Bells Fish Shop in Sunderland

Bells was dreadful and after trying Bellas it's even worse. Soggy luke warm chips, watered down tinned mushy peas and 20 quid down the drain. Wish someone would take the place over with a decent take away.

Genuinely flavourless fish and chips. Was great under Bell’s but has changed management and is now just really disappointing. Threw most of it away! Sadly won’t be going back.

First time I have been here since it reopened under new management in July. The staff are really helpful and friendly. The portions of food are very generous and the chips, cod and cod bites were cooked perfectly.

Freshly fried haddock chips and mushy peas

Chips were so cold like they had been lying there for ever and portion sizes were terrible, wnt be going back anytime Soon

Awful.Ruined a good piece of fish.Batter was uncooked oozed oil batter had no colour or crunch cold oil for cooking.Chips were a pile of mush soft pale mushy and greasy left 90%.No more for me

Really good food and really helpful and friendly - thank you for our lunch during our walk around Sunderland yesterday 😁

Great restaurant. Lovely food . Really nice staff

Really disappointed, you can tell the change in ownership. No queues yet chips were under cooked. Over £30 for my order and they forgot the batter again with no one else in the shop. Sloppy and won't go back

We always use to go to Bells never had any complaints,but omg we went last night the food was terrible waited awhile for the food it was only fishcake and chips.Got them home the fishcake was just warm and so was the chips we don't live far from the shop.I doubt l will be going back they look like the staff are struggling to keep the shop going

Sorry got fish chips and mushy peas the whole lot was tasteless mushy peas like water batter like tiny bits of sawdust chips half cooked fish tasteless sorry never go back x

Have been going for a while, it’s no longer bells. It was the worst chippy I’ve ever had.

Been going to this place for ages when it was Bells fish and chips, went last week and noticed it was now under new management as Bella's, to say I was disappointed is an understatement, staff seemed very unorganized especially the 2 men behind the fryers, placed order by phone but waited over half hour when we got there, checked order on the way home only to find fish and chips missing so went back, waited another 15 minutes, batter was over done, chips were disgusting, can't understand how you can spoil chips to that extent, will definitely NOT be going back. Must say the girl and young lad serving did try their best though.

Highly recommended,so gave it a go,sausage raw ,çhips were scrag ends,had a few mouthfuls then straight in the bin

I thought this was bells chippy but it's been taken over and is now bellas,food is disgusting,won't be going back

Dont know who’s taken over but this was by far the best fish and chips I've had from there! Nice fresh & hot . Will be back . Also appreciate when it’s busy happy to wait for fresh food .

I appreciate front of house in a busy fish shop might not be the easiest job. However on two different occasions having placed my to fry order as I walked in and had fryer acknowledge it then it was not put in to fry. so when I near front and enquire to find out it isn't in and say that it is disappointing, the last thing I expect is the 17 maybe 18 year old server to start cheeky. to say it won't matter it will be ready by time they serve me, when I am already ready to be served. to then muttering under his breath. To which I then say I have a point which I am entitled to make for him to say my point isn't valid. had to walk out . wont be back

Been coming to this particular Bells for years now, always been fantastic until today. First off the customer service was terrible, apart from a girl named Amy, then they missed a part a of our order. Then after waiting a total of 40 mins then the food was disgusting. I must say tho we noticed today that they are removing the bells logos off the inside of the shop, so looking like it's changed hands. VERY disappointed 😞 £40 down the drain

Overcooked lots of batter very little fish should be cooked to order not left in hot tray for god knows how long very poor wont be going back 20 pound down the drain

Our favourite chippy. Anytime we're in the mood for fish and chips, we always go to a Bell's. Not exactly cheap but definitely worth the price.

Delicious crispy well cooked cod chips and batter all coated with curry sauce, deeeellicious

Not entirely sure what’s happened over recent weeks but food quality has dropped as well as portion sizes. Fish bites are now pathetic staff don’t seem to be bothered either such a shame

Food fresh and hot really good size portions

Terrible over priced food, the chips are dry inside? Most likely reheated from the day before or if not then over cooked by about 45 minutes. The staff look sick as a chip, they dont even give you eye contact when you come in. The woman cooking the fish at the back looked like a hostage being held against her will, and the woman scooping the food was serving portions like the stock was coming out of her pocket. I remember this place being delightful but now it’s gross food, very miserable unpleasant staff and the prices are absolutely laughable.

Me and my partner had fish and chips from here on the 10/3/2024, with a couple of extras, in a nut shell, the food was garbage! Probably the worst fish and chips i've had to date! 1, Chips were like rubber and dry, tasted like they reheated them from the day before, so dry it was unreal! 2, fish/haddock was about 5mm thick, batter had a bitter twang to it as well as it being super oily! Not nice at all. 3, sides, the corned beef patty was ok but mainly mash rather than any corned beef in it, the battered sausage was ok but dry too, like its been there for three days(like the chips) and lastly! The most important thing from a chippy is!!!!! You guessed it!:-D The Curry sauce! It was like opaque bland tasteless overly thick sludge thats just came straight from a packet, mailed-to the chippy by hq, from the planet bland, on a mission to disappoint everyones taste buds on route! A curry pot noodle has more bang than their curry sauce! Over £32 for our fish and chips with battered sausage, corned beef patty and curry sauce, felt robbed when i sampled the food, never again from this chippy, i should have known better with it being empty at 6 pm on a night! Thats a big clue in my book! My advice, go else where...

