Swish n Chips, Mount Lawley

For a quick, greasy meal I sometimes don't mind myself a bit of fish n chips - with the "bit" being just enough before I start to feel bloated.  Though I also like a good seafood basket with quality seafood (even though it gets deep fried!).

Swish n Chips, a fish n chip shop that's quite well known in the Mount Lawley area, is located right next to the heart of the Beaufort Street cafe strip, near the corner of Beaufort and Walcott Streets.  Like many fish n chip shops, Swish n Chips specialise in take away but if you want a night out there are quite a few tables available to dine in.  Not fine dining, but simple casual dining.

The menu at Swish n Chips reads like many of those other fish n chip shops starting with the obvious fish n chips, seafood baskets, and other snacks like squid rings, prawn cutlets and scallops; but adds a few other not-so-fish-n-chip-shop-like "gourmet" offerings like teriyaki fish, pizzas and chilli mussels.  To help bridge the gap of "gourmet", the fish n chips are available in a number of preparations including crumbed, peri-peri and lemon-pepper.

However if you'd rather cook your seafood yourself, Swish n Chips has a fresh seafood section where you can buy your own raw seafood.  Suffice to say, Swish n Chips has most of your seafood needs covered.

Grilled Seafood basket - $14.90

The seafood basket had a piece of fish, a prawn, 3 scallops, 3 calamari rings, 2 green lip mussels and a decent portion of chips.  Salt and vinegar was provided at the counter.

The fish and calamari rings were lightly dusted in flour and cooked so they weren't anywhere near as oily as traditional battered and fried seafood.  The fish was firm yet tender, and the calamari was tender but still had a membrane on the inner wall that made the squid hard to chew bites off without stretching the membrane a fair amount first.  Not pleasant, but still edible.

The mussels were a tad on the dry and hard side; whilst the single small prawn that was deep fried through so you could eat the shell was a bit disappointing reminding me of the cheap prawns you get at hotel buffets and seeming a bit overcooked not to mention not cleaned of its gut.

Lastly, seafood wise, the seared scallops were cooked right though to the centre but still tender to eat.  The scallops also had a flavoured film on each side of which I'm not sure whether it was an intended coating or the result of it picking up flavours from the grill-pan.  Either way, it added flavour.

The chips were quite ordinary - perhaps after being taken away and left in the bag for a while on the trip home many were soggy and hardly anything to write home about.

Squid cup - $5.50

This snack sized dish was six of your common squid rings in a cup with a bit of a twist.

The squid rings were heavily crumbed with a decent amount of salt and black pepper seasoning and deep fried.  Crunchy and generously seasoned, the tender calamari was a delicious squid ring treat.  I quite enjoyed these with the full seasoned flavour and crunch.

Tartare sauce

This small tub of tartare sauce is available to add some creamy goodness to your seafood.  It has that creamy slightly acidic taste mixed in with herbs.

We liked: The variety of options available; the fresh seafood section as an option

We didn't like: Some of the seafood used in the seafood basket wasn't so appealing; we didn't think the fish n chips was as good as some of the other gourmet places around

Other things to note:  They have a fresh seafood market section where you can buy raw seafood; dine in or take away; you can call to order in advance.

Swish n Chips

Shop 5/71 Walcott Street

Mount Lawley WA

(08) 9227 8132

Trading Hours

Monday to Friday - Lunch: 11:30am to 2:30pm; Dinner: 4:30pm to 8:20pm

Saturday and Sunday - 11:30am to 8:20pm