Review Title: Homemade Tartar Sauce Makes the Fish Even Better! [ View All Reviews ]

Ever since my favorite London Fish 'n Chips closed down in Saratoga, I've been searching for a new favorite stop for fish 'n chips. I haven't been having much luck until I stumbled into Chris' Fish 'n Chips recently. They're no replacement for my old reigning favorite, but they come close and they're better in some ways.

First, gotta love the ambiance... or rather the lack of it. The place is dominated by a line of huge fryers and a food prep island. Behind the open air kitchen is their giant lighted menu with print big enough to be readable by someone who just had eye surgery. The limited seating fits in around a couple of rows on two sides of the open air kitchen and you can take your pick of different kinds of mismatching tables. The restaurant is very clean and amazingly has little odor considering that they're frying seafood in there all day.

The owners a friendly. It's run by a woman and her son. The two of them previously ran a juice stop in the very same location. Apparently, the fad ran out on the juice craze and she had to make a quick change to keep her business alive so she went back to something familiar to her.

If you're concerned about the unusual hop from Juice Stop to a Fish Fry, no need to worry. The woman who owns the restaurant with her son, used to own an H. Salt Fish and Chips in Sunnyvale and if you're not that fond of H. Salt, her fish is better. They must have learned something about freshness from the juice stop experience. The fish tastes fresh and comes out of the fryers crispy and light tasting without the greasy and heavy oil flavor that you get in lesser joints. I read one review on the wall that described the taste as buttery and flaky. That might be taking it a bit far. We're not talking about croissants here, but the sentiment is on the right track. It's great tasting Fish and Chips that gets better with their homemade tartar sauce. It's a tangier and sweeter version of the sauce than the kind you usually get out of packets.

In addition to your basic fish and chips, they also have fried prawns, oysters, and calamari. I didn't try those so I can't speak about them, but their fish really rocks!