[Closed] Ordering fish etiquette

Ask them how it works? At a total guess you'd maybe want 200g or so of prawns.

Edit: looks like I'm greedy, more like 100g

Out of interest which restaurant is it? Can't think of anywhere that I've ordered food by weight. Not sure if I'm intrigued or repulsed by the concept.

Are you confusing the word restaurant with the word market? Or do I need to get out more?

Oh well OH says yes I've definitely seen it before, fish prices change all the time.

It was a restaurant by the beach in the Algarve but have seen it in a few places before.

I guessed at about 250g but then didn’t want to look like an idiot so I Went for the fixed priced Sardines instead.

I bought a whole carrier bag full of strawberries as a small snack once.
I was concentrating too much on getting my Spanish pronunciation correct and totally ****ed up the metric conversion in the prcoess
.
Not much help to the OP

2 options - Portion size is standard and price will fluctuate to accommodate market price variation, or they’ll ask you how many you want or what size portion you want and then weigh it and charge accordingly. This may involve short trip to the fish counter or they may bring it to you. Fine opportunity to over-eat 👍

I just want one portion. What do I order?

"A portion of fish, please"?

I hope you aren't still sat at the table waiting for the collective wisdom of STW to give a definitive answer....

If it's a grilled sardines type place in the Algarve then quite possibly they'll bring you a portion to start with and then if you want more they'll bring more, each skewer = 50 or 100g or whatever

But have the sardines anyway. Better value, you can get prawns anywhere whereas sardines fresh out of the sea and on a grill shortly after are to die for.

Fantastic restaurant in girona, you enter given a glass of cava then join the fishcounter queue. I just asked the guy behind the counter about weight and how best to have it cooked.
Felt a cop out ordering pealla for main but a quick scan showed everyone else had too, mind you restaurant was called rice and fish "Arròs i Peix"

We've experienced this in Lagos, Portugal, thought the food was really cheap until the bill arrived and we realised that the price we'd seen was actually per Kg, not the meal price!!! Worked out rather pricey, the waiters rolled their eyes at the stupid English tourists.

Isn't it just 'Can I get some fish'

Haddock and chips twice please.

NEVER

Two Haddock and chips please.

…goes to the freezer to weigh five fish fingers…

I like the idea of price per Kg. The concept of a "portion" of undefined size leaves the door wide open for tiny ripoff amounts of food to be served.
Reminds me of a newspaper cartoon from the sixties with a disgruntled diner remarking that when he'd asked for his steak rare, he did NOT mean scarce!

Eating fresh grilled sardines in Portugal is the dream.

Haddock and chips twice please.

NEVER

Two Haddock and chips please.

This is why Scottish chippies are better.

1. You don't have to clarify you want haddock.

2. "Two fish suppers"

I always feel sorry for the Turbot fish.

"Please be silent T! Please be a silent T!" 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Damn, it's not 😒

A fish pronounced Turbo sounds special. A fish pronounced Turbut sounds, well, a bit dull.

I pronounced it turbo in a fish restaurant in Scotland once (assuming it was a French word). Everyone laughed at me.

This is why Scottish chippies are better.

1. You don’t have to clarify you want haddock.

You don't in my local either. Weird thing to be proud of! Scottish chippies are pretty good in general, mainly because they're run by Italians (Glasgow and surrounding areas anyway). 🙂

angrycat

I like the idea of price per Kg. The concept of a “portion” of undefined size leaves the door wide open for tiny ripoff amounts of food to be served.
Reminds me of a newspaper cartoon from the sixties with a disgruntled diner remarking that when he’d asked for his steak rare, he did NOT mean scarce!

One of my fave things to eat when we go to Greece is grilled octopus - on the island we tend to go to there used to be a load of grill restaurants and that was a speciality.

Last time we went, went to a fish restaurant, saw grilled octopus at 25 Euros and thought, 'why not'?

I was given literally one small tentacle. And a lettuce leaf. For 25 Euros. I was not happy.

Of course, like the proper Brit I was I fumed internally and didn't say anything to the staff.

I got caught out with this in a restaurant in Southern France...totally misread the blackboard and ordered up the Langoustine - should have been delightful but it wasn't...then the bill arrived and we were about £160 for the meal with about £110 of that being mine and it didn't even get finished!

My French was appalling (it is even worse now!) so I put it down to a total lack of understanding, but looking back, I wouldn't have managed to get it right in the UK either!

If you’re ordering tuna then a tin is 185g. If you order 200g they’ll make you pay for the whole second tin. If you’re lucky it’ll be one of those ring pull ones and the waiter won’t have to do the whole innuendo-laden comedy huge tin opener thing at the table

A fish pronounced Turbut sounds, well, a bit dull.

1982 Turbot Sunbream

 always feel sorry for the Turbot fish.

“Please be silent T! Please be a silent T!” 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Urbot? Like my parner's grandad from Stoke on Trent, he was Herbert, but people didn't bother with the H.

Oh right, silent t, not silent T!

1982 Turbot Sunbream

🙂

Urbot? Like my parner’s grandad from Stoke on Trent, he was Herbert, but people didn’t bother with the H.

Oh right, silent t, not silent T!

🙂 And yes, the little t not the big T! 🙂

Can’t think of anywhere that I’ve ordered food by weight.

It is quite common in the Med. Years ago my dad ordered a kilo of fish on some Greek island and he received the most immense plate of food.

As an aside, I found on Facebook a small fishing boat was selling Langustine off the boat when it came back from fishing in a harbour not too far from me. Went down one Saturday morning and got a half kg lobster and 8 massive langoustines for £10.

It was bloody brilliant!

Can’t think of anywhere that I’ve ordered food by weight.

Mumtaz, Great Horton Road, Bradford

In Brazil their equivalent of a 'local cafe' is a Kilo restaurant.

