Cod Is Good: Kiwi Fish 'N' Chips Now Open

Truth be told, Kiwi Fish 'N' Chips is not all that Kiwi. The name is inspired by the time that Yi, the owner, spent in New Zealand. The restaurant does offer one type of fried fish (snapper) and chips. The reason for the decidedly small fish selection is that Yi painstakingly guts all of the fish himself. At RMB 30 for a portion of snapper and chips, it's a fair price, even if teething troubles did mean that our garden peas were served cold. Another thing to note is that the fish is not battered. This may be traditional Kiwi-style but seemed odd to us Britons. Each to their own.

The restaurant itself is small and has the feel of a school canteen or roadside café of years gone by. Decoration is minimal. A few photographs of New Zealand dot the walls to enliven the wooden tables and plastic chairs. It’s all charmingly parochial yet it still stands out on the strip of Chinese hole-in-the-walls.

There are plans to expand the menu – although not with more fish; there is already a secret, rice-heavy Chinese menu. Kiwi Fish 'N' Chips deserves to build a following; we hope that it does so before it’s forced to move too far from its original concept.

Kiwi Fish & Chips
Daily 11am-10pm. 5 Dongmencang Hutong, Dongcheng district (6407 6040) 东城区东门仓胡同5号

Photos: Paul Ryding