, cod, tilapia, or salmon. Spiced batters, something we have never seen before, include chili, curry, lemon-basil, and garlic-ginger.
But the real story here are the battered Angus hamburgers, veggie burgers and bratwurst. You can have any of them fried in vegetable oil instead of beef fat if you prefer. The burger is served sans bun with your choice of sides. The batter is thinner than you would expect, almost like pastry. I would even go as far as to call it a poor man’s Beef Wellington. You can also get mushy peas, which thankfully are not deep-fried. There are fish tacos, deep-fried candy bars and even salads on the menu to appease Shirley from Accounting, who didn’t want to go out to eat with the lot of you anyways.
Parking in the back. Closed Sundays. Great care is taken to source sustainable and wild caught fish where possible. Note: the salads are not battered and deep-fried.
