Jonathan’s Fish & Chips

Every time I’m in the area I ALWAYS stop by Jonathan’s. I always order the catfish with fries… DELICIOUS

Traveling on business and took a chance and ate here for lunch. I wish I had saved my money. I got the 2 catfish and 6 prong meal with fries. I thought I ordered way too much food when my bill was 19 bucks. I sat and waited for my feast. Food was ready quick and served in a container big enough for a hotdog and fries. Two small pieces of catfish and 6 small butterflied shrimp awaited me. I had the macaroni salad, which I don’t recommend. While hot I didn’t find the food memorable at all. Combine the cost, portion size and less than average taste, it comes to one star. I will not be going back.

Best fish place on the peninsula! Always a great experience!!!

Ditto what everyone said about the inexplicably glacial cooking pace but that isn’t my primary gripe. The food was just really really bad.
If you order fried fish, hope that you get one of the few pieces that isn’t paper thin, otherwise it’ll be hard and dry. I’m confused how this place has good ratings and is still in business.
In short, the food was terrible, overpriced, and slow.

I got the catfish & fries. The catfish was excellent!

Turkey burger was really great. Half-​way through I got full and still couldn’t stop eating — it was that good. The secret is: they don’t load the patty down with gobs of spices. Next time I’m in town, this is my first stop.

Best Cat And Prawns In The Bay. Food Is Always Good Here. Been Coming Here For Years Cuz I Get My Haircut Next Door. Good People, Good Service, Good Food.

1 hour and 10 minute wait for 2 combo orders. Absolutely ridiculous! I was only here because I attended a seminar and the person that drove always stops here on tge way home so I was stuck. I feel like I’m being tortured. My off day and it’s going down the tubes for nothing but fried food!
The end result: fish, prawns and hush puppies were disgustingly overcooked. Fries were luke warm, soggy and terribly undercooked.
My friend substituted his fries for potato salad and got fries anyway and no potato salad.
Hot sauce is really really good!
never again in life will I come here again.
They do take a lot of to go orders and I think it’s safe to say there is no system. People waiting should take priority and there should be more than 1 cook in the kitchen. They bite off more than they can chew. And even with 1 cook, how is it that you were so behind, everything here is fried? Do you know how many items you can fry at one time?

I wish I had the experience that some of these 4 and 5 star reviewers had. With very few people in the place I waited far too long for a simple order of fish tacos. The small amount of fish was greasy and cold. I should have sent it back. There was some cheese, which was obviously from the enormous Costco shredded cheddar cheese and pretty blah. Cheap décor and slippery floors. The women working the counter were charming but that is not enough to make me return.

I really was looking forward to my food because I heard it was good…
That said, I just came from trying this place out for the first time. It’s a sad little place with outdated décor and no real theme. It smells like fried things and no air to vent made my clothes smell too.
I tried the 4 whole wings and the small snapper fish n chips, just to see some variety. Total came to $ 25, which was way overpriced for the quality of food served. Basically the wings were monstrously large in size and were not seasoned or flavored at all. I’m guessing that if you did want wings then you should get the drumettes or better yet– go to Wing Stop or Buffalo Wild Wings! The fries were sad looking too– like the kinds you get at a school lunch cafeteria; seems like they had been sitting out for awhile getting stale– medium sized, but not crispy or seasoned at all.
The snapper was a little decent at least, due to the cornbread seasoned layer. However i was not impressed at all and it was just not good. I threw out 90% of my food after trying it. Then went to Subway next door…
Honestly I’m not sure why people are posting such raves about this place because it’s so horrible I’m surprised it’s still in business. Unfortunately will not be returning here nor will I be recommending this place to my network of people.

Solid fried seafood. Get the catfish, go nuts on the hot sauce, and be prepared for a food coma. Deserts were average, but the sides were all solid.

OMG. The red snapper was my favorite until I had the catfish. The pieces are big and juicy. Love the prawns. I wanna try the calamari but I’m scared. The chicken wings are ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. The fries are good. I dip them in the tartar sauce. The banana pudding is very sweet. It needs more vanilla wafers. The red velvet cake is good.
I don’t even need desert. I can eat the CATFISH all day every day!!!

I was really excited to finally try this place after driving by so many times.
Pros:
— The fish is pretty good for a cornmeal batter. The catfish was tasty, but slightly overcooked, imo.
— The Franks Red Hot sauce on the side is clutch.
— A small is plenty of food, so reasonably priced and you get plenty of food for what you pay for.
Cons:
— The tarter sauce is such a disappointment! It’s basically mayo.
— The fries are pretty crappy. Would love thinner and crispier fries.
— It took FOREVER to get our food. Come on — dip it and fry it for 7 mins then done. Should not take 30 mins, which it did.
If they changed up the tartersauce and fries, and sped things up — I’d def. be a returning eater!

I love this place and have been going here since I was a kid, I believe they have been around for 20 years or so.
The food is a little greasy, but its also flavorful and delicious, this isn’t a place you go to everyday but rather once maybe twice a month (if you want to watch your figure). The food just taste like home, its no 5 star restaurant but its humble and makes you miss your grandmas cooking.
The food is made to order, and the service is good.
Definitely worth a try in my book!

