Old Keswickian in Allerdale

Food delicious. Took ages to prepare some fish and chips, and then forgot a portion.

We sat in the restaurant downstairs Great fish and chips, proper mushy peas and great service

Very rude staff. Had fish and chips to go, came in a small tray not a box. Lost half of my fish to the floor before I left.

I never considered myself a religious man. I had nothing against faith, but it always seemed like something for other people—the kind who saw the face of the Virgin Mary in their toast or claimed their dog could sense spirits. Me? I believed in what I could see, what I could touch. And then I saw Christ in the toilet of *Old Keswickian Fish & Chips Restaurant*. It was a drizzly evening in Keswick, the kind where the rain isn’t heavy but persistent, clinging to your skin and soaking into your bones. I’d been walking for hours, doing nothing in particular, just letting the streets and my thoughts carry me. Eventually, hunger set in, and I found myself at Old Keswickian, ordering a large cod and chips. I’d barely made it through half before my stomach lurched—too much grease too quickly. I set my food down and made my way to the bogs at the back, pushing open the door to that familiar chippy toilet scene: cracked tiles, a single flickering light, the distant hum of a hand dryer someone had given up on fixing. And then, as I went to flush, I saw Him. Just above the waterline, on the porcelain curve of the bowl, was a face. A smudge, maybe just a trick of grime and shadow, but unmistakable. Long, solemn features. A beard curling at the edges. Eyes that looked right through me, filled with something deeper than just a random stain could hold. I blinked. Looked away. Looked back. Still there. My breath hitched, my heart hammering in my chest. There was no reason to feel afraid, but I did—because for the first time in my life, I felt something beyond myself, beyond the everyday dullness of things. A warmth spread through me, like a candle flickering to life in my chest. I stood there for I don’t know how long, staring, hands trembling, my entire world tilting on its axis. Someone banged on the door and shouted for me to hurry up, but I barely heard them. I walked out of that toilet different. My chips had gone cold, but it didn’t matter. Because I believed.

Amazing fish and chips, the most delicious meal I’ve had in a long time

Very good fish and chips, freshly cooked. We sat upstairs with a window view of Keswick. Very good service 😁

We visited today Food delicious cooked perfectly Batter on fish light and crispy Peas and tasty curry just yummy Clean loos and lovely staff Perfect place Bit of a struggle getting upstairs but well worth the prize

Lovely friendly and speedy service. Fish and chips were absolutely lovely!!

Light but crispy batter , fresh fish , good selection of kids meals including excellent scampi and chips. Fair price for dine in. Takeaway is v. popular and slightly cheaper

Great chip shop. One of my favourites. Big portions, tasty fresh food cooked while you wait.

Unfortunately, after getting a takeaway from here, me and my partner turned into a human Catheriene wheel…..

Great food and excellent service, really nice end to the day

Great chippy. Best in Keswick. Nice staff and good service too 🙂

As a local West cumbria family, this place is definitely pricey and aimed at tourists,

Best chip shop in Keswick by a mile

We sat in the restaurant had fish and chips they were fantastic it's licensed so you can have a beer or wine with your food.

Visited on the 28th of December with family amazing

Nice chip shop with an adjacent cafe/indoor seating area. Pleasant and professional staff and good portions on the food size.

Good food but a long queue. Understandably long though - it was a busy day. Chips were good and food was hot. Okay portions - not too small but also not hugely generous. in general, very nice.

AVOID, The smallest portion of chips you will ever get in your whole life!!

Great fish and chips - everything home made!

Hard to judge atmosphere as we deliberately visited when it wasn't busy - only one other couple in the restaurant. However I would imagine it would rate highly. But this the only place to visit in Keswick if you appreciate quality fish and chips

Best chippy in the region! Absolutely yummy!!!

This was the best fish and chips we had on our trip to England. The batter was rich and crispy and fish was perfect.

Food is really nice portions were on the small side

Delicious!! A real gem, perfectly cooked fish and chips. Friendly staff . Tip top mushy peas. Well done!

