Ziggy's Fish & Chips

At Ziggy's, the kitchen that batters halibut and haddock also stews oxtail and simmers curry goat. The fish-and-chips half is the name on the sign on Kent Street West, a British chip shop transplanted to downtown Lindsay. The other half is Jamaican, and it is no token gesture: jerk chicken, curry goat, oxtail stew, roti, and rice and peas hold as much of the menu as the seafood. Ziggy's is family-run, and it has folded both kitchens into one counter rather than picking a side.

The seafood lane is the traditional one, and it runs the full chip-shop register. Halibut and haddock come battered in a homemade coating with fries, coleslaw, and tartar sauce; breaded scallops and shrimp arrive with cocktail sauce; the Big Fish Sandwich stacks crispy haddock on ciabatta with slaw and tartar. Around the fish sits a familiar lunch-counter middle — a homemade beef burger, a turkey BLT, grilled cheese and bacon, chicken fingers, and wings — with mushy peas, onion rings, battered mushrooms, and sweet potato fries on the side. For a table, the haddock and halibut family specials package four pieces of fish with large fries, slaw, and tartar in a single box.

The Caribbean lane runs just as deep. Oxtail stew and curry goat come with rice and peas and coleslaw; jerk chicken arrives as a plate, stir-fried into rice, or folded into a mango-salsa wrap. Roti comes on dhal puri, filled with curry chicken, goat, or chickpea for a meat-free option. Around the mains sit the supporting cast of a Jamaican kitchen — fried ripe plantain, festivals, coco bread, rice and peas, and Jamaican patties — and the desserts lean the same way, with mango cheesecake and Jamaican rum cake to close. It is a fuller Caribbean menu than most chip shops would attempt, let alone keep on permanently.

What makes the menu specific is that the two halves talk to each other. The loaded poutines run in both directions — cheese curds and gravy under bacon bits, jerk chicken, or stewed oxtail. Grilled shrimp and jerk chicken land together on Alfredo linguini. A carrot, ginger, and coconut soup sits a few lines from a jerk chicken noodle soup, and a Greek salad shares the page with curry goat. This is not a fish shop that bolted on a few Caribbean plates to widen its reach. You do not build a jerk chicken Alfredo unless both sides of the kitchen are cooked with intent.

The family-run identity has held for a long time. Ziggy's has served British-style fish and chips in downtown Lindsay for more than thirty years, dating to 1991 — long enough to become the kind of place locals name without reaching for the address. The Caribbean menu is the newer layer over that foundation, but it now reads as core rather than addition, deep enough that a regular might come for oxtail as readily as for cod. The restaurant leans hard into takeout: an online ordering menu lists the seafood plates, Jamaican mains, sandwiches, sides, and desserts in one place, and the family packages are built to feed a group out of a single order. Catering runs through the same operation when the occasion is larger than a dinner.

In practice, the menu is built for a table that cannot agree. One person keeps it classic with a halibut plate and mushy peas; another goes straight for oxtail or curry goat over rice and peas; a third splits the difference with a jerk chicken mango wrap or the Big Fish Sandwich. For a group, the haddock family package handles the fish-and-chips order while a roti or a Caribbean main fills in the rest, and the loaded poutines cover anyone who wants cheese curds and gravy in the mix. Two kitchens, one counter, and a downtown Lindsay order that can swing from a British fish supper to a plate of rice and peas without ever leaving the same window.