Have gone here for years, was always good. Last few visits fish getting smaller and overcooked, chips poor, hard and occasionally reheated. Come on Bell’s get your act together in Washington.

Sterile atmosphere. Miserable staff (no happy vibes there) lukewarm food.

Great chips, everything else is lovely as well.

Fabulous crispy batter lovely fish and chips

Never had a bad one from bells.

Great fish and chips, girls who served me were miserable though

Fish is always nice but kids meals seem a bit mean when they only get two chicken nuggets 🤔

Went here for years and never had any problems with food staff friendly and the lady that owns it is lovely wouldn't go anywhere else as all the fish shops in Washington are not nice at all

went for the hype but left disappointed, Average Fish terrible chips, Terrible customer service, too expensive, got very little chips with my fish. better options around.

Really good food with cardboard packaging so food stays crispy for transport, just need to change the bags from plastic.

Half decent food, served by the most miserable staff EVER !!! Stinking attitudes. Avoid

Always a good place for food but the service wasn't the best , asked for a carrier and seemed moody giving it to me and said bye as I left and got completely blanked , very ignorant , shame like as I'm a regular there , hopefully better next time

Had fish and chips, mushy peas and gravy £10, fish was fresh cooked and not too greasy. Fish seemed small compared to other local chipshops and tasted bland, but the batter was fully cooked and crispy. Chips were tasty and good size portion. Gravy was too salty for my taste. Mushy peas were more like green water, the gravy was thicker, disappointing. Still overall better than most in Washington. **Update** Changing my rating of this place due to last visit, the fat ginger lad behind the counter gave me fish that was so old and dried out it was inedible, it clearly had been in the warmer for hours, I didnt know until i got home and couldnt be bothered to go back, i just binned it and ate the chips. I thought he was looking furtive whilst he put my order together. Wont use this chippy again.

AVOID at all Cost !! Always been hit and miss but tonight was a different level of awfulness!! The service was terrible staff really rude then opened up my chips to discover what looked like a mushy ball of potato !! chips all stuck together and not cooked!! And the prices they charge £3.50 for a sausage absolute rip off do you stomach and wallet a favour don’t go to this chippy!!

Great service food first class.

Have been a customer of Bells for many many years however past few times we’ve been in we’ve left feeling very annoyed with the total lack of customer service!! To be “greeted” as you enter with someone shout at you “WHAT DO YOU WANT” is disgusting!! Zero customer service, zero manners, incredibly rude !! 😡

asked for batterand salt and vinegar, didn't give me any of them. Rubbidh

Bit pricey now, almost £11 for fish&chips now, not sure if it's worth it anymore we need energy prices to come down but will cooked food prices?

The food itself is slightly above average for a local chippy but the prices are absolutely extortionate. I paid £11.20 for two small chip buttys with a splash of gravy ! Probably the most expensive chippy I’ve been too, won’t be going back .

Bells is a beautiful fish shop lovely food and genuinely nice staff over priced a little i think but so is everything these days

Scraggy undercooked handful of chips £2:80 small portion of watered down curry sauce £1:80. One fryer cooking food one assistant serving with 25+ people waiting. Service was slow with a miserable attitude “take it or leave it” felt robbed £4:60 for a small portion of junk food. Once bitten twice shy.

Quality goes down as prices go up, like most places tbf. Staff look like they're offended to have to serve you.

Extremely poor. Chips cold , fish batter thick and hard. fish itself had virtually no taste, put more than half of them in the bin. Rang the shop and explained how disappointed we were and received a very luke warm apology. We paid £11.60 for fish, chips and peas and certainly would not return to buy anymore. I can't image that the owners want to lose customers in this way

Best Chippy in the North East!!

Lovely food, friendly and helpful staff.

We have heard so much about this fish & chip shop we had to give it a try... £33 .35 I spent there on fish and chips I even traveled 9 miles to get there.... Fantastic shop the fish was NO different than most fish and chip shops BUT the chips in all our 3 yes 3 fish & chips ...The chip were are what we call scraggy ends honestly in 3 fish lots there might have been half a bag of what we call proper cut chips. I could have bought this type of fish & chip dinner any where. 100% definitely will not go there and pay good money for less than poor chips not that these prices.

Too expensive now 😪 small portions for price paid

Tbh.. Thank you soo much for an fantastic experience here!! The fish was absolutely amazing!! Sooo Crispy outside&juicy inside! Chips also nice. Mushy peas. The best taste ever!! Sometimes taste like a water. Very nice receipt!! In general it was the best fish&chips in my life!! Also polite chaps. I will definitely back here one day. Thank you again. 6/5 stars!! VANDriver.

very disappointing … best part of £30 for 3 fish lots and 2 of the 3 haddock had multiple bones & the chips were so cold after a 5m journey home they needed microwaving to be palatable. Telephoned to pass on feedback personally & got ‘sorry i’m new, not sure what went wrong, I’ll pass on your feedback’.

