The best fish and chips in Brisbane

The Fish Factory over in Morningside supplies to top Brisbane restaurants including Rick Shores, Otto and the Howard Smith Wharves group, plus a slew of hotspots around town. It's said to be the oldest continually running seafood market in town, dating back to the 1970s. The kitchen up the back does a roaring trade in some of the freshest fish and chips you'll find. You can find a superb piece of grilled snapper for $18, cod hake is only $12, along with an abundance of seafood from across Australia and New Zealand. Hot chips start at $6 (a necessity) while mini dim sims, Chiko Rolls and pineapple fritters are more often than not an irresistible treat, and the Greek-style octopus and ouzo-infused prawn saganaki awaits when you’re feeling a little fancy. Our piece of salmon was cooked medium rare, pink and meltingly soft; the skin on top was crisped to perfection and the seasoning was spot on. And the chips – beer battered, crunchy and substantial. All are served in biodegradable packaging for a plastic-free meal on the go.

Address: 355 Lytton Road, Morningside
Price: Fish and chips from $18

Few restaurants in Brisbane can boast iconic status but Manly Boathouse gets there on two counts. One, it’s a stunning white dining room with views of the boats moored in the marina as well as Moreton Bay. Lunch (or dinner) here can’t help but be an occasion. Two, you don’t have to be Daddy Warbucks to have an ace seafood experience here, but can line up for fish and chips in the casual outdoor Patio section and eat your catch at the tables under big umbrellas. When we visited the outdoor part, a basic crumbed or battered cod was $11 and, let’s speak plainly, huge. Grilled snapper is a reasonable $17. Four fat calamari rings ($8) are panko crumbed and tender, nothing like the chewy, overcooked tyres you might be imagining. Prawn cutlets are $4 a pop, while fried and battered sea scallops are a fair $2.50. (Relax, old schoolers – the potato variety are also available.) Got the bug? A cold ‘n’ large Moreton Bay bug is just $13, and you can feast on fresh oysters and prawns too if that’s your desire. Our fry-up came wrapped in paper, with a cardboard annex for the snapper, so you can take the lot away and eat it on the esplanade if you prefer. 

Address: 4 Trafalgar Street, Manly
Price: Fish and chips from $17

You can't talk about fish in the Redlands without talking about Costa's Seafood Café. In both 2019 and 2021, this place on Old Cleveland Road was named Queensland's Best Fish and Chips by the Great Australian Fish & Chip Awards. The owners, Maria, Chris and Costa Tapinos, have more than 30 years of experience in delicious things from the deep, and the family atmosphere is as palpable as the quality and value of what's on offer. A standard fish dinner ranges from $21 (for cod) to $32 (for a half dozen sea scallops) and comes with salad, chips, lemon and tartare. Expect cod that arrives well seasoned and just crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, and a half serving of chips that is extremely generous. Snapper, barra, Atlantic salmon, whiting, coral trout, NZ sea perch, sweetlip, flake, New Zealand dory, prawn cutlets and calamari are also available when tempted to splash out – you can even opt for a gluten-free battering for an additional $2 (tell your intolerant friends asap). Costa’s Seafood Café does a range of seafood platters as well, both hot and cold, when caring means sharing. 

Address: 1B/108 Old Cleveland Road, Capalaba
Price: Fish and chips from $16

It's the self-proclaimed ‘best little fishmongers in Brisbane’ and for good reason. The market has won a bunch of awards for its quality produce, but if it's fish and chips of the highest quality you seek, this is also the place you'll find it. Fish Boy’s chips are crunchy, golden and well salted, while the fish is crisp on the outside and firm yet succulent on the inside.  Best of all, you won't encounter that ‘I’ve just consumed a litre of oil’ feeling after your last mouthful. Go all out with the half lobster and chips that’ll set you back $46, or keep it simple, stupid with the cod and a wad of chips for $18.50. Fish Boy can also meet you half way with a coral trout and hot chips number for $22 or a $13 burger with crumbed barramundi, lettuce, tomato and tartare. This Hawthorne fish and chippery also offers both eat-in and takeaway dining – there’s a shady outside courtyard to sit in when the weather is fine and eating alfresco is a Sunshine State non-negotiable. 

