A fish sandwich is, most generally, any kind of
sandwich
A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...
made with
fish
A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
. The term is frequently used to describe food made with breaded, fried fish, which are commonly found in
fast food
Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...
venues.
In American English, a ''sandwich'' is any two pieces of bread with filling, including rolls and buns; in British English (and also some other national English varieties such as those of Australia and New Zealand), the word ''sandwich'' is defined more narrowly, to require the pieces of bread to be sliced from a loaf, and a roll or bun with filling would not generally be called a ''sandwich''.
Thus, what would be considered a ''fish sandwich'' in the US may not be considered a sandwich at all in some other English-speaking countries, if it is on a roll or bun as opposed to sliced bread. In Australia, a piece of whole fried fish served on hamburger-style bun would be called a ''fish burger''; that would not generally be considered to be ''burger'' in American English, since in American English a ''burger'' requires a patty made of ground meat, so something could only be a ''fish burger'' if it contained a patty made of ground fish.
Types
Examples include:

*
Fish finger sandwich, a sandwich made with
fish fingers popular in Britain where it is a
comfort food
Comfort food is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone and may be characterized by its high caloric nature associated with childhood or home cooking. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual or it may apply to a ...
.
*
Tuna sandwich, usually made from
canned tuna
A tuna (: tunas or tuna) is a saltwater fish that belongs to the Tribe (biology), tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, rangin ...
combined with other ingredients, and which has been called "the mainstay of almost everyone's American childhood".
["Cookbooks fail in search for the quintessential tuna sandwich."](_blank)
Burros, Marian, Reprinted in The Review Spokesman, March 12, 1985. Retrieved June 13, 2009. "Perhaps The Joy of Cooking' doesn't include a tuna fish sandwich recipebecause Irma Rombauer never wanted to become embroiled in the controversy ver which extra ingredients to add But how can any book that purports to cover the American cooking scene omit the mainstay of almost everyone's childhood?"

* Salmon burger, a type of
fishcake
A fishcake (sometimes written as fish cake) is a culinary dish consisting of filleted fish or other seafood minced or ground, mixed with a starchy ingredient, and fried until golden.
Asian-style fishcakes usually contain fish with salt, water, ...
made mostly from
salmon
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
in the style of a
hamburger
A hamburger (or simply a burger) consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis ...
, common in
Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
where they are routinely offered as an alternative to beef hamburgers. The salmon requires a
binder to make it stick together and is easy to overcook which makes it too dry.
* Fried fish sandwiches such as the
Filet-O-Fish (from
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
) and
BK Big Fish (
Burger King
Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...
).

*
Fischbrötchen, a sandwich made with fish and other components commonly eaten in
Northern Germany
Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...
, due to the region's proximity to the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
and
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
.
*
Balık ekmek (lit. ''fish bread''), a
Turkish fish sandwich made with mackerel fillets or other
oily fish
Oily fish are fish species with fish oil, oil (fats) in soft tissues and in the coelomic cavity around the Gut (zoology), gut. Their fillet (cut), fillets may contain up to 30% oil, although this figure varies both within and between species. ...
, which is a specialty of the seafood stalls lining the docks of
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
.
See also
*
Fishcake
A fishcake (sometimes written as fish cake) is a culinary dish consisting of filleted fish or other seafood minced or ground, mixed with a starchy ingredient, and fried until golden.
Asian-style fishcakes usually contain fish with salt, water, ...
, a product used as a patty between buns, for some fish burgers
*
Fish taco
*
Lobster roll
*
List of sandwiches
Sandwiches are a common type of lunch food often eaten as part of a packed lunch. There are many types of sandwiches, made from a diverse variety of ingredients. The sandwich is the namesake of John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, a British statesman ...
*
List of seafood dishes
*
Po' boy sandwich
References
{{sandwiches
Seafood sandwiches