Fish batter was crispy but fish was over cooked and dry. Chips were cold. Don’t think we will be returning. Have had better in the past from here

Quality of food seems to vary from excellent to mediocre. Service is usually very slow and you can wait quite a long time sometimes.

Nice looking clean shop. Super quick service, in and out in 3 minutes. On the pricey side (£9.50 for cod and chips) but really nice. Will be our "new" fish and chip shop if the quality continues. Plenty of car parking spots right by the shop.

Other bells really efficient but this one us very slow. In Durham they see a queue and ask if anyone wants anything making so they don't waste time in the queue when their food could be cooking.. but this one just sees one person at a time and it's a very very very slow process.

Nice cheese patties, chips are ok. 4 stars as they often get your order wrong.

Best fish and chips I have ever tasted

It's really nice but a bit pricey but you get what you pay for

Our fish was large and very tasty and the batter was gooey on the inside slight crisp on the outside (to die for). The curry sauce and gravy were quite thickish and tasty. They had a few fish already cooked so you don't wait long.

The batter is thicker than the fish & the woman behind the fryer is thicker than them both. What a miserable woman with no customer skills.

Everything we go here the meals are beautiful.

Nice fish and chips but not impressed with the "fish cakes" seemed to be just potato.

Lovely service and food. Warned that they where about to shut and told what was available before going inside

went to bells chip shop teal farm at 9.45pm dont close till ten was told there was no chips left . is this how to run a chip shop dont think so travaled to them as they are the best well i use to think so. funny as the lady before us i think was waiting for chips .

Great staff. Pretty good food. I'll be back.

Cooked fresh and tasted fabulous.

Family favourite, we often eat at Bells Durham, Framwellgate and Washington sites. Always consistently good.

Excellent chips,friendly service spotlessly clean

Fish and chip buttys are unreal. Service quick.

Very nice for not bring at the coast

Quality over quantity at Bells! There's enough for a good meal and the quality is excellent but not a massive pile of soggy chips like some places offer.

you get what you pay for, easy the best fish and chips I have eaten to date, I think some people are out of touch with the price of quality. If you want greasy low quality, and plenty of it, go elsewhere... if you want light crisp batter, golden perfect chips, and a decent portion, then give Bells a try... if you find it meh, then tell me where you go.. as I have eaten some pretty horrific fish+chips from around the doors. Bells #1 in my book, period!

Nice fish and chips and a more than decent portion. Maybe the prices are a tad on the high side.

Disgusting, more batter than fish and overcooked making fish hard. (Had more fish in a fish finger). Also bought a carton of curry and in 30 years of buying chip shop curry I’ve never had it served in a bag as the top wasn’t put on properly. The person who served me was useless as I don’t think he can understand what you’re saying. Spending £16 plus for 2 meals and to end up with what we had is daylight robbery and we won’t be using again.

Not enough chips and the batter on the fish was stodgy

Had cod and chips last week, cooked to perfection, a ggod size portion.. Its now my local chippy

Absolutely lovely fish shop, we were recommended and must say beautiful.

Called in last night 4th November as I heard good reports about their fish and chips. I ordered fish chips and mushy peas the chips and peas were very nice but the fish was so disappointing as it was so dry and some of the batter was inedible as it was so hard. I'm very disappointed as the reports were so good. I will try again as I hope this was a one off.

Could be bigger servings but decent enough

Absolutely fantastic. We drove from Durham for this.

I've been everywhere for chips and curry but I wouldn't go here again, the portion size was for a child tasty but very limited amount of food for your money

They may say it's fish, but don't believe them. RIP Rufus, 2019 - 2021

Always lovely fish and chips. Nice staff.

Got to be the worst chippy in Washington. Really poor service, 40 min wait in queue then get home to find part of order is missing. Admittedly it was nice hence the 2 star...

The fish shop is so clean and still got there screens up which i was really impressed with. The food was cooked from fresh and was hot and delicious and the price was really reasonable. The serve was excellent. Will defo use again

£6.60 for sausage and the smallest portion of chips I have ever seen, plus 2 cans of pop! - my last visit.

Superb best fish and chips around.

Best fish and chips in Washington 👍

Best chippy I've found,worth the 5-10 min drive from home for a decent chip shop

First time here following recommendation and pleasantly impressed. Fish not greasy and decent size. Chip portion smaller than we used to but not a problem, just enough. We will be returning here despite having to get there by car because of where we live. Much better than our local greasy shack.

Very nice fish and chips and the portion Sizes are big

Called for our tea recommended by our neighbours 2 fish 1bag chips lots batter. Delicious food served 2of us nicely will definitely call again soon. Friendly staff a good all rounder well done bells teal farm your the best around.!

27/5/2021 Currently looking online at reviews of decent fishy shops in Washington. Bells is only open until 8pm on a Friday is no good to us. I am at work until 8pm as a p/t office cleaner. So will move on to look at more.

Deffo one of the best in the north east

Great food every time. Great staff.

Big portions quick service in the current situation professional

Food cold and not fresh. Food had been standing a while. Expensive.