Fish and chips best I can remember, very generous portion too. Lightning fast, friendly service. Reasonably priced for such a popular tourist town. Will definitely return when we come back to Keswick. Many thanks!!

Clean and friendly. Very good food.

Nice enough food but a bit pricey, it is in a prime place in Keswick so will be more expensive than other chippys but nearly £3 for a can of diet coke is just too much IMHO

Very positive experience - friendly staff.

Wow, definitely a fantastic place to get fish and chips in Keswick. We booked a table and when we arrived they didn't have spa e in the restaurant for us but let us eat downstairs in the cafe area instead where it was much quieter and we had the place to ourselves. The girls service in the cafe was brilliant. They were attentive and very friendly. The food... OMG! It was incredible! So fresh, so hot, so delicious. Next time I'm in Keswick I'll definitely be getting fish and chips there again!

Best fish and chips in Keswick and best vegetable soup

Really great haddock & Chips with my mum and first time I've sat inside the restaurant 👍😁

Ordered and waited for lightly battered fish and chips. 25 minute wait and when the food arrived it was greasy and inedible. The fish had so much batter on and inside the fish was very dry. Wouldn't return.

Pretty naff. Heaps of drying out chips (close to closing time), miniscule haddock that tasted of nothing. My wife had cod which was precisely the same. Watered down vinegar and barely any salt, despite asking for a heavy sprinkle. Staff were borderline rude (again) and this isn't the first time. Previous bad review left, but chanced our arm a second time. There will not be a third. Most went in the bin and a waste of £20. Awful. Look elsewhere.

I ate in the upstairs restaurant and found the fish and chips to be excellent. The fish tasted fresh and the batter was very crispy. The chips were cooked perfectly, not under done like you see often nowadays. Service was friendly and efficient.

Good food, friendly staff very welcoming

Disappointed. .Hardly any fish inside masses of batter, what bit was in there was dried up & just warm, obviously not been freshly cooked..Always look forward to fish & Chips here when visiting Keswick. This was not great. Will try somewhere different next visit.

I would highly recommend the 'Old Keswickian', the food here was amazing, it was fresh and the atmosphere in the chippy gave it a warm welcome, as well as the staff, who where amazing and helpful. The only down side was the price, as we had ×3 meals and ×2 puddings which came round to about £50, which was a alot, but worth it.

Excellent fish and chips. The service was friendly and fast. If you’re in Keswick and fancy a nice fish and chip restaurant/ takeout this is highly recommended.

I was visiting Keswick and had seen lots of people walking around with fish and chips. The cravings got to me so when I walked past the old Keswickian which had a big queue of people eagerly waiting for food, I knew that I had to try some. I order cod with chips, mushy peas and curry sauce. Fish had a nice crispy batter and the chips were crispy. The curry sauce delicious but I have to say the mushy peas weren’t the best I have had. Overall, if you are in Keswick and you are craving fish and chips, I recommend coming here for some tasty food but I would say the place is slightly overrated and I wouldn’t say it is the “best fish and chips shop in Cumbria” like it claims to be.

The food at the Old Keswickian is a great price, tastes excellent, the quantity of it is amazing and the building itself is lovely. We did want to use the restaurant however the menu isn't great for those with allergies like one of our party and left after some rude and accusatory remarks from one of the staff that we were only there to use the toilet (which are for patrons only). If you can't eat anything off the menu then you aren't going to stay when other places in Keswick offer options. I will add this was only one member of staff, the others were lovely but it only takes one to ruin an experience. Perhaps they were having a bad day? I don't know but it didn't exactly make us feel welcome in the restaurant, the takeaway however was great and the cones of chips are generous.

Great fish and chips. Quite a queue to wait to get them. We took them away and sat outside on the benches to eat them, though there is a restaurant inside too.

Brilliant fish and chips. We were 14 people kids and adults on a rainy bank holiday Sunday with every pub and restaurant in Keswick too full for us to get a table. What absolute lifesavers that they had room upstairs for us. Fantastic service and excellent food. Definitely come again thanks

Unfortunately another business which relies on its central location in a largely tourist town to continue to claim it offers “award winning” fish and chips. Shame. So sad to see bored wait staff resting their head in their hands on a Bank Holiday Sunday, who can’t be bothered to cook a battered sausage at 5 pm. A similar theme to the multiple other reviews this August. Awful customer service today and barely adequate food. Advice to avoid and walk down the high street to Kingfisher.

