Mac’s Fish & Chips

While taking my loved one out for a walk from Mt Olivet/​Careview Care Center, we found Mac’s Fish and Chips. There were tables and chairs on the sidewalk to sit outside but we chose indoors today. I was able to wheel his wheelchair right inside and set it at a table. There were four of us and we had the jumbo shrimp dinner, walleye dinner and cod sandwich. We all thought our meals were very good. The batter on the walleye was excellent and the fish was meaty and tasty. My dining guests said the shrimp and cod we’re excellent as well. The cole slaw is very good and of course, the fries were delicious. House made tarter sauce!!! We got a few pieces of house made taffy that we sent back to the care enter to be enjoyed later.
The restaurant is not large. A few tables and a counter to sit at is all. Also, there is some outdoor seating. The staff was very friendly and helpful as none of us had eaten there before.

I love Mac’s! Such a great addition to my neighborhood. It’s such a unique little place. And the guys who work there are so sweet and genuine. The food is great!!! And cheap! A value basket of chicken fingers and chips/​fries is around $ 6 – 7, and you get a lot of food.
Now, nothing disappoints me more than a piece of mystery toughness and overly fatty chicken. Mac’s chicken is NOT this way! Nowhere else even remotely nearby can you get a hunk of delicious, whole chicken with no mystery or artificiality.
Each meal comes with coleslaw and a couple pieces of their homemade saltwater taffy. The salt used in the food is coarse, but there’s not too much of it. Also, I got a good bottled beer for $ 5. That’s less than most places would charge for a non happy hour beer!

My wife and I stopped by for lunch recently. The menu consists of deep fried halibut, deep fried walleye, deep fried clam strips, deep fried chicken, deep fried shrimp, French fries and cole slaw (not deep fried). So if you don’t want your meal deep fried better go somewhere else. That said it was not bad and inexpensive. My wife had the halibut and I had the clams with the value meal which includes fries and slaw. Portions were adequate. The slaw left something to be desired. They have about eight tables and of course do take out. When we were there the Elvis Channel on Sirius/​FM was on full blast so you could hardly hear yourself think. It’s not Piccolo but it is ok for what it is.

Everything was excellent.
The coarse salt and the skin on fries went very well with the fish that was prepared perfectly.
I will be coming back!

What a great spot! Prices are a bit steep, but not unlike most places in southwest Minneapolis. And it’s super yummy, so worth it!

Love this place! Whenever I am in MN I have to get Walleye and this is my new favorite stop.

The employee closed the door in my face 15 minutes before closing time. They did not seem interested in serving me. Everything says open at 8:15 but don’t expect any food. Apparently open til 8:30 means the employees walk out to go home at 8:30

Probably the best Halibut fish and Chios style I’ve had from a non-​costal area. I should have tried the Walleye — will next time, but the halibut was very good. Great fries. Excellent «no frills» atmosphere. Great spot

I came here because they were having a Groupon deal, otherwise I never would have heard of this place and I love fish and chips.
They have a pretty good selection of fish here and I chose the halibut classic basket (2 nice size fillets, fresh cut fries and home made slaw). I could have been satisfied with the regular basket with one fillet but will know better next time. The fries were good, fresh cut fries, nothing crispy as most fresh cut fries are not crispy. The slaw was a little dry for my taste and was a adequate portion for this basket. I ordered a side of cheese curds and they knocked it out of the park with these. They bread/​batter everything here and they really know what they are doing with the light coating on both the fish and cheese curds.
I will be back here without a Groupon.
Based on other reviews this probably isn’t the best place for take out because deep fried fish doesn’t do well when it gets cool/​cold.
Great value for the price!

The few times I’ve eaten here it was great! The fish was flakey and crisp mmmm the fries were good too. The prices are really great, the tiny hole in the wall joints are always legit.

I wanted to LOVE this place for two reasons.
#1 I love fish and chips, Merlins Rest is still my fav
#2 It’s local and in my neighborhood
First, I thought the fish was just alright, so to were the fries.
What bothered me most is the tartar sauce with just sweet relish which is very polarizing. Either you like Sweet Relish or YOU HATE IT.
Obviously I hate it.
My advice: If fish is all you do, offer up condiments that speak to your individual consumer. Have a sweet and dill version of your tartar sauce… have a horseradish version, have a spicy version etc… this would do wonders and will likely get me to return.

I am a huge fan of this place. My favorite is the walleye, the batter is very tasty and you can also taste the fish. The tarter sauce and coleslaw are top notch. The service is really good also, its a diverse team that seem to enjoy their jobs. I like this place better then anchors. The food taste better and its not crammed with trendies. Oh and the fries are hands down the best in Minnesota.

The best fish & chips in the Twin Cities, hands down. Doesn’t matter whether you go to the St. Paul or Minneapolis location, they’re both great. We had searched the cities for years for a good (read that: just good price and food) after trying the highly recommended Brits, Anchor and Tavern on Grand (ya, ya… highly priced they all are). Well, this is the real deal and nothing fancy, but we didn’t want that, only good food and great salt taffy too. We’ve been back again and again.

