Rubens golden fry in County Durham

Called in while passing on our way home and thought we'd give it a try, nice lady serving, couldn't decide between 5 Cod bites and chips or fish and chips, lady said very similar and same price, Asked for the fish bites well done as nearly everywhere I go the batter seems to be undercooked . They were cooked fresh so it took about 15 minutes , got them home and opened them and guess what, not well done , soggy thick batter, average portions and pretty tasteless! Dog enjoyed the soggy batter, waste of £9.90, will not be going back

Lovely Cod and Chips we travel all the way from Yarm to come to Rubens and eat it at our friends house in Chester-le-Street. It’s definitely the beef dripping that makes the chips taste delicious

The best chips around, staff and management are friendly and good people. This is definitely the best chip shop in the country

Beautiful thick white flaky cod and nice fresh chips. Service very fast and friendly, best fish and chips in Chester-le-Street

Wow - my £4 lunchtime kebab special would easily have fed three people! Good food, prepared hot and quickly. I had a good hearty lunch and it didn't look like I'd eaten anything!

The chips with batter were great; one portion would easily feed two, service was quick and friendly. I’m told the spam fritter was delicious, the batter lovely and crisp, so I assume the same would be true of fish. Avoid the pies, however. Microwaved to such an extent the pastry was like titanium. Except for one small spot in the middle of the lid. Literally inedible. I would likely have given this an “Ecellent” had I ordered something other than a pie.

Oh my goodness what a little Jem of a chip shop this is! I can't believe I've only just found this place. Bought fish bites with chips and chips sausage and curry sauce and their was absolutely loads for the price and it was absolutely delicious too! All wrapped in paper instead of boxes , boxes if you want them and most of all proper chips and plenty of them none of this frozen rubbish all done traditional and the customer service is 5 star too good crack in there . I shall definitely be back 😁 thanks again !

Got 2 Donna kobabs some chips and 2 bottle of pop wich come to £30 wich was dear when it come it was stone cold the Pitter bread was covered in red Cabbage juice and was all Soggy would not recommend if you are looking for nice food

I have had fish and chips from here on 3 occasions. On all occasions the food has been excellent. The taste and quality are excellent and the portion size is good. The only issue is the service. They generally have one lady taking the shop orders and the phone orders and putting all the orders together. If it’s busy which it has been when I have been there, it takes so long to receive your order.

Ordered online and called at the given time only to have to wait for over half an hour for my order. In that time other people arrived, ordered and were served. I was eventually given my order minus two items which I pointed out to the woman serving who was quite rude with her response. Being polite doesn't cost anything and a better system for serving customers would not go amiss.

Excellent fish and chips, cooked to order.lovely flaky cod, crispy batter and Large portions.just what garden farm needed.

Great food - had a few fish and chips from here and it's always been nice. Fish is beautiful and get loads of chips!

Fantastic new fish and chip shop. Heard the hype, so treated ourselves this weekend. Fish was made to order - meaty, well sized and crispy batter. Chips were also delightful. Good value for money. Will definitely save us a trip to Bells in the future!

Ordered the cod and small chips. The batter on the fish was lovely and crispy. The fish was put in to cook as I asked for it, but can't say if that's the normal or there just wasn't any ready. All in all, I couldn't fault it and I'd go back

Don’t touch the chicken curry and chips, smells like dog food and doesn’t taste much better 🤢 £4.60 and get about 6 chips

Such good value! We ate here as a family and all our meals were delicious and tasty! Fish was cooked to perfection. Rubén’s kebab box was outstanding..Highly recommend

Needed a good chippy since wonder kitchen, me and my partner have been 3 times now for different things, cant get enough of the chips lol they taste amazing they are cooked in beef dripping (so if you are a vegetarian or vegan just a heads up), yes there is abit of a wait when its busy and orders can get mixed up, we have not received a bad customer service from staff as of yet as there is always time, i love the kabab meat from here and garlic sauce and i love chilli sauce from most places but am not to fussed on the chilli sauce here cant quite put me finger on the taste ( but other people might love it different preferences for different people). It is reasonably priced and you get good portions. We have not tryed the pizzas yet so can not comment. But keep up the good food and maybe train staff to have better costumer service as a pervious reviewer has stated then hopefully you wont loose out on customers due to staff been rude, as you want to make a good impression to keep the business going.

I fully concur with previous reviewer the estate has been calling out for a good 'Chippy' since the closure of the Wonder Kitchen some time ago. The advent of 'Rubens' had a bit of a buzz about it. Seeing a full revamp of the property gave us high hopes and was highly anticipated locally. Long queues sometimes really are a good sign of an establishment which is booming however, long queues outside after having been served are NOT a good sign. On my attendance this evening (6pm) the queues were approximately 5 or 6 deep, 2 of which had ordered. There was also those coming who had ordered over phone with two others having had incorrect orders placed Iver the phone. The server then blamed the customer for not hearing them properly. An amazing exhibition of poor customer service where the staff member was blaming the customer for the staff member's mistake.... To avoid this, we handed over our family list and paid. We were then informed it would be 15 minutes.......First lie. We then made our way to the "al fresco customer waiting lounge" (outside the door) for our 45 minute wait. At this time we saw the pizzas emerge from the back on the hot plate but the additional bag we could see had a wrap missing (ordered 2). We pointed out we had ordered 2 and the 'sarky' server said she hadn't heard me ask for two. I pointed out we had handed over the list to her which CLEARLY SHOWED the order - but somehow it was all MY fault and I needed to pay for another one if I wanted it. No apology, no contrition, nothing. I commented on her VERY POOR customer service skills where she said quite aggressively she had never had any complaints about her excellent customer service and nobody had complained before. Without prompt, an unknown customer behind me said he'd been stood in front of her for 10 minutes and had been ignored & not been served. She asked him what he wanted where he asked for cod and chips. Sarky server said "well that'll be 40 minutes" To which he walked away.....unbelievable. Upon leaving and going theough the waiting room, one of the 'waitees' said he'd been waiting 45 minutes for cod and chips twice.....again the ace server lept into action saying "Well you should have said!". And finally the food - It was hot. There ends the positive review. The garlic bread was dry, the pizzas were DISGUSTING, the wraps - horrible. The 'chip shop' fayre to be honest looked nice - I'd say stick with chip shop classics with a significant wait. In the Al fresco waiting area with other customers, the consensus was this establishment will be closed by the winter as nobody will want to wait nearly an hour for food outside. A wasted opportunity.

We needed a good fish shop or take away on our estate . And I really think this is the answer went Saturday my wife got fish and chips absolutely lovely I was not hungry so had nothing my wife had hers was really good could not eat it all so I did it for her wow really good .good sellection on menu had to have more staff as when first opened was not enough food good wide range of food fish and chips perfect £8,90 could serve 2 as long as this continues got s customer for life