Fish ‘n Chips at Katch Seafood

Katch Seafood
Scotia Square Mall (and other locations)
Rating: Meh/Good

(Rating Scale: WTF, Meh, Good, Some Good, Right Some Good!)

I reviewed The Battered Fish back in 2013, but since then (last year, to be precise) The Battered Fish was bought by Pizza Girls who rebranded it to Katch Seafood. There are several locations (Waterfront, Pizza Corner, Scotia Square, Halifax Shopping Centre and Tantallon) usually combined with a Pizza Girls. I was recently invited to the Scotia Square location to sample the wares.

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Compared to The Battered Fish, the menu is more diversified and fancied up. You can build your own Poke Bowl ($8+), Tacos (3/$10) or Fish Combo (1pc, 2pc, Fish Bites or Burger). There are lots of options for your coating, sides, sauces and extras. I wanted to try a few of the coatings, so I got a Beer Battered, Panko Battered and Breaded. For my sides I just got basic fries and tartar sauce, but there were plenty of other options. See Menu.

Beer Battered (top), Breaded (middle), Panko (bottom)

Katch Seafood nails the presentation, which comes across as extra fancy in a food court setting. The fries are frozen shoe strings, but surprisingly decent. The tartar sauce is among the best I’ve had, and it’s even served in a suitably sized cup!

The batter fits snugly around the fish, with a thin yet noticeable layer of mushy interface. We didn’t find the beer batter or panko to be very flavourful, whereas the breading option was reminiscent of fried chicken batter. We liked this one the best.

The fish is flash frozen at sea, supplied by Clearwater. We found it to be quite watery, perhaps due to soaking in its defrosting water before cooking. This practice maintains the large size of the fillets, but I’d prefer a smaller piece of fish that wasn’t so watery.

A 2pc fish and chips starts off at $9, but fries are an additional $3, and there are other sides and extras that will affect the end price.

I also tried a shrimp taco, which would be my favourite part of the meal. The rich, meaty shrimps were not bland or watery, but delicious battered morsels. While I would prefer soft corn tortillas and shredded cabbage to flour tortillas and lettuce, Katch is doing a few things right here: fresh pico de gallo, creamy California white sauce and a squeeze of lime. Combined with the beer battered shrimp, these elements made for a classic Baja flavour profile. But you can customize your taco to your own preferences: raw ahi tuna with spicy avocado ranch and pineapple. Go ahead!

This is one of the best fish tacos I’ve had in a long time!

I’d like to thank Katch Seafood for inviting me in for lunch. The food was complimentary, but my review, as usual, is objective and honest.

Katch is entirely different than The Battered Fish, and they are doing a lot of things right. I love the house-made sauces, the variety of options and the presentation. While there may be a few kinks to work out with the fish, there are so many ways to build an enjoyable meal here. I am looking forward to trying the Buffalo-style fish, a healthy poke bowl and more fish tacos!