Barb’s Place

I grew up eating this and it’s heartbreaking for me to write this review. I had the two piece halibut and chips for $ 23+tax. The halibut is still large for its size, but not for its price. The fish is very fresh but drenched in deep fried oil. Having wrapped it in 8 sheets of paper napkin that were fully soaked through in oil made it quite the finger not-​so-​licking mess. The fries were mediocre and cold.
I don’t know if it’s because the food is prepared on a rocking boardwalk and has rocked out the taste over the years, or because it’s transformed into a tourist center that caters more to visual appeal than taste, but it was a disappointing meal. Not the piping hot fish straight from the fryer that I grew up with. Fountain drinks at $ 2.45+ tax a drink, but almost the size equivalent to a children’s cup size at McDonald’s, is baffling to me. Managing costs is something all businesses have to do, but it’s truly quite sad to witness this operational frugality. Please bring back my childhood favorite eatery.

I ordered the best halibut burger and seafood chowder. I hardly had any wait time even though they were busy and the food was very fresh. The chowder was warm which was perfect after being out in the cold ocean for three hours.

Good fried food located in a small fisherman wharf area of Victoria. We tried the fish and chips, salmon and chips, halibut sandwich, oyster sandwich and seafood chowder. Who doesn’t love fried food?
The fish and chips and halibut sandwich hit the spot and we went back to order more of it. The salmon was good but a lil dry. The oyster sandwich had too much batter and not enough oyster. The chowder was only okay, would probably pass on it the next time.
Watching the nearby seals and feeding them was a nice touch to our evening and this added another reason to visit the area.

You can’t go wrong with deep fried food. We had the fish and chips, salmon and chips, and clam chowder. The salmon was a little dried but still good. The chowder was very good.

Probably second best place in Victoria. The wait can be long in the summer time. Its a bit pricey but their fish is delicious. Customer service is great too.

I don’t have the words to describe how good the food and service is here! Sure it’s a snack serving fried and steamed goodness kilometres from where it was caught. However it is because they small and homey and so welcoming that it’s amazing.
The fried shrimp basket is simply the best here along with their fish and chips coming in second to it. (I’m shrimp bias)
During my week here, my girlfriend and I have come here five times!
Their clam chowder is simply the best.
Examples of their service:
— noticing that we’re sharing one soup, they for the bread in half for us
— it was late but they were able to quickly recommend alternatives and whipped up the last bowls of chowder for us.
— the place is always so clean and the staff really friendly and ready to help!
Short and simple. This is an amazing place for lunch or dinner in the wharf.

We definitely did the fish and chips and we added some mussels to our order. It was a lot of fun to take the water taxi from downtown Victoria, over to the pier to the restaurant and we enjoyed the ride, the fun sea otter begging for food from all of us, and the sells stalking our water taxi as we made our way back to the hotel from Barbs.
When we got back to the Grand Pacific hotel, where we were staying, we enjoyed chowing down on the fish and chips and mussels and I must say, everything was cooked perfectly. We even wanted to go back the next day to see if we could meet the otter again, but we ran out of time before we had to head back to Vancouver.
If you are on the pier, we recommend giving Barbs a shot. You won’t be disappointed.

How good are their fish and chips? The best I’ve ever had!!! I would give them 5 stars but it was way overpriced and I couldn’t tell the difference between the halibut (22.95) and the cod (14.95). It was a delight and my whole family loved it.

Meh, the food here wasn’t seasoned at all and everything was covered in lots and lots of breading. The seafood didn’t seem fresh either. The shrimp were tiny and definitely seemed of the frozen variety. The fish was also bland and seemed like mystery pollock sticks.
Kind of disappointing, but it got the job done, I suppose.

I really recommend you to find the fish and chips when you go to Victoria BC.
It’s very yummy and nice value.

Saw a long line as we strolled the wharf area. Came back and decided to try out what all the fuss was about. Ordered the halibut, cod, clam strip, and seafood soup. Nothing special but a bit greasy, yes I know it’s fried food, and too much batter. Claim strip tough as rubber probably came from WalMart.
Soup was rather good with lots of fillings. Oh yes like other tourist traps, pricy.

