The Bishops Arms (part one)

According to "The Bishops Arms" web page, the first Pub was opened 1993 in Västerås and since then, more than 30 stores have been established, from Luleå at the north, to Malmö at the south of Sweden.

The concept, always according to their web pages, is to offer to the broad public the opportunity to meet and talk over a pint, in a nice English atmosphere (remember this for later).
The truth is that in spite of my plans, I never managed to visit any of the Bishops (or is it Bishop's?) Arms until lately.

The photo is taken from "The Bishops Arms" official site.

When the news that The Bishop's Arms were to open in Skövde - where outing is limited to few, without any personality and taste of music, mainstream bars and boring restaurants - reached the town, I was really thrilled.

With Facebook as source of information, I kept following the progress towards the day I could finally be able to visit "my local".
The long expected day came and it was the 16th of July 2011.

We were greeted at the door by a couple of  doormen and we entered the temple of malt.
We didn't know that we had to order at the bar, but we did it out of habit.
After a not-so-short waiting to be served, we ordered two pints and two fish 'n chips - you cannot visit an English Pub and not try their fish 'n chips especially when you have read at their menu that "enligt engelsk tradition serverar vi panerad torskfilé med pommes och citrussås", which means "we serve coated with egg and breadcrumbs cod-fillet according to the English tradition".

We could already see the bottom of our pints when the food arrived, and there was certainly something fishy about those plates of fish 'n chips...
We wondered if we could be served two more pints, and the waitress was kind enough to make an exception and serve our drinks.
To the point.
The fish, which supposed to be cod-fillet coated with egg and breadcrumbs according to the English tradition, was definitely coated.
What was it coated with remains a question, since it was fried to a shade of distinct dark brown and desert with no oasis dry!
The so-called "cod-fillet coated with egg and breadcrumbs according to the English tradition", was fish-sticks looking like bits of a substance with a vague after-taste of... fish(?)

This time it was a waiter's time to come and collect our empty pint glasses and ask if the food tasted good.
I commented that it was not what we expected to be served when we ordered fish 'n chips "served according to the English tradition", but we were enlightened been told that what we had been served, it was the American variation of fish 'n chips - which is served in Bishop's Arms according to the English tradition!
At my comment "I thought there was something wrong with them" meaning the Americans and said with a smile, I got no response.

Did I mention they had no malt vinegar? :-)

Thank you Bishop's Arms, maybe next time we'll be more lucky...