Frankie’s Fish Bar

great plaice! luvli grub n super service. not too oily n in the dumbo free zone of w dids. steak n kidney pud is fabbbb! u get 5 lucky stars frm me fishybait…

I love a good chippy tea. I’m not ashamed to admit that my family used to have a dedicated ‘chippy night’ every week. Although this is sadly no longer the case, I try to get one every couple of months for a treat.
The set-​up at FBFB leaves the front for dining in. You can wander up to the counter and order to take away like a typical chippy. We were the only ones eating in but there was a steady stream of people coming in to order.
I ordered cod and chips with a side of curry sauce. It came with a small serving of mushy peas which didn’t taste of much to be honest. The curry sauce could have been a bit thicker as well. Though the chips were good and plentiful they would have benefitted from a tiny bit longer in the fryer. The saving grace was the fish, with a decent white-​flesh-​to-​batter ratio. I can also state with assurance that their Posh Fish Barm comes highly recommended ;)
Another pleasant surprise was the ales that were available (recommended by Damian The Ale Man). As Nic said in his review, the wines come from Reserve Wine next door — it’s always good to see local businesses supporting each other.

Decent enough, we liked Frankie’s fish bar a lot and this is of the same level. Service is good, the chips really good, I found the fish batter well crispy but a bit too oily but I’m sure it won’t be a problem for most.
A plus on Frankie’s, they have a couple of decent ales available and their wines have been recommended by Kate from Reserve Wines next door. Cheap stuff but it will do the job nicely ;-)

Excellent! Wanted a grab a quick dinner last night. Perfect! Excellent service, very tasty reasonable prices.
Recommended!

Awesome place. Cozy restaurant in a quant neighborhood. Great fish and batter. Best «chippy» I’ve found in Manchester. Though chips were a little bland more my taste but easily fixed myself. Fried apple for desert was awesome. I definitely will be coming back my next time in Manchester.

Literally just had the best fish n chips of my life tonight at Frankies. Usually eat in and have their sharing platter, but tonight was home alone and treated myself to a take-​out. Wow fish was fresh and juicy, batter crispy, loads of chips and tarter sauce and a lemon wedge thrown in for free. Mmmm hmmm.

Put simply: nice fish, shame about the chips.
Service and surroundings at Frankie’s are warm and welcoming. It’s certainly a nice place to buy fish and chips. And judging by the raised tabled area inside, it’s evidently a fairly pleasant place to eat fish and chips, with views out onto the ever-​up-​and-​coming Burton Road. But what about the food?
At £6.35 for fish, large chips and peas you expect good things. And the fish is good. Crispy batter, delicate tasty cod. A half decent tartare sauce and lemon segment come with it. The rest was disappointing though. It’s a simple lesson for all chippies: there’s one constant ingredient in everything you serve. Your chips. Get them wrong at your peril. Unfortunately Frankie’s chips are not great. Fat, yes. Crispy, soft inside and golden? No. Soggy, hard on the inside and not golden. A decent potato, just badly cooked. The peas were, to quote Blackadder, strangely brown.
The sogginess of the chips was probably not helped by the way they were packed. And so much (expensive) packaging! Wrapping chips in paper with a hot fish, inside a box, inside a paper bag simply steams everything. Chinese chippies know the secrets of retained crispiness. And far less packaging required.
Fish and chips served in a trendy box and paper carrier bag, by people dressed in black t-​shirts, in a trendy shop, at £6.35 is probably what the cash rich folk of Didsbury want.
All I know is that my local Chinese chippy serves fish that’s equally fresh, crisp and tasty; chips and peas that are infinitely better, in far less packaging that nevertheless does a better job at keeping the food both hot and crisp. All for £4.

Best fish and chips in Manchester!
The fish is cooked to order, so the batter is always crispy. Served with home made tartar sauce and a slice of lemon.
Have some good specials — crispy courgettes, sharing platters and different sea food.
You can eat in and enjoy your meal with a cold beer, but its a bit more expensive.

As hard as Frankie’s is obviously trying this is not what I want from a chippy. It was inevitable that somebody would try and ‘Gastro’ the traditional chippy, and the consequences were horrifying to me.
I have been here twice and both times the service has been awful, when I go to a chippy I don’t really expect to have to wait while my food is cooked for 5 – 10 minutes. The food is distinctly average and comes with a very hefty price tag.
I love pies and was very disappointed by the standard of pie here. The pastry was all wrong and flaked far too much, they should have just stick to Hollands.
Overall Frankie’s is a very bad take on the traditional chippy. I think from now on I’ll stick to the Battered Cod or one of the many chippys that have stuck traditions of how Fish&Chips should be done, quick and tasty.

It’s not every day that you get to take your parents for fish and chips in your home city. We were off to have a final look at the new apartment in Didsbury, we stopped off on Burton Road and we were in dire need of a hearty bite to eat. Silver Apples was the first port of call but my stupid lack of meat consumption meant we had to vacate the premises because they were out of Heidi Pie, the only veggie option. But we might have never discovered Frankie’s if all would have been well. Ain’t it always the way!
We were cautious. Fish and chips is such a quintessentially British institution — done right, it’s a crisp, delicious and fresh-​tasting. Done wrong, it’s greasy, slimy and insipid. We needn’t have worried. Yet this is actually something different, a traditional English lowly cuisine with a modern, very Didsbury take on it. It’s a chippy takeaway-​cum-​restaurant, with charming oak wooden benches to sit at, a cosy atmosphere and some interesting twists on classic favourites. Fancy something lighter? Try the half fish with fried courgettes (only added to the menu today)! Seriously, even if you don’t like the veggies this will have you addicted to them. And the half fish is a hefty portion all by itself!
We opted for one of those, fishcakes and chips and sausage and chips, all to share. Our fish options came with fresh homemade tartare sauce, we ordered a pot of mushy peas and there was a pot of gravy for my father’s chips. The batter on the fishcakes and fish was unbelievably crispy and light without a trace of oiliness, the chips were chunky and moist and the sides and sauces were perfect. Plus the service was supreme — Chris, our waiter was a joy to behold, friendly, chatty and informative. The sit-​in might be a wee bit more expensive than your usual chippy tea but it’s so worth it. If you’re introducing anyone to true Manchester fisn n’ chips, bring them here to ease them in. They won’t look back. And neither will I. Frankie’s is the bomb, and it’s a mere twenty minute stroll from my new pad. Nice one!
(Plus there’s battered halloumi for the veggies, and sharing platters of tempura mussels, scampi and the like. Just had to get that other unique factor in there!)

It’s a little irrational to get excited about a chippy, but I think Burton Road was crying out for a good fish and chip shop! When I visited Frankie’s on its opening night, it seemed that the rest of West Didsbury agreed with me there was a huge queue of hungry customers snaking out onto the pavement.
Frankie’s is no ordinary chippy. It’s a lovely place with a great selection of dishes and sustainable fish. However, the prices are higher than average and the chips aren’t quite as good as Withington’s mighty Battered Cod yet!