Caersws Fish bar, Powys offers poshest fish finger in Wales

Caersws Fish Bar, run by owner Tim Harrison, has grown a fantastic reputation locally for its inventive takes on classic fish and chips staples – the latest being the “ridiculous” fish finger.

We visited to try the spectacular creation a lightly brined whole chunk of Cod coated in Koji flour with a layer of tartare sauce to finally stick on the homemade sourdough Panko breadcrumbs.

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All of this is topped with Scurvy Grass Mayo, a wasabi and miso flavoured Mushy peasonaise, Laver seaweed flakes with special battered bits which are Kefier tempura battered cockles.

Other customers we spoke were raving about this latest creation with one telling us that is was so good he travelled from the other side of Newtown to try them.

“The customers who are like really loyal and know I do some crazy cooking stuff, it lets them fulfil their curiosity of what I get up to,” said Mr Harrison.

“In a lot of ways, I do some relatively outlandish things. I do a lot of fermenting, a lot of foraging a lot of temperature-controlled cooking which I think is something people hear a lot about in the media but have little access to unless they’re going to be going to ridiculously high-end restaurants.”  

The fish finger certainly lived up its lofty reputation.

The fish is beautifully tender with a wonderful crunchy batter around the outside, the accompanying sauces all came with wonderful umami flavour notes and the laverbread gave it a wonderful seaside flavour.

What really tops it off though are the deep-fried cockle batter bits which cut through the rest of the heaviness of the rest of the food – we could have quite easily eaten a whole bucket of them.  

This is the latest creation of Mr Harrison who has also created Koji fried chicken and a Bhaji burger, consisting of a giant bhaji, sieved raita, fish and mango chutney all served in a naan.

“So I thought I can just put all of the ideas into a simple fish finger, all of the things I love and motivate me into a simple fish finger,” said Mr Harrison whose creations are always based on seasonal with the inspiration coming from his wife who works as a nutritional therapist.

“That is a fantastic driver, being seasonal and going with what’s available. In society at the moment we have a habit of thinking everything is available all the time but when you used foraged food it’s just what’s growing.”

These dishes have led to  a recent string of plaudits in the press and from double Michelin star chef Gareth Ward – who said it was one of his favourite places to eat in Powys.

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Mr Harrison has welcomed the praise and that it was nice after so many tears hard work but said that it felt like a bit of a mixed blessing given the current economy.

“It’s been such a difficult couple of years with small businesses closing down and we have at times considered that.

"So part of me is like I needed this five years ago and the other part of me is like this is great because I’ve always been proud of what we do, I’ve been proud of what we do for a long time so to get that external validation is really good for all of us here.”