Pajos is a little Fish and Chips place on a warf at Steveston, and they serve up Halibut, Salmon and Cod fish & chips as well as burgers. I went with the large Fish & Chips with Halibut, which runs at $14. Pretty expensive. I also grabbed some chowder which the staffer recommended, which ran at I think $4. The service there is decent. The guy serving us hadn't tried much of their menu, but what he had tried he was able to describe well. He was friendly enough.

For the food itself, it's actually really delicious. The halibut was tasty and the batter was amazing. Don't overcoat in vinegar or lemon, because you want it to stay as crispy as it comes. The portions for a large are OK, I shared my large as well as the chowder and that was more than enough for 2. The chowder was alright. Thick, creamy, but in need of a bit extra seasoning. The fries were standard fare.

And now for the ambiance! Wow there are a lot of crows there. And these are scruffy-looking crows. They're the size of small dogs and they will stare you down. I've never been glared at by birds before, and these crows are not in the least bit afraid of you either. It's kind of nice being on the dock on a nice, sunny day, but since all the seating is outdoors, you don't get to avoid the cold glares of death the giant birds around there give. It's actually pretty entertaining though, as long as birds don't scare you. Tables are all covered with umbrellas, so you don't have to worry about the birds defiling your meals or hairdos.

Firstly, I will blog a little about fish n chips in general...

I am hit with my fish n chip craving about once or twice per year. It is not health food (usually devoid of green vegetables and deep fried). It is not well valued food. If the product is too inexpensive - the quality is usually bad. Reasonably good quality commands high prices.

Anyways, onto my review of this Pajo's location:

Arrived at Garry Point on a Sunday afternoon. Looked like lots of people had the same idea. We knew what to expect, so we brought the following:

Plastic picnic table cloth cover so that I would not have my children eating on a surface sullied with birdy-doo.

Duct tape to secure plastic picnic table cloth so that it does not fly away in the wind (Garry Point gets windy and is actually a good place to fly/watch kites).

Plastic or disposable plates because eating out of a paper cone cumbersome (especially for my pre-school age children)

My husband set up the picnic table with the kids and I went to stand in line for about 15 minutes to place our order. Once my order was placed, it was another 15 minutes for them to make my order.

I had lots of time to study the menu while standing in line. I am familiar with Pajos and knew to order one large fish n chips and fries (comes with 2 1/2 pieces of fish and enough fries to choke a horse). I ordered two "just fish" which gave me a total of three extra pieces of fish for about 50 cents less than a second order of fish and chips and fries (more fish for a bit less money and I knew that there were plenty of fries with the one order to go around). I also ordered a cheeseburger without fries. The menu board only lists the burgers as platters (with fries). I asked and the server sold me a cheeseburger without the fries for 60 cents less than the platter. Again, I knew that the large fish and chips had PLENTY of fries to go around. I also order 4 medium root beer.

When I picked up, I checked the order. Everything was okay. I had to request my tartar sauce. I helped myself to ketchup and malt vinegar at the condiment station. My order is placed in a wooden rack which I am instructed to unload at my picnic table and return straight away.

I brought the order to my picnic table, plated the food and brought back the wooden rack and walked back to the table. unfortunately, by this time, my fish and chips were considerably cooled. Notwithstanding this, the fish and chips were good quality and the burger was quite tasty (although the patty was a bit small)

My total bill (with tax) came to about $42.00.

This is pricey for self serve. Hence the one star for "value"

As for service (which I also rated as "one star" - the servers were well mannered and polite. I rated the service as poor due to management oversites: the a al carte burgers were not included in the price list (some people wouldn't know to ask). The tartar sauce is not offered automatically (even if the staff were instructed to ask if the customer wanted tartar sauce as to not encourage waste). I did not like having to bring back my wooden tray while my meal cooled in the windy conditions of Garry Point. Perhaps Pajos can consider a better method of packing the orders without having to make customers walk back and forth (the picnic tables can be the equivalent of a city block or two away).

Also, I know that those paper cones are cute and all - but they really are awkward to eat from.