This is a fun place to come if you visit Victoria, all the books said, and it really was. A cute tiny area of floating fast food, a B&B, and some private houseboats. There was a covered eating area where we enjoyed our fish and chips. The fish and chips meals were very fresh and hit the spot, but were maybe slightly under-​seasoned. Their seafood chowder didn’t have an overwhelming amount of seafood in it, but was well flavored with lots of vegetables.
This is also a great place to watch the Victoria seaplanes.

Short and sweet review: A Victoria institution. The best halibut and chips I’ve ever had bar none. Buttery, melt in your mouth fish. A must visit while you’re in town.

Try the oysters they are delicious!!! My fish was kinda greasy but it was tasty… you may need to add salt and vinegar.
It’s a bit over priced too.

I look forward to Summer because of this place :). Halibut, chips and coleslaw… Perfect every time.
I can never find a fish and chips place outside Victoria that serves Halibut… it is always cod or some mystery fish.
The price is worth it :)

Good tasting halibut but a tad greasy. Fries were excellent. Prices were high. Nice place on a sunny day but definitely a tourist spot.

We got off the cruise ship without a problem, but the pier was chaotic with groups from 2 other ships in port, jockeying for transportation. We decided to walk to Fisherman’s Wharf which was close by. Victoria’s FW is tiny compared to San Francisco’s. Just a handful of tiny take-​out shacks on floats moored to the dock. The rest of the floating structures were homes reminiscent of Sausalito’s houseboats.
I ordered Barb’s famous cod fish and chips. Chips and coleslaw were meh. The fish was really fresh and «meaty.» The batter could have been lighter and was a tad greasy. I liked the food but wasn’t bowled over. I’ve had similar or better in Alaska and San Francisco.

When a place has the longest line, that has to be a sign! Right? Well, usually…
ATMOSPHERE:
They’re located on the floating pier in Victoria’s charming & picturesque Fisherman’s Wharf. There’s lots of outdoor only seating, both covered and not, with great views of the floating houses, harbor & skyline.
FOOD:
Fish & Chips — It was probably cod fish, a good sized filet cooked nicely with a tasty batter. Came with natural cut shoestring fries and tarter sauce. I got it for takeout because we wanted to eat on the run and assumed it would come in a paper tray or some sort of container, but it came wrapped in 3-​layers of butcher paper which was very difficult to handle. The eat-​in food came in those disposable trays. Hello?!
SERVICE:
The female order taker was super friendly and helpful. It took about 15 minutes to get our food.
OVERALL:
Friendly service, good food, and great views. Eat there for a better experience.

Portions large and food good. I am a sucker for fresh fish and chips. Yes it isn’t the best ever but really good if your from the Midwest and used to anything near fresh.
One order of fish and chips is enough for 2 people and maybe even three. We ordered 2 orders because we both were starving and ended up wasting over half of both. :(
Halibut is the way to go at this place.

We stopped here after walking around the wharf. This place had the biggest line on the wharf so we figured it must be good.
What we swallowed:
HALIBUT AND CHIPS: The batter was crispy and addicting. The halibut was moist and flaky and insanely delicious. The Canadian accidentally ordered me two fish so by the time I was made it to the second piece of fish, I had to peel off the batter. It was just too much by then.
CALAMARI: These were just OK. The Canadian doesn’t really like seafood (but he likes some calamari) and he didn’t like these at all. The batter was a bit blah (almost just like a light dusting) and it was flavorless. The calamari was a bit chewy so that was disappointing. I don’t get what the chopped green peppers or onions were for? Too small to pick up as a finger food and they definitely didn’t add any flavor to the calamari itself (in fact, they made them soggy faster).
CLAM CHOWDER: How can clam chowder be runny? And where were the clams? Another disappointment. There were nice bits of fish in the chowder, actually, now that I think about it, «Creamy Fish Potato Soup» would have been a better description of this soup. It was OK, but I wouldn’t call it ‘clam chowder’.
GRILLED OYSTERS (two): I wanted raw oysters or even breaded oysters and they gave me these. Hmmm. They were alright but not what I ordered.
To top it off, we asked for Tabasco sauce (What’s clam chowder without Tabasco sauce!!!) and they said they ran out that morning. HUH??? That’s like a STEAK JOINT WITH NO STEAK SAUCE! SEND SOMEONE TO GO GET SOME! WHACK! Good thing the seafood joint (that sells the sardines to feed the sea lions with) was nice enough to give us some of theirs.
Our above meal with two drinks came up to $ 80. Ouch. A bit pricey for mediocre seafood.