Just before Christmas, I headed for lunch with two of my friends and one of whom is my former..um…boss lady, Ellie Hernaman. She’s only 26 years old and already a founder of a successful PR agency – Truffle PR. If you want to know more about her or the agency, tweet them! @TrufflePR. It wasn’t my first visit to the fish and chippie located on Poland Street, just on the outskirts of London’s Soho district (Americanizing this shiznit). Let me tell you a secret, I’ve never actually ate a plate of fish & chips from a real chippie till last year. It took me 22 years and several substandard Bird’s Eye oven meals to realise the truth and head out to find a decent chippie.
The Interior & Atmosphere
To be honest, I don’t really wouldn’t know where to go to find a decent fish & chips in East London. I’m hardly ever here and spend most of my time in Central London due to work and other half living around there. So to find one so close to work was a blessing – The Golden Union. Don’t expect anything fancy here, no glorified chippy – it’s what you’d expect from the British equivalent of an American diner. Solid wooden tables and chairs equally spaced out in rows like in Primary School; each of which has easy-wipe table tops with a classic tomato shaped ketchup holder. To me it felt like a traditional English chippy with the wooden and tiled walls, all completely spotless. Almost felt like I walked onto the set of Eastenders with a very nostalgic 50s vibe to it. I was half-expecting the Beale’s to come out and serve me.
In terms of busy-ness, as we went around lunchtime on a Thursday, it was PACKED. Luckily Ellie had reserved a table for us, hashtag winning. It is a little noisy but that’s expected at any Central London foodspot during busy peak hours. All the local offices and retail workers come swarming in! Naturally when the food arrives, people stop talking and dig in. Trust me, if a plate of mouthwatering food is placed in front of me the last thing on my mind would be conversation. Even if I was on a date with Rachel Bilson.
The Food
The Golden Union’s speciality is…surprise surprise, fish and chips. Everything on the menu comes with chips, the fish combo (cod/haddock) costs around £8-9. Which isn’t too bad considering Central London prices. I opted for the healthy option of battered sausage with chips. For those people who don’t actually know what a battered sausage is, look in the slider above – it’s basically a sausage dipped into batter, all made in the Union.
Just look at the image above, the portion is plentiful. Ergh, not sure how to phrase this without it sounding wrong – the sausage was hanging off the edge of the plate. It’s not exactly the healthiest meal in the world nevertheless still so delicious. The batter was just perfect; it has that “je ne sais quoi” to it. You have to taste it for yourselves. I think it’s fair to say we were all left in a food coma by the end of the meal, just so filling.
Final Thoughts
You won’t come here on the regular but if you want to be a naughty and treat yourself then by all means. Forget that diet and indulge in some fine English fish & chips at a good price. I haven’t actually written a bit about service as it was just right, no complaints from me. Nuff said. Writing this review at 1am wasn’t a good idea, I’m starving now. Hope you’ve enjoyed, Golden Union details below – go visit!
38 Poland Street, London, Greater London W1F 7LYM
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