Hollins English Fish and Chips, now styled as Hollins Fish Bar is one of the many Fish and Chip shops in Middleton, this one is located on Nowell Road on the Hollins estate, it's just under two miles from Middleton town centre, which I'm sure many locals would agree is also dominated by takeaways.
Hollins is one of the very few Fish and Chip shops, not just in the North West but the country to actually have gluten free offerings, which is quite good, it is good to see a larger number of places operating this now including Hollins, which is quite local to me.
I ordered a Gluten Free Fish and Chips, this is served everyday when they are open other than Friday evenings after 4:30pm which is quite frustrating, they did seem to have a slightly smaller frier dedicated to gluten free food, which was good to see.
The food its-self tasted okay, infact it tasted much better than it looked.
The chips were just okay, despite looking quite anaemic and pale at first, which was a shame.
The portion of the fish was a little small and the batter wasn't evenly spread across, making it feel like typical gluten free food as it wasn't as crunchy and tasty as a normal fish, infact I found the whole meal to taste a little bland even with my own seasoning adding on, mainly down to the gluten free batter not being too nice at all.
The price was reasonable, my friend also ordered a Full fish and chips and a large pot of peas, the whole meal came to £10.60 which equals around £5.30 each which is quite reasonable, especially for gluten free as I've often paid double for the same meal while eating out, such as at 2 Oxford Place in Leeds, mainly with the high pricetag due to being free from gluten.
Overall, the food here isn't fantastic but the pricing is reasonable and they do have gluten free options, and this did start recently which shows they are processing in the right direction and also do have some knowledge on cross-contamination and Coeliac Disease to use separate cooking equipment, sadly as the food was slightly bland and didn't look too nice, making it stand out in a bad way, I sadly feel this place deserves a slightly generous two star rating. read more