Came to this chippy a week ago, found the girl behind the takeaway counter to have an attitude from the get go. I understand that working with people can be stressful, especially during busy periods, however I am a polite customer and don't expect rudeness, with customers being addressed as "you" when giving out orders. When my order was ready, the girl literally threw my meal down onto the counter causing the battered sausage to roll onto the counter and had to be caught by myself before it fell on the floor. Both servers behind the counter saw what happened and just blankly looked at me without even apologising!? The battered sausage itself was extremely dry and cardboard like as if it had been sat out for hours. My boyfriend's fish and chips were nice however. It's just a shame about the poor service we received and that other negative reviews about service seems to have not been taken seriously and have been responded to with sarcastic comments

Value for money in this place is absolutely insane! We got two portions of fish and one portions of chips and it was more than enough. Fresh, tasty, cheap and very local. Probably top 3 fish and chips I have ever had! 10 out of 10.

Tried to get a table in the restaurant for a family of 2 adults and 4 children on a Sunday evening only to get told they have no space even though we could clearly see empty tables.

Great food but £3.20 for a single can of pop was outrageous.

Very traditional chippie. Super light battery on snow white fish. Light chips. Good portions.

The Keswickian has always been my benchmark for top chip shops. The food is always well prepared and the restaurant is bustling and welcoming. I’ve always popped in on my trips to the Lakes and I will continue for years to come. Thank you for the great service, food and the incredible sticky toffee pudding - arguably the best one I’ve tasted across the country.

The cod was simply the best I've ever had. Delicious.

The portions are large, but there is not enough fish in the fish ((one breading

Highly recommend a visit. Fantastic freshly cooked fish and chip supper, big portion sizes and cooked to perfection. Good latte's. Great price, friendly service and super clean cafe and toilet facilities. And quicker service than queuing for take away. Win win!

Massive queue for the downstairs take away which should give an indication of how popular the place is. We went to the restaurant upstairs. The food was great, fast service. Would highly recommend.

Excellent fish and chips. Good service.

We are a family of 5 with 3 young children eating in. We arrived at dinner time, the kids were super excited to have a chippy on a Friday evening. We sat down on a large table and were presented with the menus by one lady and a made to feel welcome. The second (much larger lady), then asked us to leave because we had a pram, we asked kindly if there was any alternative spaces, the lady rudley and flatly said no, i am sorry . I wonder if they would have treated someone in a wheel chair with the same level of exclusion? The other guests looked horrified by our treatment.

Sad to see the Old Keswickian is now rubbish. I could see that they need a lot of staff, but the dilatory wench serving had all the character of the wet dishcloth she was sullenly wiping surfaces with. We queued for 15 minutes, when all we wanted was chips. Any decent fish & chip shop shouts out to see of there's anyone with an order of no fish like us. Also regular chips is £3.75! I don't know about their ground rent & business rates, but that is a rip off in anyone's book! Will never darken their doorstep again after eating from there for 35 yrs

Felt as if the food was thrown onto the plate. Disappointed with the fish cut very very thinly. Staff were lovely

Good food for cheap price. But experience was poor. The service was awful. The lady at the front was very condescending and belittling towards customers. I think that the shop would be quite nice if it weren’t for her. Her attitude needs to change because she ruined my day. Manners cost nothing. She was a horrible ugly person which was very rude and my keswickian experience was ruined due to the appalling service at this horrible place. Not 10/10. Anyone contemplating queueing up to eat here should reconsider as it is horrid. Food wasn’t even that good only cheap.

Food ok for the price but found the person who served me quite rude and condescending.

