Restaurant review: Fish Cottage, Sandsend

At the weekend I went for a family lunch at Fish Cottage to celebrate my brother’s birthday. For the past few years we’ve had his birthday lunch at The Star in the Harbour in Whitby, so we were looking for somewhere else to go since this has sadly closed down.

The restaurant is quite small inside so I’d certainly recommend booking in advance. They do have some tables outside for walk-ins - which is fine as long as the weather is good! Inside we were seated at a long table which filled a little side room; it was a really nice space, and felt like we were in a private dining room.

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As the name suggests, almost all the dishes they serve include fish! There are a couple of other options, but they are quite limited. If you like fish though, you’re going to be spoilt for choice with the menu.

To start I ordered the pickled seafood which consisted of mussels and whelks, and some samphire on top. These were sharp and vinegary, and very moorish. My brother had the dressed Whitby crab which was delicious, so fresh and a generous portion size served with some tasty crusty bread and lemon aioli.

They also have oysters, either raw served with shallot dressing and Tobasco, or battered with a soy, ginger & lime dipping sauce. My mum ordered the battered oysters and let me try one, because I’ve never actually had an oyster before. It was so tasty! And the soy, ginger & lime sauce was salty, zingy and went so well with the oyster.

For mains I was torn between ordering the classic fish and chips, or having Moules Marinière. But as I don’t eat mussels very often, I thought I’d go for those, and I was glad that I did! The garlicy creamy wine sauce was so good, and perfect for dunking crusty bread and chips once I’d finished the mussels.

One of our other highlights was the full taco rack that my brother ordered. They have three tacos on the menu, but with the full rack you get to try one of each. There’s a fish taco, king prawn taco, and a curried cauliflower one which was actually his favourite! Again it was a really generous portion size.

They serve traditional beef dripping chips here, and they are some of the best chips I’ve ever had! I didn’t order any, but took a few of Nick’s, and ate some of my nephew’s too. I ordered the crab fries instead, which were topped with a spicy crab mayo and lots of crab meat on top. Yum!

They have a children’s menu here which was great for my nephews, there were a few choices of mains, and they both ordered chicken goujons which came with chips and peas. This menu also had some drink options and ice cream for the children as well.

Somehow after all that I still had room for dessert. I went for the Yorkshire mess (basically an Eton mess) which was tasty, it could have had a little bit less cream, but I think that’s just personal preference.

The service was good, it was actually better than I was expecting as they had a sign at the entrance explaining that they were short staffed. I like that they’d made people aware of this, rather than just struggling and people not understanding why there were any delays.

Overall I’d definitely recommend Fish Cottage. It’s great value for money with the portion sizes and quality of the food. They really do serve some exceptional fish and seafood dishes.

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If you have a gluten intolerance it’s ok, but I would say it’s not suitable for coeliacs. They can offer a gluten free fish and chips, but it's cooked in the same fryer as the other fish. You could have grilled fish instead. But other gluten free choices are limited.

Nope. This isn’t a place to go with anyone who is vegetarian or vegan.

Dogs aren’t allowed inside the restaurant so we had to leave Dolly & Pickle at home, but there are tables outside for walk-ins where you can sit with your dog.