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Weston-super-Mare is famous for many things.

Along with the Grand Pier, donkeys and John Cleese is a fine tradition of fish and chips, with a number of chippies dotted on and near the seafront.

While many of the takeaways in the town have achieved top marks when it comes to food hygiene, some have found themselves in hot water when the environmental health inspectors have come calling.

One such place is Odyseas Fish Bar and Carvery, located just a short walk from the pier and which has a five star rating according to the reviews of six people on Facebook.

When food hygiene inspectors came calling in September, however, they did not share that view, slapping the restaurant with a hygiene rating of one.

To see if it was in need of the major improvements that the Food Standards Agency had said was needed, we sent our reporter to Weston-super-Mare for dinner.

First impressions

Arriving at just after 7pm on a Tuesday evening, my first impressions were that Odyseas was nice and clean inside, with no obvious alarm bells.

There were four tables for indoor dining, of which one was being used, while the fact that there were three people in the queue in front of me showed that this was clearly a popular chippy.

Along with the traditional fish and chips offering, the restaurant offers a carvery as well as a selection of kebabs and burgers.

I ordered two fish cakes, a battered sausage, chips, mushy peas and a can of coke, which came to a reasonable £7.90.

Deciding that I was going to eat in, I sat at one of the empty tables while I waited for the food to be prepared.

The food arrives

(Image: Google)

With the food being prepared to order, I was called up to the counter to collect it ten minutes later.

I was asked if I wanted to eat in or take away, with my food placed on a clean plate to take back to the table.

The mushy peas were placed into a pot and microwaved in front of me before being served, although this was understandable given the relative difficulty in heating and keeping them at a good temperature otherwise.

Once I got back to the table I immediately noticed that two things were wrong.

The first was with the chips, which unlike the traditional homemade offerings you would find at most places, bore all the hallmarks of a bag of frozen oven chips that had been warmed up.

While not a huge issue in itself, it is not what you expect to find at your local chippy.

There was also an issue with the mushy peas, which despite having been put into the microwave in front of me, were still cold.

The meal was not off to the best start.

Fish cake good, battered sausage bad

Things took something of an upturn with the fish cake, which was soft and fluffy inside while remaining nice and firm on the outside.

As a fish cake goes, it was everything that I expected, and markedly improved the taste of the mushy peas once I mixed the two together.

It did not last once I moved onto the battered sausage, though.

While the meat inside was perfectly fine, the batter on the outside was soft and lacked the crisp that I was hoping for.

While the meal as a whole would have been perfectly fine had I rustled it up in my kitchen at home, considering the heightened standards that come with eating out and being in a coastal town, it was an underwhelming experience.

Another observation I made was the fact that the cans of coke that the restaurant was selling separately were labelled as being from a multi-pack.

While entirely legal to do, and in no way negatively impacting on the customer, it does not give off the right impression.

Still, the restaurant remained busy for the 30 minutes that I was in there, with several other people coming in to collect food, showing that it does have a loyal following in the town.

As for the cleanliness, I could not have picked fault with anything that I saw while inside.

Conclusion

Considering that Weston-super-Mare is a coastal town, with access to fresh produce readily available, a fish and chip shop here has no excuse for not being up to scratch.

The difference between freshly prepared and bought in produce is always noticeable, and when you consider what is on the doorstep here, that is even more so in Weston.

While there was nothing particularly offensive about what I got served here, it was lacking in charm and character and although well priced, left me thinking that what I had eaten could have been so much better.

With that in mind, it is safe to say that Odyseas is not a place that I will be rushing back to in a hurry.

Rating: 2/5

A manager at Odyseas was unavailable for comment when contacted by Somerset Liveabout its food hygiene rating .

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