I want to give this more stars but the food and it’s aftermath just won’t let me. I see that they use fresh fish and freshly cut potatoes for the fries, but somewhere between the fresh and my mouth, something went wrong. Perhaps the oil is old? The batter is weird? I’ve had far superior fish and chips in church basements. I’m also left with an upset stomach at 1am
All said, I’m sure when Lent rolls around again, we’ll be stopping by.

You can’t get this to go unless you live two feet away. It’s just the nature of the item. It’s why this still often comes wrapped in newsprint overseas for immediate eating, so if it’s soggy the problem exists between bag and face, to paraphrase the IT industry.
We live close, so we lived on the edge and got it to go and vented the foil. Score.
I was really impressed. I was really impressed not only because this was pretty damn good, I was impressed because my last visit to Mac’s flagship in Falcon Heights a couple years back absolutely sucked. I’d call what I got tonight a rebound in every way. This brand has been whipped into good shape, and whipped hard.
This place is clean like a clean room, friendly, fairly fast, and what I got was good. Five pieces of cod, one order poutine, two people. I was stuffed silly on two pieces of cod, recommend one for smaller gluttons.
The frying and the fish quality are both solid. It’s decent cod with a bit of fat on it, and nice texture. The frying is perfect heat and batter physics. The only thing I wasn’t completely sold on is this: it really tastes like a piece of fish found its way into a donut. There’s just some sweetness, something funnel cake about the batter.
After about two bites, I could actually admit to myself that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Donut burger, eat your heart out, right? This is actually magic if you go with the flow.
Tartar sauce — normally I’m completely indifferent to this condiment. Here, if you’re missing at least a taste of it, you’re out of your head. It’s all that.
Poutine takes the worry about crispness out of the fries equation. I had a couple of bites of this insanity and excess, and I’d do it again in a moment. That ain’t no gravy in a jar, at least nothing that hasn’t been intervened with nicely.
Good going Mac’s. I can’t bring myself to five star this fish because that funnel cake batter thing is a guilty and weird «was this a Paula Deen recipe?» pleasure.

The whole time I was here, I was thinking that my friend Brian R. (the AYCE fish fry review champ) would be doing a MUCH better job giving his opinion on this place than me because (wait for it…) I DON’T EAT FISH! Ewww.
The atmosphere here is minimal, simple and not fancy. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d want in a place that serves fried foods. They have outdoor seating and some seating indoors, but this is a small place, so be prepared to wait a bit if they’re busy.
Ordered the chicken and we split some cheese curds. Okay, this is not the kind of food that you can eat everyday (DUH) but they way they fry these foods, makes me wish that wasn’t the case. The breading is … pillow-​y? I don’t even know how that’s possible. Ditto with the cheese curds. Is this a beer batter thing? Not sure, but Mac’s nailed it.
They also make salt water taffy in-​house and you get a piece for a tasty treat at the end of your meal.
Oh, and I had a bite of their Halibut and didn’t burst into flames. (It was not terrible… WHAT?!)

Excellent fish and chips! Many choices of fish Halibut, Cod or Walleye. Small place but clean and a new location. They also make salt water taffy.

Definitely agree that if you are getting your food to go you should tear open the foil as soon as possible to minimize the steaming effect.
I really like that your fish is not even dipped in batter until you order it. We got a walleye basket and an ala carte order of clams. Fries are not shoestring cut but are cut fresh and fried when an order is placed. Bonus for no heat lamps! The fish was tender and delish with a nice light batter that was slightly crispy (hence the rec to tear open that foil ASAP). The fries were very good though I prefer a little more time in the fryer to get them a bit more crispy. The clams were about as good as I have had — nice and tender with not a hint of rubbery texture. The slaw was ok and I was very glad it was not too sweet.
Will definitely return, hopefully not on a Friday evening during Lent (if going on a Friday during Lent get there before 4:30pm before the line forms).
Catsup and tartar sauce are in pump dispensers on the counter with cups inbetween the pumps. Malt vinegar, salt and hot sauce are available on the tables.

Stopped in for take out this afternoon. I got the cod meal and my girlfriend got the smaller chicken meal.
First off, next time I’ll be eating in the restaurant. They wrap their takeout orders in tinfoil and while my cod meal was piping hot when I got home, the tinfoil locked in all that steam causing the breading to be pretty soggy.
Our chicken strips were still nice and crispy though!
I’m a sucker for fried fish and tartar sauce and Mac’s tartar sauce is ridiculously good.
Awesome addition to our neighborhood and I will be going back repeatedly.

The menu here is very simple: halibut, walleye, cod, shrimp, oysters, and chicken. All fried. You can order them plain or in a sandwich, they come with fries. However, it is surprisingly good food at a good price.
First time we went I ordered the Classic Halibut basket (two pieces of fish) and my wife ordered the Value Walleye basket (one piece of fish). The halibut was flavorful and moist, definitely a pleasant surprise for fast food fish. My wife’s walleye was good, but not nearly as flavorful, but that is what walleye is. The fries were salted well and had a decent texture to them.
The second time I ventured to Mac’s I ordered the Classic Halibut as take-​out for my wife. I tried some when I got home and it was just as good as the first time!
The restaurant is small and only has three off-​street spots, so there may be a wait for seating. However, if you’re in the mood for some deep fried seafood that doesn’t feel heavy in your gut, Mac’s is worth a look!