When visiting Sunset Beach in Vancouver, I go to Stephos (a uber-value place Greek place on Davie Street) and get my order to go. For approximately 10 bucks I can get a huge roast lamb dinner (including vegetables) packed to go along with napkins and utensils. You can see my review at Dinehere.ca

I think I will do the same concept when visiting Garry Point. I will do a search at Dinehere.ca and find a reasonably priced restaurant en-route that does take out. I'll continue to Garry Point, park, unload the kids and be enjoying our picnic instead of standing in line for 30 minutes for fish n chips that will be cold by the time I get to them.

Food: lot of batter on fish, fries were soggy, but none the less satisfied a fish and chips craving.

Service: order and pick up, can't really go wrong. Cashier and staff were all polite and smiling. Didn't wait too long, about 20 min on sat afternoon.

Value: kinda pricey, almost $10 for just 1.5 pieces of fish and a handful of chips.

ambiance: can't really beat a hot sunny afternoon down at steveston!

Eating down on the wharf at Pajos is an experience I have every summer, its a great place to take visitors as it is still somewhat off the beaten path that takes tourists to Stanley Park and other large attractions. The halibut and chips is still the best choice but cod and salmon are also available. What I found this time was the staff, mostly students, were impatient with customers and tended to look bored with their job....like, do we have to serve you? I realize it is hard to get summer help but it is a job working in a pleasant environment (love those seagulls) so Pajos should be training their staff to be a little more customer-friendly. Also, how about some different fruit juices and non-carbonated drinks. the selection is quite poor. However, I'll be back for the halibut & chips!

I've tried almost all the fish and chip places in Steveston and would have to say Pajo's ranks well with me. I think the ambiance and quality of food fits well within Steveston. Although their prices are a tad bit pricy, you absolutely get what you pay for. For all the people that are complaining about price, go to Safeway, buy Captain Highliner's frozen fish and chips and have a blast.

Although a tad on the oily side, they offer some fresh lightly battered fish & chips. Large portions, busy location. I still remember it because of the overuse in oil in the fish though. Still trying to figure out why they're so busy. Maybe it's the sunshine & on the docks theme--can't go wrong there.

We recently visited Pajos and were disappointed with our meal. We ordered the halibut fish 7 chips and its seems like the portions of fish have shrank. The last few times we went, our meal seemed worth it because we were paying almost $13 for 2 1/2 pieces of fish. This time we got 3 half pieces of fish with very soggy fries...what happened? The lines have also decreased, so maybe that is a sign. I think we'll try Dave's next time we're in the Steveston area.

I keep hearing good things about this place, so after trying it, and waiting over 30min for my fish & chip, I was super disappointed. The fried batter looked a little too dark, not golden brown, and mushy. My halibut tasted dry and overcooked. Fries were greasy and mushy. Service was agonizingly slow, wish they had a more efficient way of serving people faster. Try C-Lovers for better quality fish & chips.

The weather finally perked up so a trip out to Steveston was in order. We made a beeline for Pajo's at Garry Point and were dismayed at the humongous lineup of screaming schoolchildren. No matter, there's one just a hop and a skip away, floating along next to the boardwalk.
We got the "one of each": 1 pc each of salmon, halibut, and cod. The fish was lightly battered and not overfried or dried out. Nice! However, the fries were soggy and not crisp. My dining companion commented that they felt "rubbery." Maybe undercooked a little bit?
The orders came out really fast, no complaints there.
I don't know what to say about ambiance. The hut itself is pretty cute. Not too hard to find seating up around the boardwalk.

Will have to come back to see if the fries are any better the second time around. Fish is great though...can we get them by themselves?

We went there on Mother's Day and it was packed. The lineup was almost up to the plank so it took a while before we could order. The cashier was friendly and we got our food pretty fast.

The prices were on the high side, one and a half piece of cod plus fries was about $8. With just the fish it was a little over $5 so adding fries was ~$2.50. We also had the chowder which was ~$5.

The fish was alright...wasn't as crisp as I would have liked but it tasted good. The chowder had nice chucks of stuff in it but it needed more salt.