Great cooked fish of any kind require two conditions. The fish has to be fresh! It needs to have been kept refrigerated from kill to kitchen. The cooking temperatures have to be correct. A third concern is with fried fish. The oil has to be fresh. Some 'Friday Night' fish fries save oil from the week's cooking and then fry their fish in it. The French fish cooking system is probably the best. Fresh oil is at 400 degrees F., the fish is coated with flour just before it it is fried. The hot oil sears the flour, keeping moisture in the fish. It turns to steam and cooks the flesh. Simple! Either fish and chips or battered catfish can be really good or really bad....

The fish has to be fresh!

Indeed.
I had very good fish and chips at Felixstowe Ferry in Suffolk.
They proudly announced that they served freshly caught fish and chips.
I just had visions of those chips scuttling along on their little legs, hotly pursued by people with fishing nets.

Miss P, that was the haggis, surely?

I agree about the catfish tasting 'earthy'. Bleh.

Glad to know about the North Sea Restaurant as we will be in the area.

No chips have six legs all equal length.
It's well known that haggi have two legs shorter than the other two so that they can get up hillsides quickly.

I've never eaten catfish, but however they taste, they are about the ugliest fish on the face of the planet...Oh, wait a minute! They're not on the face, are they? Well, they're very ugly.

bilboburgler,

You wrote "I've had cat fish in Georgia with iced tea. Not impressed but I do agree the batter was better than UK batter which I find a bit too fatty."

I agree that iced tea doesn't really go well with fried catfish. To me, the only thing to drink it with is beer.

Try it with beer next time and I think you'll enjoy the experience. Come out to Austin, TX, and go to Boat House Grill and try the fried catfish basket, which comes with fried catfish, french fries, coleslaw, and hush puppies. Have a few Shiner Bock beers to go with it. Watch the live bands on Friday or Saturday night on the patio - great stuff.

Totally different experience.