Penrose Fish & Chips
So what if it's deep-fried and bad for you? It's hard to care when you're diving into a big plate o' fish and chips at Penrose's (Mt. Pleasant, south of Eglinton), one of the oldest fish & chip shops in Toronto.
Jeff and I are not the only ones in search of artery-clogging goodness; inevitably there's a line-up whenever we visit. If we want our fish & chips to go, they'll sprinkle it with malt vinegar and salt then wrap it up in newspaper, just like the old British custom.
Or you can eat inside. I love the Stuff-On-The-Walls diner style interior with old menus, signs, photographs from old Toronto, and (of course) a fish:
You can get halibut & chips for $8.80 or haddock & chips for $7.00. Halibut only: $5.80, haddock only: $5.00, chips: $3.00. A bowl of Penrose's chunky homemade Maritime chowder is $4.50. I'm not a big coleslaw fan but I order it anyway ($1.00) just to see a bit of green on the table.
I usually order the halibut. The combination of the crunchy golden coating and moist halibut meat inside is irresistable. The servings are smaller than the ones at Chippy's but that's better for me, right?
In addition to a wide range of regular soft drinks, Penrose also carries some other interesting beverages including Boylans "Old-Fashioned Pops" for $1.75 each: orange cream, black cherry, birch beer, old-fashioned orange and cream soda.
If you've still got room afterward, you can order a slice of pie for $2.25 ($3.25 a la mode); they have apple, strawberry/rhubarb, blueberry, pecan and sometimes pumpkin, depending on the season. On Fridays, you can get lemon meringue pie for $3.50, made by 86-year-old matriarch Marion Johnston; she's usually behind the counter as well. Apparently she's been making the pie every weekend for nearly 60 years (!). How cool is that?
A side note for those Barbara Streisand fans out there: Penrose is one of the diva's favourite Toronto take-out places.
Mmm, just writing this post makes me want more fish & chips. Maybe it's time someone did a taste comparison of Penrose's fish & chips to the ones at Chippy's or Harbord Fish & Chips.
In the name of culinary science, of course.
Anyway, make sure you get to Penrose early for dinner; it closes at 7 pm (6:30 on Saturdays).
Frying hours: Tue-Fri 11a-7p, Sat 11-6:30p, closed Sun and Mon.
Discussion
17 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
CTV has a video about the place here:
http://toronto.ctv.ca/tl/static/mytoronto.html
Thanks, Christine!
To others looking for the video: the title of the video is "Fish & Chips" (searching for the text "Penrose" won't help).
Been going to Penrose for years, a little less often of late, and when I read your review I thought you were nucking futs, The Penrose serves only Halibut, went today for lunch and sure enough they've added Haddock to the menu.
After seeing Ken Shaw advertise this This fish and chips place on a comercial for my Toronto on CTV News. There was no name mentioned but i was determined to find it being a fish and chips lover to see if they was as good as they claimed.
And you know what, They were better in fact they were the best damm fish and chips i ever tasted and i will tell every one i know about them.
Thanks to Ken Shaw and Christine Bentley of CTV News for bringing Penrose Fish and Chips our lives
My school's just down the street from Penrose. My friends and I try to "penroe" it a couple times a month
we love it there
I will go try this place, but an establishment to my family for Fish and Chips has been Duckworths on Kingston Road. There is another on the Danforth but I'm not sure if its the same family. Alternatively, if your north, they recently opened in Orilla.
OMG!!! I cannot believe what a dump it is. As a Brit, I was on holiday in Toronto and went in to see what all the fuss was about. The fish was burnt, the chips were soggy, and the place was nearly empty. I asked a simple question to the prissy bitch guy behind the counter and he gave me sassy attitude. Honestly, the portion was small, the meal was mediocre at best and the attitude stank. Face it: it closes at 6.30pm on a Saturday; that is, a place to buy your dinner closes at dinner time. Smug? Complacent? I don't know. All I know is that a place like that would NEVER survive in the UK. I hope the place closes down soon. Disgruntled Scotsman.
John, you are so right! I was just in there last night and the food is terrible. I think the restaurant would be nice if they fired the staff and got someone who could cook. Shame we have to go all the way down to Queen Street East to get decent fish and chips.