This place is getting 2 stars and not just 1 because the actual fish was pretty good. So why did I deduct 3 stars if the main product was good? Well lets start with everything else. First, I’ll preface that maybe this is just how this «cuisine» (by cuisine I mean southern style fried everything) is supposed to be, bland, way too salty, and overloaded with fat. You can tell by the clientele this is a «southern style» restaurant but still, its here in the bay area so I expected a little more flavor. Again, the fish was good but everything else is terrible (and I really hope Jonathan reads this cuz these are easy fixes)
Cole Slaw — basically half of it was mayonaise with no vinegar or flavor, basicallty mayo with cabbage mixed in
Tartar Sauce — that is a joke. There was no relish, no horseradish, it was fucking MAYO and SALT. Who adds salt to mayonaise???
Lemon juice from concentrate packets — So they have packets of lemon juice from concentrate the same way they have ketchup packs. I had no idea these existed…
Jonathan, are you really too cheap to purchase actual lemons? Just buy them and charge .25 cents for each additional wedge
Hot Sauce — it’s franks hot sauce, but seemed to be loaded with extra salt, or maybe everything was so salty it tasted like that
Fixes: Purchase the following: Lemons, Horseradish, Relish, and a few other types of hot sauce and we’ll be good, Until then, I’m not coming back

Came here on a random Monday afternoon to grab myself some lunch just after working a shift. I was interested in this place and the pizza place next door, my only battle I was having with myself between the two was that I am always afraid that all these fish fried places consist of greasy food. I was pleasantly surprised with my choice of Jonathan’s Fish & Chips.
I ordered two items on the menu that looked particular well and my favorite personal items at other restaurants. The Chicken Philly and also the Fish Tacos. The order took about 25 – 30 minutes to get my order for the Chicken Philly and about another 5 – 10 minutes later my Fish Tacos came to my table. The place was busy for 3 in the afternoon, which for most restaurants is a very good sign.
The Chicken Philly was absolutely amazing! I thought it was perfect in every way possible! Not incredibly greasy really good marinated chicken as well as crisp vegetables! The fries were your standard maybe frozen crinkle cut french fries nothing special nothing amazing which was a little disappointing.
The Fish Tacos were hit or miss as well too. The salsa was just okay, nothing really really special. The shell of the taco was too hard for me to eat so I just ate the fish and salsa instead of the entire Fish Taco.
Honestly the Chicken Philly was the greatest thing about coming here and I will come back for that exact item and try some other good things I noticed (the pies wow they looked good.) I’d rather avoid the fries and Fish Tacos and move on to another item on the menu!

Crisp Fish yet flavorless and lackluster Chips.
Came here for lunch on business. Ordered Red Snapper Fish and Chips. The environment is run down; you order first then sit down. Took longer than expected to get the food when it wasn’t busy. I will say the fish was crispy and had a good layer of breading… I really wish the breading had better seasoning. The fish itself tasted fresh. The chips weren’t good at all.
I found this place overrated. The highlight of the meal was the tartar sauce and I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to venture out here.

I used to come here all the time a few years back, they had the best catfish and the best shrimp oh and homemade sweet tea. After not visiting this place in about 2 years I was craving some good fried catfish close by and knew I had to come here.
I came a little after they had opened and there were a few people in there but not many. I began asking questions about their fish and out of 5 different fish options that they offer they only had 2, come on your main seller is fish. So I ordered Catfish and then ordered prawns and wanted to add a couple sides. It seemed as if every side I wanted they said they did not have. No macaroni n cheese, no greens, no macaroni salad, no dirty rice. Wait hold up, what’s going on! The only sides they had were fried corn on the cob, okra and something else I can’t remember. What a bummer! I just stuck with the catfish w/​fries and prawns w/​fries, that took about 30 minutes to cook. They never used to take that long.
I was absolutely starving by the time I received my food and was salivating at the ever so delicious smell of the cornmeal battered catfish. I took one bite and was absolutely crushed!!! They had over cooked the fish so much that I didn’t even want to eat it, the edges were so crispy it was like biting a potato chip. Smh. The fries were another let down, instead of being crispy they were super soggy. I was completely disappointed.
This place is just not what it used to be and I most likely will not be coming back.

This may sound a bit strange, but this place caught my eye for its fried okra.
Don’t get me wrong, I was recommended to try Jonathan’s for their catfish fish & chips. I’m not usually a catfish fan, but the catfish fish and chips here are delicious! Lightly breaded with cornbread (I think), and fried delicately such that the fish stays nice and tasty without getting dried out in the process. Amazing. Hot sauce and tartar sauce are also just as tasty to have with your fish and chips.
Also, the fried okra and fried corn on the cob were very delicious to have on the side. Jonathan’s is a great hole in the wall place to come with friends.
The wait is a bit longer than usual, but it is so worth it.
TIP: portions are pretty big here. A «small» portion of fish and chips contains 3 large pieces of fish and a good number of fries. Make sure you come here hungry ;)

Jonathan’s is a little hole in the wall southern place in Menlo Park.
Service was very friendly. Food was pretty good, but cornmeal crust is fairly heavy. Fish was very fresh. Crinkle-​cut fries are premade and mediocre. Fried okra is tasty.