Flakes on Sydney Rd Pizzeria

I’m quite surprised by the low rating that Flakes has before I type this. I’m not sure if there has been an ownership change or something else, but our experiences with them have been always good.
First off, a fish and chip shop that delivers is possibly my favorite thing ever. F&C are our go-​to hangover food and not having to get off the couch to get our fix is spectacular. Secondly, for us, onion rings are a must on any fish & chip order. If they aren’t on the menu, we normally aren’t ordering. And the bigger the better! The onion rings here are big, juicy and hand cut. None of those crappy crumbed things that look like they came straight from the supermarket freezer aisle for us!
Now I could go on about onion rings forever, but I suppose I should move on to the other pluses. The chips have always been crispy and yum, as are the potato cakes. I haven’t actually ordered fish from here yet, but I’ve had a burger and it was nice and big and sloppy, just like a fish & chip shop burger should be. They also make pizzas here, but with many other great pizza options around we haven’t tried them from here.
We’ve only taken advantage of home delivery from here once. You have to order a minimum of $ 15 for free delivery (which we normally wouldn’t get to) and ours was delivered in less than 20 minutes. We are only a couple of minutes down the road though. Maybe we only order from them when they are quiet, but I’ve never had to wait more than a couple of minutes to pick up an order either.
There’s a massive variety of food options to eat at around here so a Fish & Chip shop is probably not on the top of anyone’s lists, but sometimes you just need that greasy fix and Flakes is well worth stopping in to try.

After having a bad experience with these guys a couple of months ago, when they took over 2 hours to deliver us soggy fish and chips, we decided to give them another shot. Fail once again. This time I was quoted 35 – 40 minutes as a delivery time, after an hour I decided to call and cancel the order, feeling another hour wait coming on and wanting to move on with my evening. I was told by the man at the other end of the phone that an hour wasn’t long enough to cancel and order, and he then proceeded to argue with me about the quoted time, which I had repeated back to the original server and had confirmed. He was extremely rude, but while we were talking the delivery person arrived. Fail again. What was meant to be a 17.50 order, with free delivery over 15 dollars (as quoted on their flyer) became 22.50 due to a price increase and a 4 dollar delivery fee. When we again called to confirm we were rudely dealt with and told we had an old flyer and that they had not distributed the new ones yet (how else would they have thought we got their number!?), and were basically shut down.
The food itself was pretty mediocre even for something so simple. The fish was brown and soggy. It would have been fine though if just wanting a cheap Sunday afternoon, but the rudeness of the server (if he had been polite it would have also been tolerable) means I won’t order from here ever again!

As anyone from the country can attest, for all the vast categories of takeaway food that Melbourne does better than small towns, the only real exception is fish and chips.
Flakes on Sydney Road is a valiant attempt at fish and chips that, as a generic kind of takeaway meal, is satisfying enough. However, anything that comes in a box and not butcher’s paper will fail to be real fish and chips. The chips are more akin to the food court and late night van variety than to the choppy, uneven chips in the traditional fish and chips sense, but they’re still tasty and can even have a lick of crispiness to them on occasion. While greasy, the flake, butterfish and whiting are all tasty enough and go down well with a bit of the complimentary tartare sauce (note: it’s only complimentary when part of pack).
The nuggets and calamari rings are a bit on the generic side of things, though the latter is usually free of excessive chewiness, which is nice. The dim sims and potato cakes are all fine, but the fish cakes can sometimes be a bit undercooked.
There’re a few family packs from which to choose, as well as a couple of salads. The burgers and souvlakis’ are also pretty solid. I’m yet to try any of their recent venture into pastas or pizzas, so it wouldn’t be fair to comment on that wing of the business.
Flake’s does free local delivery from 5.00 to 10.20pm, 7 days a week, for a minimum of $ 15. All in all, it’s not bad, but it’s also not what I define as proper fish and chips.