"You have to try the halibut and chips at Penrose on Mt. Pleasant", "Penrose has the best fish and chips", "celebrities would have fish and chip from Penrose flown in to where ever they are, because it's so good!" etc... I've been hearing how wonderful the fish and chips are at Penrose for the longest time from my boyfriend, so we were in the mood for some fish and chip for lunch today, and we drove there and found the place very easily. We walked in, before I could even look at the chalkboard menu hung high up behind the counter, we were "greeted" by NOT a "hello" or "how are you" but this aggresive "to go or for here!" All that was going through my mind was, I feel like we on an episode of Seinfeld, and instead of the soup nazi, we are dealing with the fish and chips nazi!!! lol. Under any other circumstances, we would have turned around and walked right out... but "ok" I thought to myself, I really like to see what these fish and chips are all about... so I gazed over to the menu and ordered 2 halibut and chips to go. I went back out to the car and had my boyfriend wait for the orders. He came out shortly with 2 large paper wrapped orders of fish and chips, my mouth started to water right away! "I can"t wait!" we said to each other, we get home 10 minutes later, dropped everything and opened up the paper wraps. In front of us, are 1 tiny piece of halibut each in this dark batter, it looked like the oil these fish were cooked in had to be 3 days old, and the chips looked 3 days old too!!! " what a rip off!" we said to each other. $21 for this? Still with high hopes for it to taste good, I dug my fork in to the Halibut, it was soggy, halibut is suppose to be a tender fish, but this was NOT! It was the most disappointing experience for the both of us! Needless to say, we will never go back to Penrose, and will tell our friends and family how awful everything was about Penrose Fish and Chips, everything from the rude service to gross food.
Penrose must have gone down the tubes judging by these past posts! It has always been tasty, fresh and friendly when I have been there. Too bad, I know a few people who would be disappointed to hear such news.
If you're looking for great fish & chips in the Leaside area check out Olde York Fish & Chips on Laird just south of Eglinton. Great taste, nice people & quick take-out if you don't want to eat in their cozy restaurant.
Jane, I have no idea what you are talking about. Just because of your comments my co-worker and I were thinking twice about checking out this establishment. We decided to do it anyway and base our opinion on our own experience. I am certainly glad we did because not only were we greeted by the greatest hello's and smiles it was one of the best tasting fish & chips we have tasted and believe me being from Newfoundland I've have the freshiest of fish. As a matter of fact we are heading there again tonight.
I think the reviewers need to start including the weight of the fish in their reviews. That would scare a few people away from places like Penrose. Just an idea - what do you think?
I just visited today and had a great experience. Check out my review at www.longestlunchbreak.com
I have been going to Penrose for over 30 years and have always enjoyed the best of fish and chips. The lady behind the counter, Marion, is the owner and they have been there since the 50's. They must be doing something right if they are still in business when so many other businesses on Mt. Pleasant have packed it in. I do agree, however, that the guys who do the frying can be rude and brusque. However, they won't be fired, nor should they be, because they are the owners son. The daughter in law works there too. I guess they could use a quick course in manners, but I wouldn't want to spend most of my day in front of frying oil with no air conditioner (that might be something they could spend some of their profits on, but I doubt if after all this time that they will). Yes, the portions are way too small, I always order two pieces of fish (one extra piece) and it does cost a lot - but it is worth it and I only go there for a special treat. Halibut is very expensive to buy and their numbers are apparently depleting, so they have to make a profit. Oh, well. Marion is always so cheerful and friendly that it makes up for the two miserable boys.
@ John, I suppose if restaurants that survive in the UK are your benchmark for quality than Penrose must have offended you, considering it's better than any of the flavourless, over-mayonaised dreck I had when I was over there!
2 of the worst fish and chips I've had in my life;The Sea Shanty in London, England. Skin on and bones in under the batter! Other places were like that too in England. Better fish and chips in Scotland and Ireland. And Penrose on Mount Pleasant in Toronto. Small fish,2 ounces raw, and burnt tasting fries. Look at their fryers when they are cooking, it looks foamy. Old Grease. I keep reading good reviews of this place, and tried it at least 10 times. Never again. Go to Olde York on Laird.