Catch 22 is a fish and chips restaurant on Victoria Road in the heart of Devonport, Auckland, built around a menu that celebrates the ocean's bounty. Freshly prepared seafood is the draw: crisp, golden snapper and tarakihi alongside perfectly cooked chips, with crumbed oysters, succulent scallops and a full run of golden fritters close behind. Customers rave about the generous portions and the light, non-greasy batter — the details that make or break a fish and chip shop.
The menu reaches well beyond the fryer's usual suspects. Burgers run from jumbo to snapper, toasted sandwiches and fried chicken cover the lighter orders, and desserts like pineapple and banana fritters finish things off. A second chapter covers Chinese-style takeaway — chow mein and chop suey, fried rice, soft noodles, sweet and sour and lemon-sauce dishes — along with Malaysian plates such as nasi goreng, bami goreng and beef or chicken satay.
Sharing is clearly part of the culture here: the Family Pack, the chef's special dishes and the packs of six finger foods are all built for tables rather than solo diners. With friendly service and 195 reviews behind it, Catch 22 has earned its reputation as a gem for seafood lovers in Devonport.
On Victoria Road in the heart of Devonport, Catch 22 does what the best New Zealand fish and chip shops do — and then keeps going. This is a fish and chips restaurant first and foremost, a place where the ocean's bounty is the whole point: snapper and tarakihi fried to a crisp gold, chips cooked through just so, and a menu that stretches to nearly 150 items once you start reading. For anyone after dinner on Devonport's main drag, it has become a reliable answer — the shop's listing carries 195 reviews from diners who clearly keep coming back.
Ask around and the story is the same: the seafood is freshly prepared, and the batter is light — never greasy. That last detail matters. A heavy, oil-logged coating is the classic fish and chips failure, and it is precisely what customers single out for praise at Catch 22, along with portions that err on the generous side.
The fish leans on local favourites. Snapper is the headline act, arriving crisp and golden in a regular scoop, in the snapper and chips combination, or stacked into a snapper burger. Tarakihi, another chip-shop staple, holds its own beside it, and hoki rounds out the roster. Beyond the fillets sits a whole cast of seafood from the fryer: crumbed oysters, succulent scallops, mussels, squid rings, fish cakes and crab sticks.
The fritter section is a tour of Kiwi takeaway tradition — paua, mussel, corn and potato fritters fried golden, with sweet pineapple and banana versions for dessert. The burger board runs from a jumbo burger for serious appetites through ham, egg, Hawaiian, cheese, bacon, steak, chicken and fish versions, plus a vegetarian burger and a snapper burger at the premium end. Toasted sandwiches — cheese, egg, BLT or bacon — cover lighter lunches, while fried chicken, hot dogs, batter sausages, hash browns and kumara chips fill out the hot-food side.
Then comes the surprise: a full Asian takeaway menu. Chow mein and chop suey arrive topped with steak, pork, roast pork, chicken, prawn or a combination; fried rice comes plain or loaded, yang chow included; soft noodles come with prawn, squid, seafood or vegetables. There is sweet and sour fish, pork, chicken or wonton, lemon fish, honey chicken, wonton soup, and even Malaysian dishes — nasi goreng, bami goreng, beef and chicken satay. Few takeaway boards in Auckland offer that much range under one roof.
Feeding a family or a group is clearly part of the plan here. The Family Pack handles bigger orders, the chef's special fried rice and special chow mein feed a table, and the packs of six — mini spring rolls, curry rolls, chicken wings, wontons, mussels, oysters, squid rings and prawn twisters — are made for reaching across the table. Combination options appear in nearly every section of the menu, which tells you plenty about how people order. It is the kind of menu where a mixed group — one person wanting fish, another satay, someone else a burger — can all order happily.
First-timers should do the obvious: snapper and chips with the house tartare sauce. All three appear among the shop's own signature picks, alongside the crumbed snapper. Add a paua fritter if you have never tried one — it is about as Kiwi as takeaway food gets — and swap in kumara chips if you like a sweeter edge. A donut or a Moro bar handles dessert duty.
The experience itself is simple and warm: a friendly welcome, food cooked to order, generous plates and comfortable mid-range pricing on most items. Whether you take your paper parcel to go or tuck in straight away, Catch 22 delivers the core promise of great fish and chips — and then offers a whole lot more if you are in the mood.