Address: 48 Orchard Street, Hawthorne
Price: Fish and chips from $18.50

This Greek-inflected, open-air, totally awesome fish and chippery has daily fresh fish available by the kilo in that sweet, Mediterranean style. Grab a table and get your Barra Boys catch in a Rod-and-Reel Combo, which includes chips, salad and tartare sauce. Have it grilled, battered or crumbed, and expect a nice plump piece of seafood, moist and satisfying. Otherwise known as the Australian seabass, barramundi ($19.50) is rightfully king of the menu here, in all its muddy deliciousness. But they always have cod, whiting, sea perch, snapper, salmon, calamari, barbecued octopus and prawns on skewers too. The crumbed snags and dim sims don’t go astray either when you just need a little something to fill the gap. The Barra Boys are licenced, so you can have a beer, wine or cider with that (make ours a Mythos Hellenic lager) and sit under an umbrella and watch the traffic go by. Sure it’s a little different to watching the boats sail by, but this Brisbane counterpart will do us just fine. A fridge full of gelato and sorbet means dessert is sorted too, and sweet tooths will be pleased to know that baklava and rizogalo (rice pudding) is there for the taking. 

Address: 1007 Stanley Street East, East Brisbane
Price: Fish and chips from $17.50

For many people, traditional fish and chips means the English variety, but you needn't limit your aspirations to dear ol' Blighty. With its proud Greek heritage, this seafood market serves up a fish and chips that could give any British chippery a run for its money. For $17.90 you can pick up fish and chips which come in an extremely generous size – rich, vinegary chips with pearly-white fish that’s extremely crisp and light. There is also a large selection of homemade salads they pile onto your plate – a far fresher alternative to stodgy mushy peas – and you'll even get a tub of tangy tartar at no extra charge. If you’re feeling adventurous however, get around the sheftalia plate of Cypriot pork sausage or halloumi gyros for good measure. We recommend you cross the road to eat by the river, or upon Fish’s Seafood Market’s little balcony which sits beneath a sprawl of figs. Up the ante with a bottle of wine, and you've got yourself the perfect Mediterranean meal that'll still satisfy your fish and chip cravings. 

Address: 110 Macquarie Street, Teneriffe
Price: Fish and chips from $17.90 

For many people, fish and chips conjure a whole lot of nostalgia, offering a way to reconnect to the past. If that sentence rings true for you, then you’ll love this charming mom'n'pop outfit in Red Hill – aptly named Red Hill Seafood. The menu is a remnant of 1970s Australiana with prices to match: potato scallops and dimmies for $2, crumbed sausages and pineapple fritters for $2.50, a small bag o’ hot chips for $5.50 (with a thick dusting of chicken salt, because of course they do), or fish starting at $9.90 for battered cod. A nice piece of grilled barramundi will set you back $12.50, but that's about as fancy as it gets. It’s entirely possible that Red Hill Seafood serves up the cheapest fish and chips combo in Brisbane too, setting you back just $13 – that’s a win in this economy. Special mention must also go to their burgers that range between $10 and $15 – the bacon-egg roll and the double-decker beef burger, respectively. It’s no-frills and it’s fabulous.

Address: 22 Enoggera Terrace, Red Hill
Price: Fish and chips from $13

This family-run restaurant has been frying for several decades, so well that they’ve expanded their trade from their West End outpost to Cleveland too. A Seafood Meal here is a grilled, beer-battered or panko-crumbed fillet with chips, salad, tartare sauce and lemon wedges. The Sea Fuel list goes from cod ($23) up to an Atlantic salmon for $34 and spans goldband snapper, sea perch and red emperor as well as prawn cutlets, barra and flake. For salad you can select from Greek, rocket, seafood or Asian. Our beer-battered flathead comes in three batons of solid batter that crumbles in the mouth without leaving behind an oily taste. Chips are blocky and golden and the largeish serve of rocket salad has shaved parmesan and pine nuts through it. Tartare sauce is housemade and spiked with plenty of lemon juice. We can see ourselves having a long lunch here with friends and making good use of the well-stocked bar. 

Address: Cleveland and West End
Price: Fish and chips from $20