The Wetherby Whaler is famous throughout Yorkshire, having being named the region's best fish and chip shop on multiple occasions. Now a chain of five with restaurants as well as takeaways, the Whaler can be found not just in Wetherby but in Pudsey, York, Wakefield and Guiseley.
The Guiseley store was once Harry Ramsden's, dubbed by the Metro and the Guardian as the "spiritual home" of fish and chips. Plenty of other reviews show attempts to finish the Wetherby Whaler's "Impossible Fish 'n' Chips Challenge" on National Fish and Chips Day.
2021 saw the Whaler become "the nation's fish and chip icon". Four million packs of Walkers' Fish and Chip flavour crisps were created, inspired by the shop. So it's safe to say, it's pretty well loved.
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Having lived near Wetherby all my life, my latest trip to the takeaway was by no means my first. Just a few weeks ago, my lovely grandma had celebrated her 92nd birthday in the York restaurant - testament I think to how lovely she's found the food there over the years.
So when ordering my takeaway from the Wetherby store, I was pretty convinced I knew what I was in for. The Whaler offers all the usual delights of a fish and chip shop - your regular fish and chips, jumbo sausages with gravy and curry sauce.
I've never previously had a bad meal there. When I've had the food before, it's always been freshly cooked and piping hot. With those good memories in mind, I wanted to try something a little different and stray from my usual path.
Their fish is usually cooked to perfection with nice crispy batter and it was the batter that tempted me to try the battered beef burger. I figured, if it's on the Whaler's relatively small menu, it's clearly a dish that can be done well.
I'll be honest, it's not something I would have usually gone for but after a pre-tea gym workout, I could treat myself with something a little more unhealthy. As my partner had gone for my go to - sausage and chips - I figured it was worth trying something different.
Service was speedy and efficient and we were told it would be just a ten minute wait - longer than the usual but it was due to my order of a burger. The staff clearly wanted customers out as quickly as possible as a queue quickly built.
This seemed a good sign. A busy fish and chip shop, the day before Good Friday, which usually sees loads of us rush for a chippy, must mean that it's popular all the time.
The Wetherby store is literally a stone's throw away from the riverside where there are picnic benches and it was that picturesque scene we chose to sit down at while eating.
It all built to be a delicious meal but sadly, I was left disappointed. The burger I had ordered was in the main, just batter. The burger seemed to vanish and I couldn't actually taste it all.
On both the burger and the chips, the oil seemed to just drip and even the curry sauce couldn't take away from that one flavour. My partner seemed to fall slightly luckier with his chips, making us think that perhaps I'd just unfortunately ended up with the last of a batch where the oil had pooled.
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He enjoyed the sausage and chips - the sausage wasn't gristly or overcooked and was the right amount of crispy. But when he tried a bit of my burger, he also wondered where the meat had gone. He did also comment that his food was "the bottom end of warm" - it wasn't cold but it wasn't exactly hot either.
A benefit for him was the free bag of scraps we got. He's moved up North from Birmingham and I was scandalised when I found out that not only did some of the chip shops near him charge for scraps, some didn't do them at all.
The curry sauce and gravy were delicious, traditional chip-shop style and brilliant for it. With a can of fizzy each and sitting down by the river, it was a really lovely experience.
But with my meal consisting of a giant slab of batter and oil, I was forced to give up halfway through and struggled to get the taste out of my mouth. I was left hungry so ended up making myself a snack regardless.
It was only £17 and as I've had much better experiences before, the Wetherby Whaler isn't a write-off for me. I'll likely go back and take my grandma for her favourite food - but after this experience, it'll most likely mean I'm going back for the nostalgia and not the meal.
The Wetherby Whaler bill
- Burger - £2
- Chips - £2.60
- Breadcake -98p
- Sausage meal with gravy - £5.60
- Scallop - 75p
- Curry sauce - £1.20
- Oasis - £1.90
- Coke - £2
Total: £17.03