You self serve from the salad bar, attempt to communicate with the BBQ meat guy and place your full plate on a set of scales at the till amd pay by the kilo, or fraction thereof. Same cost for a plate of pasta salad or a plate of meat, by weight.
We found any restaurant aimed at tourists had crazy menu's (not in the cities) so ended up eating at Kilo restaurants the whole trip. Good prices, always full of locals.

Maybe buying food by weight in restaurants is a Portuguese thing? Though not seen it in actual Portugal before.

I've sometimes seen just 'market price' as the price for certain fish on menus here - which sounds a bit like a license to rip you off but I guess if the price fluctuates significantly it could be fair enough.

Eating fresh grilled sardines in Portugal is the dream.

And the reality is that while the sardines will be delicious, the stench of the local trawlers will fill your nostrils, the flies will be everywhere, and the mangy, scabby feral cats will smell the delicious sardines and want to partake as well. But the weather will be beautiful - high 20s with a gale force wind blowing grit off the beach into your face and bending your sunshade so exposing bare skin to that high 20s sun.

Ahh, what memories.... 😀

One of my fave things to eat when we go to Greece is grilled octopus

Murderer. After watching "my octopus teacher" I'm definitely never eating them again.

Had this in Europe a bunch, also for steaks being price by weight

I keep seeing this thread title and wanting to make a joke along the lines of 'i always ask them to remove the etiquette before serving my fish' but then I don't because it's not really funny. And yet here we are... 🤷‍♂️

If I'd have thought of that I whould have asked 'what part of the fish is the etiquette'? and still wouldn't be funny so don't beat yourself up 😉

Murderer. After watching “my octopus teacher” I’m definitely never eating them again.

But they so tasty. 🙁

Only been to one "by weight" restaurant, in Sardinia - just named the fish and they decided the portion size.

Price by weight makes perfect sense. Just like ordering a steak.

Haddock and chips twice please.

NEVER

Two Haddock and chips pleas

I asked for twice with curry at our local chippy when I first moved here and the girl behind the counter looked at me like I was utterly insane. I just assumed that all fish n chip shops new the shorthand.

Can’t think of anywhere that I’ve ordered food by weight

Quarter pounder with cheese please

Haddock and chips twice please.

NEVER

Two Haddock and chips please.

See, I stress about this type of thing when ordering a takeaway curry. No way do I want to end up sharing a single portion of rice

Can’t think of anywhere that I’ve ordered food by weight

Quarter pounder with cheese please

Pound Cake

Gram Flour

Avoirdu-pois

Quarter of sweets. 12oz steak. Its the pesky metric thats putting you off?

I was given literally one small tentacle. And a lettuce leaf. For 25 Euros. I was not happy.

I wouldn't be happy either considering octopus don't have tentacles.

Arms have suckers the whole length, tentacles only at the end.

I've also seen this in beach side restaurants in Portugal.
A fresh fish counter with different prices per kilo for each variety. They then cook your choice for you.

It looked expensive.

Do you have to buy a whole fish - but choose one to fit your budget?
Or can you order part of a larger fish?

Mumtaz, Great Horton Road, Bradford

Like that place very much 👍

As for steak, I like to buy mine costed by an abstract concept. A minute steak.

A minute steak.

Dates

A minute steak.

Dates

I thought it would be bigger….

I grew up in the Spanish Mediterranean coast, have eaten a crap ton of seafood and fish and have never heard of ordering like this other than in the supermarket.

A minute steak.

Won't weigh much at all will it?

You know the staff are there to help you? Just ask for what you want to eat and, unless you’re on a very tight budget, or ordering something on the ‘special’/endangered menu, just go with their recommendation.

If I’d have thought of that I whould have asked ‘what part of the fish is the etiquette’? and still wouldn’t be funny so don’t beat yourself up

Thanks. You could have really put me in my plaice but you didn't. 😬

prettygreenparrot has it though, I ask for recommendations all the time and some people think it's weird! Staff normally like being asked for advise.

I once ordered red wine with fish and got thrown off the train.

I'll get my coat.......

At my local chippy I ask for 'twice wrapped please', the lass behind the counter replies
'Salt 'n' vinegar?', job done.

Local bloke who travels a lot for work and pleasure was telling me last night how he got caught out with this one in Italy, price was by the 100gms, his missus gave him a thorough drilling for having to pay 95 Euros for his lobster lunch. Ouch.

I can still remember the first time I ordered fish and chips in London Stockwell ...

"One fish one chip" said I

The cool guy (Turkish Cypriot) at Stockwell Fish & Chips shop looked at me and without asking further question continued to serve me a portion of fish (not sure what fish) and a portion of chips.

"£3.60" said he.

I think I paid £3.60 or something like that as I remember a portion of chips was about 50p to 70p in those days.

Then I went to Coventry after a while ... first day at Coventry fish & chips shop ...

"One fish one chip" said I

The lady behind the counter "salt and vinegar?" ...

I looked at her with a smile while trying to figure what the hell was she speaking ... sounded like "blur blur blur blur ..."

She then looked at me while also pointing to the salt and vinegar and I said yes please.

LOL!

Quarter pounder with cheese

Royale with Cheese. A Big mac is a big mac, but they call it "le big mac"

After watching “my octopus teacher” I’m definitely never eating them again.

That's a lovely documentary. Be aware that it's possible to form as strong a bond with most of the animals we eat though. The mammals, the birds... okay, less so most of the other molluscs.

After watching “my octopus teacher” I’m definitely never eating them again.

What about pigmeat? Pigs are sociable, intelligent and form strong family bonds.

Did everyone have a good Brexit?

Is this not STW? Has nobody suggested the OP simply catch however much fish he wishes to eat? And cooks it in a handmade pizza oven.