Monday 15/7/24 WE were at the Keswick Convention & went in this well known chippie that you can't miss at the top of the town at 4.45 pm for our 🐠 & 🍟 Seating downstairs was closed off 🔒 & I had to struggle up the narrow stairs & we sat at the table for 2 at the window 🪟 The smallish thin fish🐠~ ~ came with crispy batter on it & it tasted ok BUT I had to leave a load of small chips that were far too crisp. Some folks might like that, but for me I wish they had binned them. I had a good large pot of T for 2 & I folded up a napkin to sit the tea pot on it, to stop the heat disapating from it. I was told by a friend that they don't accept LEGAL Scottish notes only England ones, but fortunately I had English ones that u used to pay for the meals. So it might be worth bearing that in mind. It only cost for the two of us £23 & that's for a pensioners special AND it also included a large pot of T & that's really cheap. So in you go & let them know - if you don't want crispy hard chips 🍿

Food excellent, service very good and speedy, staff friendly, would recommend.

This is one of the best fish and chip shops iv ever been in. The staff are very friendly and professional. The fish and chips are some of the best I ever had. You always know when a shop is good when they are queuing outside as they were at this one. Full stars from me .

Very friendly staff, great service and excellent fish and chips. Really hit the spot after a 50km run in the lakes

Oh man, that was very tasty 🤤 People lined up in front of the restaurant to eat. They have probably the best fish and chips. So a must have if you are in Keswick

Always love to come to the Keswickian. We've been coming for at least 15 years when we visit Keswick and want tea. We used to bring our children with us when they were little .Definitely recommend it, especially the fish and chips, though everything is good 👍

Stopped for three portions of chips and gravy to take away one evening this week. Terrible dry crisp chips. Gravy was lumpy slurry and the service was terrible. Handed a lot of gravy. Waited for chips which turned up at intervals.

First night in Keswick we popped in here for chips as it was the best reviewed chippy in the lakes on TripAdvisor according to the signs. There are three chippies in Keswick which we tried in our weeks stay, and this is firmly in third place. Chips were far too crispy and dry. The gravy was a slurry of lumps. Service was a bit mental too. After ordering I was given my gravy in a pot while we waited for three portions of chips. Which turned up with a big wait between portion one and two and the third portion randomly plonked on the far end of the counter from the other portions...

Very nice cod and chips, pleasant staff, prompt service.

Really nice fish and chips. Great service Possibly the best fish and chip restaurant on Cumbria (it says) and who am I to disagree?

Attitude was horrendous from one member of staff, fare enough close to closing time and no doubt a tough busy day. Everyone in queue was talking about it...

The rudest girl works here with the worst attitude I’ve ever heard. It was almost closing time as she hollered everyone in to get in and close the door. My partner got told off for standing on the carpet so she could close the door. Everyone in there was horrified of her attitude. Good job the food was nice even though very little to choose from.

very good staff and amazing fish n chips best chippys are allways in a hard place to get to ie centre of town food was so nice I got 6 fish 5 chips brilliant 👏

Poor customer service in restaurant, staff rude, avoid! Not welcoming to new customers. Wont let you use toilet even when a customer. Good average

Peas should be included in price, a little on the expensive side, put beautiful 💖💖💖🤩🤩🤩

Take away fish n chips absolutely bloody excellent!!! Best we've ever had!! Thank you. Brilliant! 🙃 ❤️

The best fish and chips we've ever eaten. The curry sauce is to die for, I could just drink that straight. Amazing value for money, the portion sizes are huge. Take away is just as good quality and quantity as sitting in the upstairs restaurant and eating in. Honestly I could not recommend this place enough. The two of us could have shared one portion, but it was too delicious to share!!

Had fish and chips to take out. The fish was cooked fresh. The chips were good but not overly hot. The fish was good quality, and the batter had a crisp to it and was not greasy, but not as good as we've had in other places. So it was value for money and tasty, but overall, it was not stand out and the batter was average.

