Three of Adelaide’s best are proof that fast-food chains have not managed to kill the Australian fish and chip shop. Two are close to the water where you can enjoy that lovely tradition of eating fish and chips while watching the ocean and feeding the seagulls, and one – Fish Out of Water – is in the middle of suburbia.

Fish Out Of Water

117 King William Road, Hyde Park

Sunday night at Fish Out of Water is flat-chat, with a steady stream of locals coming to collect their orders.

This is a well-established fish and chippery and has a sense of fun about it. The walls are adorned with witty words like “sexy sensual seafood”, “cheeky chicken burgers” and “curvaceous calamari”.

There are retro red laminated tables, tatty stacked newspapers and magazines, and a fair bit of black fluff clinging to the tops of the walls that don’t appear to have been cleaned for quite some time (in fact, probably never).

Yet despite the rather run-down feel of the place, Fish Out of Water remains one of the best in Adelaide.

Battered fish is lightly coated and freshly cooked with a lovely thin, crunchy batter that can only be achieved with good clean cooking oil. Chips are not hand-cut, but they are crunchy like chips are meant to be.

There is a big selection of simple salads, and they do great burgers, seafood yiros and chargrilled seafood, including South Australian prawns. “Vicious” burgers are popular with everyone and come stuffed with all sorts of gourmet goodies including scotch fillet steak, cevapcici spicy sausages and Spring’s smoked salmon. There are even three vegetarian versions including falafel.

They also sell the only decent commercial mayonnaise by a medium-sized jar, and all fish comes with lemon wedges.

The offerings at Fish Out of Water remain imaginative, generous and very good value for money. They cook a broader range of seafood in more ways than any other fish and chip shop we have been to in Adelaide.