The UK's 50 best fish and chip shops (and what it takes to make the list)

“There’s a lot more to great fish and chips than Joe Public probably imagines,” says Matt Phillips, owner of Shap Chippy in Shap, Cumbria. “The ratio of water to batter, what temperature you fry it at, how long you cook your fish for, the process of cooking the chips. You can go into five shops which use the same batter but they could produce a very different product.”

If anyone would know, it’s Phillips. In April, Shap Chippy was named among the 50 best fish and chip shops (technically 60, due to some shops' scores being tied) in the country, and one of the ten best mobile fish and chip vans, by trade magazine, Fry. This year’s success comes hot on the heels of the business winning second place at The National Fish And Chip Awards 2020.

As it stands, there are around 10,500 fish and chip shops operating in the UK and for many of them the pandemic has proved fruitful. According to data from delivery platform Foodhub released last May, fish and chip orders shot up by 208 per cent since the start of lockdown.

But at a booming time for the trade, what does it take to be the very best of them all?

Fry Magazine’s annual top 50 list is open to all to enter, but the selection process is “in-depth”, according to Reece Head, Fry’s events director. Every shop that enters is visited by a mystery diner, "and assessed on first impressions, staff, service, handling of the payment and food quality, of course, as there are individual scoring sections on the batter, chips and fish – finishing with the overall experience." Head explains that the entrants, of which he had several thousand, "did particularly well this year under the working circumstances of the pandemic. With safety for staff and customers paramount, many introduced click and collect ordering through apps and technology, for example.”

Over the three-page reviews, detailed assessments are required on everything from the crispness of the batter to the legibility of the menu boards.

Another entrant which made the top 50 this year, Carlo Crolla, owner of East Coast in Musselburgh, East Lothian, explained his own business’ secrets to success. “We’re committed to having a friendly team, being dedicated, and having great knowledge of the industry while continuously wanting to improve, having very high standards and knowing what a consumer wants.”

Phillips agrees that knowledge is the biggest thing he looks for when searching for good fish and chips himself. “I ask where the fish is from,” he says. “Is it sustainably caught? Does it have MSC certification? What oil is it being fried in? If the staff know a lot about their product then you can tell there's care and attention.

“If they don’t know what fish it is, or if it's been sitting there in the hot box for 15 minutes, that doesn't fill me with confidence that it'll be a banging product.”

One thing that stands out about the Fry list is that few of the shops which have been named in the top 50 are located in major towns or cities (there is only one in London, on the outskirts of the city). Many are in small towns or even villages. According to Phillips, pre-Covid it wasn’t uncommon for customers to make an hour and a half round trip to visit Shap Chippy.

With that in mind, if you want great fish and chips, it’s worth travelling, argues Crolla. “It’s quite common for businesses in smaller towns like Musselburgh to be overlooked in UK-wide competitions and not get the recognition they deserve, so it’s an amazing feeling to be named,” she admits.

One thing that Head is keen to highlight, however, is that the top 50 winners are not ranked; each has its own unique charms. “Two shops can enter from the same street or village so that’s why we don’t have a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. If one shop is 9th and the other is 49th it could have a negative effect on business which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve – so if you are in, you are in!”

The top 50 fish and chip shops in the UK, according to Fry Magazine

• Auckley Friery, Auckley, South Yorkshire

• Callaways Fish & Chips, Dorchester, Dorset

• Carlo’s, Alnwick, Northumberland

• Castiglio's Fried Fish & Chips, Ammanford, Carmarthenshire

• Chippy Chippy, Holyhead, Anglesey

• Chips @ No.8, Prestwich, Manchester

• Chish & Fips, Norwich, Norfolk

• Cox’s At The Lighthouse, St Neots, Cambridgeshire

• Croft Street Fisheries, Farsley, Leeds

• Davenport’s Fish & Chips, Louth, Lincolnshire

• David’s Fish And Chips, Brixham, Devon

• Dhillons Fish Inn, Throckley, Newcastle

• Dunkeld Fish Bar, Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross

• East Coast, Musselburgh, East Lothian

• Every Fish Bar, Harrow, London

• Farnhams Fish And Chips, Boverton, Llantwit Major

• Fiddlers Elbow Fish and Chips, Leintwardine, Herefordshire

• Finn's Traditional Fish and Chips, Reading, Berkshire

• Fintans Fish & Chip Co, Llanishen, Cardiff

• Fish 'n' Fritz, Weymouth, Dorset

• Fisherman’s Bay, Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear

• Fochabers Fish Bar, Fochabers, Moray

• Fraser's Fish and Chips, Penzance, Cornwall

• Frydays of Kendal, Kendal, Cumbria

• George's Fish And Chips, Hanham, Bristol

• Harlees Fish & Chips, Westbury, Wiltshire

• Henley's of Wivenhoe, Wivenhoe, Essex

• Hiks, Brynhyfryd, Swansea, Glamorgan

• Hooked On The Heath, Knutsford, Cheshire

• Jason's Fish And Chips, Rackheath, Norwich, Norfolk

• Land & Sea, Sowerby, York, North Yorkshire

• Linfords Traditional Fish and Chip Shop, Market Deeping, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

• Market Hill Fisheries, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire

• McLeod's Fish and Chips, Inverness

• My Plaice Fish and Chips, Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk

• Newington Fish Bar, Ramsgate, Kent

• Priory Plaice Fish and Chips, Ulverston, Cumbria

• Sea Salt + Sole, Dyce, Aberdeen

• Seasmiths Fish + Chips, Porthtowan, Truro, Cornwall

• Shap Chippy, Penrith, Cumbria

• Shaw’s Fish And Chips, Dodworth, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

• Smith’s Chippy, South Shields, Tyne & Wear

• Sykes, Pendlebury, Salford, Greater Manchester

• The Cafe Royal, Annan, Dumfriesshire

• The Cottage by Haddocks, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, Lancashire

• The Crescent Fish & Chip Shop, Flint, Flintshire

• The Esk Cafe, Carlisle, Cumbria

• The Fish At Goose Green, Wigan, Lancashire

• The Fish Bar, Crewe, Cheshire

• The Fish Works, Largs, North Ayrshire

• The Friary, Carrickfergus, County Antrim

• The Golden Fry, Benllech, Isle of Anglesey

• The Horseshoe Fish Bar, Pontnewynydd, Torfaen

• The Little Chippy Tyldesley, Manchester

• The Plaice to Be, Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire

• The Shire Fryer, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

• Tony’s, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire

• Towngate Fisheries, Idle, Bradford, West Yorkshire

• Valerio’s Fish And Chips, Lanark, South Lanarkshire

• Yan’s Fish Bar, Cardiff

10 Best Mobile Fish & Chip Units

• Cod’s & Rockers, Tadley, Hampshire

• Flitch & Chips, Flitch Green and Dunmow, Essex

• Go Fish & Chips, West Berkshire

• Howe & Co Van 66, Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire

• Mobile Chip Shop, Leicester & Nottingham

• Shappy Wheels, Shap, Cumbria

• Tony's On The Go, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire

• Trish & Chips, Telford, Shropshire

• Tropics Two, Dersingham, Norfolk

Have you eaten at any of the shops on the list? Do you have another shop you’d highly recommend? Let us know in the comments below