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An abundance of lottery signs don't usually portend good food. In fact, I usually assume the quality of food goes down as the number of lottery signs goes up. Therefore, I grudgingly decided to visit Gaffer's Fish & Chips only because I had gone to every other restaurant in Tigard Plaza and I have an irrational compulsive desire to be thorough in such things.
Inside, it's not much more encouraging. If someone had said that other than the Keno tickets on every table, both bar and dining room, it hadn't changed in 30 years, I'd believe them. And as Pollo said on Twitter, "The bar in the back, away from the dining area, with the lottery room, is an entirely different level of curious depression."
All that said, I enjoyed my fish and chips and they're crazy cheap.
First meal in a less-than-promising restaurant, I kept the ordering simple, just a 2 piece order of fish and chips, only $6.25. The from-frozen fries were crisp, ungreasy, lightly salted without any off aftertaste. There were a good amount of them.
They have items like fried prawns, oysters, clam strips, etc, but the fish is all cod. It's hand-cut, freshly battered, and fried to order. I'd say the 2 piece order came with about 4-6 ozs of fish, much bigger than I expected and probably more fish than you'd get at Burgerville for the same price. I think you'd see this portion of fish more like $10 in Portland-proper, even when done poorly at pubs.
And this was good. The ungreasy batter was crunchy and stuck to the fish. The fish was moist and had no off flavor. Honestly it was more moist than I've come to expect from cod around town, though less moist/buttery than halibut. It could probably use some salt, but that's easy to fix with fried items. The tartar sauce on the side was adequate. I preferred the vinegar they brought to the table.
I have no clue how anything on the rest of their menu is, but I'd be willing to give a few more things a try. They have a 1/3 lb burger with fries for only $5.45. You can get a double-decker with cheese and bacon for $7.25.
It's simple pub food. But the prices aren't any higher than you'd expect at Denny's, but maybe they have people who can cook back there. Or maybe I got lucky. Apparently it's had the same owner for 21 years.
Gaffer's Fish & Chips
11945 SW Pacific Hwy, Suite 206
Portland, OR 97223
503.639.7025
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