Platten’s in Wells-Next-the-Sea sits right next to the Quayside overlooking the salt marshes and creeks. They have been here since 1966 and are part of the furniture so to speak of the town.

A family run fish and chips shop over four generations they are one of the chippies that people head to and talk about when visiting the area.

In the recent past we have never been able to eat here, post lockdown there was no dining in for a while and no takeout so we always grabbed our chip supper from the excellent French’s next door (read more here).

This week though we were staying in town and we happy to find that we could dine in so we made a plan to grab our early Fish and Chip tea here and finally sample their offerings

MENU AT PLATTENS

The menu had everything that we needed, Cod, Haddock, Mushy Peas and Chips. Other options were Cod Bites, Scampi and Plaice (which did tempt me) and of course a selection of classic chip shop pies and battered sausage for the kids (big and little)

The only real choice was to be how big a meal we wanted, you could either have a STANDARD size meal for £13.20 or a LIGHT BITE for just £8.60. After deliberation we had a Standard Haddock & Chip, and a Standard Cod & Chips, negotiating down the chip portions on one and adding a portion of mushy peas to share. Basically we ordered exactly the same thing that we always seem to

COD, CHIPS & MUSHY PEAS

I was having the cod and chips, no small chips for me and there were so many loaded onto the plate I wondered if I should have ordered a smaller portion 🤣🤣 So vast was the ocean of chips that my piece of Fish was dwarved and looked a little small in comparison.

I added a big dollop of the shared mushy peas onto one side and then I was staring down a mammoth plateful. Luckily I had eaten lightly that day and we had been on a big walk so I reckoned I could manage to scoff the lot without being overfaced

I enjoyed my fish, nice crunchy batter and soft juicy clean tasting flesh. I thought that the fish was a bit small but maybe that is just a sign of the times cost wise and partly as suggested an illusion created by the chip mountain

I liked the mushy peas, nice and green and saucy which was needed to sort out the chips!

HADDOCK & CHIPS

The Haddock was a decent looking piece of fish, equally well cooked and looked big on a plate with a smaller portion of chips 🤣

The Fish was again moist and juicy, it flaked well as you ate and tasted fresh inside a decent crunchy batter

Chips were variable some really good, some a bit small and crunchy like scraps and bits if you remember getting those at the chippy but dining in I prefer them all to be nice and plump

All in all Neither of us cared too much for the chips, they were a bit too fried and hard for me. I am a bit of a weirdo chip wise and quite like them when a little soggier.

Overall I felt that it was quite expensive and I said we were a bit disapointed in the quality of the chips.

Having said that I was glad that finally we got to try the place and maybe we caught them on a bad day so I wouldn’t rule them out for another visit.

Having said that I really like French’s next door so it would be a hard sell to pick them again

Located at 12A The Quay, Wells-next-the-sea NR23 1AH

Check Platten’s out on their website, Facebook Page, and Instagram profile,