All of My mates from the UK all think that fish in the UK is crap ! compared to Australia.
My mum is from Denmark and she hated when her dad caught fish and cooked them up, Herrings ! he loved them tho !
Not all fish and chip shops are good here, some are totaly crappy, but when you get a good shop you get fresh fish and the oil it's fryed in is changed good and well.
The best fish I have ever eaten I caught and ate within the hour say, a Red Emperor. cooked in alfoil on the beach fire. with nothing added at all to the fish at all. The flavour is all in the fish and anything added at all would be an abomination.
When I lived in Darwin the fish and chip shops only had batted fish and they left all such battered on a bench in the open, not cooled in a fridge. my thoughts are that it was to hot up their in the shop to keep it cooled. always fresh fish tho. maybe it's done the same way in Asia ?
Chips can be an art to cooking them as well to get tasty chips, or mash chips or not cooked high enought temp or too low can make them rubbish as well.