For various reasons, Café Lloyd was our go-to chippy over the Fish Hut on Liverpool Road. Once upon a time, they were both pretty alike - the food was... well... OK, the surroundings were pretty Grimm, and they were about the same distance from work. I'm afraid to say (and keeping with the slightly fairy-tale tone that I seem to have adopted), one of the two grew into a beautiful (if slightly greasy) princess with a sparkling persona, and the other remained an ugly duckling (I really don't know where I'm going with this).
That ugly duckling/chippy is Café Lloyd. It's slightly underground (in the location sense) disposition leaves it a little poorly lit - the light that does enter isn't shining on anything to exciting, but the important thing is the food, and by that, I mean the chips.
The chips are quite good, not too oily, and usually well cooked. My personal measure of how good a chip shop is, is the number of undercooked, black/green and burnt chips you get in your portion, with the ideal being none. There are always some, but usually a sufficiently low number that it passes muster.
If you go for the fish, the batter isn't too heavy, and the fish is nice. I enjoy a pudding of the steak and kidney variety, and these are usually pretty good.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot more that I can say about Café Lloyd. It's an OK chippy - but with competition the way it is, they might not get a happy ending. read more