Great fish and chips last visited 47 years ago. Must return sooner

I recently visited this chippy with high hopes, but it turned out to be a complete disaster. The place has two floors - a downstairs and an upstairs restaurant. My friends and I went upstairs to the restaurant, where a kind young lady took our order and accommodated our request to have our food packed for takeaway as we were in a hurry to catch a bus. But things went south when an older lady rudely confronted us, shouting about having takeaway in the restaurant, despite us paying restaurant prices. When I calmly tried to explain, she shockingly made a racist remark: “I bet your two white friends ate at the restaurant and did not order a takeaway.” This was not only deeply insulting to my race and religion but also an attack on my dignity and financial status. This kind of appalling behavior is unacceptable, and I left feeling humiliated and disrespected. Avoid this place if you value respectful and decent service. This experience was not only disappointing but also deeply offensive.

Delicious fish n chips! Was very busy when we went, but the service was brilliant.

Good meal at a reasonable price

Crispy chips with fluffy insides. Battered fish that isn't greasy. High standard if unspectacular. Recommended.

Not the best of chippy got Cumberland sausage and chips at £7.05 over priced and sausage undercooked it was red in middle, chips where greasy. I would NOT recommend this place to anyone that wants food poisoning that I got after eat some of it. 🤢🤢🤮🤮 gone way down hill, since the last time I went. Hope this place gets a health and safety inspection soon, before someone gets very badly from the food there sell.

I've been coming here for years. This time, the fish was dry. It's my first time having poor fish and chips from here.

The Old Keswickian Fish & Chip shop is a lovely light space to enjoy a plate of fish and chips. I highly recommend it. I ate in the restaurant upstairs.

Lovely food, wonderful staff and will leave me with a great lasting memory of my short time visiting Keswick.

We sat in the fish and chip restaurant. The chips was double the price of the takeaway section and a very small potion. The pot of gravy was very small covered at least 3 chips which was also double the price. Did not feel a welcome response when we asked if they was open. The blonde lady was rude and stunk of cigarettes also. Would not go back

The restaurant upstairs is really nice and the prices are fantastic

Lovely fish and chips here, nice that the batter is a light coating and not too thick like most places usually do. My only gripe for dining here is their use of individual sachets for the condiments! It’s crazy that they don’t just stick the bottles on the table or have something that’s refillable. It just seems a huge waste because you need at least 3-4 sachets to satisfy you for the whole meal…. If there’s multiple people at your table you can barely see them over the pile of empty sachets on your table at the end of your meal. Unnecessary excess of plastic waste and inconvenience to guests dining in.

Great fish and chips :P! We had ours to take away but in hindsight might’ve been better to eat in as seating is limited in the town

On a wet day in Keswick, we like to sit upstairs in the restaurant to enjoy our chips, the staff are great, & service is quick and friendly. We equally enjoy our takeaway chips on nice days where the queues out of the door are dealt with quickly and counter service is very good.

Even if there were a lot of us, the service was quite fast. Food was delicious. Service was great 👍👍

Loved the battered haddock, really loved it in fact, and the chips are great - which I suppose is pretty important for a fish and chip shop ! The rest of the food looked good too and the service (in the restaurant bit) was quick and friendly. Only (tiny) complaint was why don't you offer steak pies as well as steak and kidney ones ?

Been a few times before covid so we 3 called today from Orton . Michelle saw us to our seats and as we were 1st in had a nice friendly chat . We were offered the pensioner special which was more than ample . Fish chips b&butter and tea I had a portion of peas with mine . Our friend is 91 so asked for a childs portion . No problem at all . All served with a smile . A young lady also serving and just as friendly . So 10 out of 10 for me . Well worth a visit .

Lovely fish and great chips. Fast and friendly service. Will go back.

Fantastic traditional fish and chip shop, food cooked fresh, the best fish and chips we have had in years. Friendly team I was served by Fletcher who was really courteous and polite. I look forward very much to my next visit to Keswick for more.

Food is really good quality and reasonably priced considering it's bang on the middle of Keswick. Every time I've been past there's a queue outside, speaks volumes on their quality. You wait, you get a good chip 😋 The staff in both parts are equally friendly, sometimes the takeaway staff are a bit manic but it's understandable with the demand their under. The restaurant has very nice atmosphere and is very cosy. Unfortunately they don't have parking, but there is plenty around the town center.

One of the best fish and chips restaurant in Keswick. The only problem is that it can get full sometimes.