Mary Janes Fish Bar

Mary Janes was a real find! The restaurant area is clean and light and the food was top class– light, flaky fish, great chips and lovely cappuccinos and lattes. This was our best fish and chip experience in a long time…

Well yet again brilliant Fish and Chips. What can I say, every time I go to Mary Janes I’m never Dissapointed. Freshley cooked Fish and Chips nearly Perfect. Sunday Evening 6.00pmlovely finish to a Beautiful day.

We closed of our week stay with a Fish and Ships meal, eating it on the benches in front of Hotel De Paris. We hesitated all week between Mary Jane’s and No1. We walked out every night to check out the lines and found Mary Jane’s to be the busiest and thought it to be a good sign.
We went for the classic Cod and Ships. We took a large portion. And that is correct. Portions are large. Both are good quality. Not soggy as it sometimes gets.
We would have loved a fresh ‘tartare’ sauce with it (so took our jar of mayonnaise with us). Yes we are continental ;-)

It isn’t what it used to be. If you are driving I’d recommend making the trip to Park Chippy in Cromer or The Fish Shop in Roughton.

tried some cod n chips to take away, was fairly priced for a sea side touristy place
both were nice n tasty but the fish had lots of bones in it so minus points for that

we had never visited Mary Janes before but we were on a day out and thought we would give the restaurant a try as the queue for the take away was large, I have got to say we were very dissapointed from the minute we approached the door. There is a sign on the door asking you to wait to be seated however no staff were there to meet and greet you instead we were waved in by a waitress leaning up against the bar at the far end of the restaurant she did not come over and just left it to us to seat ourselves. The restaurant is quite dated and a bit pathetic it is painted a horrible pink with tacky artificial flowers on the windowsills accompanied by lots of framed pictures which all needed a good dusting it lacks warmth and a welcoming feel. The menu is ok but not a huge choice and i think the fact that the prices of the meals in the restaurant are quite substatially inflated yet you are still expected to pay for sachets of sauce. The service was dire the waitress who took our order really looked as if she couldnt be bothered she never smiled or engaged in conversation nor did she say thankyou when our order came there was no «can I get you anything else» or «would you like another drink» the food was dumped on the table and she was gone we were not asked if everything was ok we were not offered desserts in fact the only dessert on offer was ice cream in fact the only time we spoke to a member of staff was when we placed the order and when we paid. It is such a shame the level of customer service was incredibly dire because the food was quite good. The staff need to buck thier ideas up and start taking an interest in the customers and a bit less time leaning against the bar chatting amongst themselves. I dont think we will waste our time or money again in Mary Janes.

This is simply the best fish and chips I can remember having — beautiful piece of cod, moist and flakey, well cooked in a delicious and not overly greasy batter; lovely chips too.
I’m not generally a big fan of fish and chips, but this place has restored my faith in how good it can be when it all goes right.

Have been going to Mary Jane’s for several years without complaint but we noticed a real drop in offering this time [31^st August 2010]. My wife’s standard size cod was dry and tasteless, my own large cod, whilst much more moist, was not much bigger than the standard portion and the portion size of the chips also seemed somewhat meagre compared to past visits. Also we ordered a portion of mushy peas which did not arrive until we had reminded the waitress well after our fish had been delivered. At £20 including a drink each, this did not seem to be the good value it was in the past.
The place was reasonably busy but not excessively so.

OK sadly I’m going to have to edit my review. For years and years and years Mary Jane’s has been the best fish shop ever (see below for why) but I visited it a couple of times in August this year and was really disappointed as the quality of the food has gown downhill hugely. The fish was dry and the batter was fairly tasteless, nd the chips, while okay, were nothing more. Service was slow too, though they were very buy (as always). I’ll no doubt go to Mary Jane’s again some time and hopefully will find it was just having n off day, but for now I’m going to have to downgrade my rating to merely average.
Previously on
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Best. Chip Shop. Ever.
Quite simply the best chippie I’ve ever been too — I first sampled Mary Jane’s about 30 years ago on holiday, and I still go there pretty much every year now.
Mary Jane’s is legendary in Cromer — that’s why there’s always a queue outside this chippie and not the one opposite!
Expect to queue for takeaway — but the queue is fast moving, they take your order, then you wait at the back of the shop while it’s cooked. That way they can get through a busy queue quickly.
Haddock is especially good but they also do cod, rock and skate as well as a load of other things. Chips are just superb.
The restaurant is also very good, the same quality fish and chips plus other meals including scampi, pizza, pie etc. It gets very busy and you may well have to wait in the evenings. The restaurant has a licence so you can sup a beer alongside your fish but better still, go for the lime milkshake — sublime!

Mary Jane’s in Cromer, is the best, and most popular place to buy fish and chips either as a takeaway, or for a sit down meal in the attached restaurant.
In the height of the holiday season there are frequent queues stretching outside into the street, but as there are plenty of staff who serve as fast as the food is cooked, the queues move speedily. It’s well worth the wait as the staff can be quite entertaining with their serving banter which escalates the busier they seem to be.
If you’re looking for an alternative to fish and chips, you will find something on the wider menu, pies, pizzas, spare ribs, chicken and extras such as mushy peas and pickled eggs or onions.
The restaurant is nicely decorated, clean and basic but you can expect the same excellent service with the addition of a glass of wine or other alcoholic drink with your meal if you choose. In the height of the season the restaurant gets full up for most of the lunch time so it’s better to go before, or after the 12 – 2.30pm rush.
Mary Jane’s has been a popular fish bar for many years, and when I lived in London, it was one of the treats on a day’s outing to stop off in Cromer specially for Mary Jane’s fish and chips and I’m talking 20 years ago and the standard today is every bit as good as it was then.