The Trident Fish Bar on Victoria Road has been named Swindon's highest rated fish and chip shop, according to Tripadvisor, where it currently holds a 4.5 star rating from 153 reviews. The shop, which sits near Regent Circus close to the town centre, offers an online ordering system alongside the traditional method of walking in and pointing.
Its menu covers the usual territory of cod, fish cakes, sausages, kebabs and burgers, with gluten free options available on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Customers can also claim 15% off collection orders over £10 using the code AN1, or 20% off if they work in the emergency services, which one assumes covers anyone who has ever queued there on a Friday night.
Several reviewers praised the size of the cod in particular, with one admitting they struggled to eat it all and another simply writing 'huge cod' as though filing an incident report. It is understood that no independent body has yet weighed one of these fillets, though there is growing appetite, so to speak, for somebody to bring a set of kitchen scales down to Victoria Road and settle the matter once and for all.
Brenda Pask, 72, of Old Town, who has lived there since before it was old, said she had been a loyal customer of a different chippy for forty years and saw no reason to change allegiance on the say so of a website. 'Ron always said the proof was in whether the batter went soft on the walk home,' she said. 'I'm not one to gossip, but I've heard the one on Victoria Road does extras for free, which in my day we called generous and now apparently counts as a marketing strategy.'
Gary Tench, Area Manager at Tench Paper Solutions in Westlea, said the whole affair had given him a new way of describing his firm's recent customer satisfaction survey, which returned one response, from himself. 'It's about reaching that 4.5,' he said. 'We're currently sat at a 2.1, mostly because Julie marked us down for the printer jams, but I've asked her to resubmit once she's had a think about the bigger picture.' He added that he had looked into offering a discount code of his own for emergency workers, though admitted toner cartridges were harder to queue for in the rain.
Tripadvisor is not thought to send inspectors, use a star system verified by any national body, or apply any methodology beyond members typing what they felt at the time, which has not stopped the title being treated locally with something close to civic pride. There is talk, unconfirmed, of a small plaque.
As for the cod that reportedly defeated a grown adult, a shop spokesperson declined to comment on whether this was intentional, accidental, or simply what a fish looks like when nobody has interfered with it.