The top 10 fish and chip restaurants in the United Kingdom have been announced and will now battle it out to win the title Independent Fish and Chip Restaurant of the Year at the 2016 National Fish & Chip Awards, organized by the U.K. Seafish Authority.
The 10 businesses on the shortlist are:
- Chesters in Chesterfield, Derbyshire
- Drakes Fisheries, York, North Yorkshire
- Fylde Fish Bar, Southport, Merseyside
- Hanbury’s Famous Fish and Chips, Torquay, Devon
- No 1 Cromer in Cromer, Norfolk
- Papa’s Fish and Chips, Willerby, East Yorkshire
- Something Else Fishy, Milborne Port, Somerset
- The Scallop Shell, Bath, Somerset
- Trenchers Restaurant, Whitby, North Yorkshire
- The Tailend Restaurant, St Andrews, Fife
To get to this stage, the restaurants have been appraised across a variety of judging criteria including responsible sourcing policies, restaurant appearance and facilities, staff training and development policies, marketing and promotional activity and how they cater for customers with specific dietary requirements. They also received mystery shopping judging assessments by industry experts to ascertain the quality of the fish and chips on offer and the level of customer service provided by staff.
Over the coming weeks, the restaurants will be subjected to further mystery judging evaluations and in-depth judging audits. This next stage of the competition will whittle down the top 10 to establish the top five restaurants that will compete for the top accolade at the 2016 awards ceremony.
“The aim of the National Fish & Chip Awards has always been to showcase the very best fish and chip businesses and individuals in the U.K. while setting incredibly high standards for the industry to aspire to,” said Paul Williams, chief executive of Seafish.
“With the popularity of fish and chip dining establishments on the increase, the restaurant dining experience has now come up to par with the traditional ‘chippy’ takeaway and is a potent symbol of British identity that is catering to the ‘posh noshtalgia’ trend.
“With this being said, the importance of recognizing and rewarding our country’s best fish and chip restaurants cannot be overlooked. The high level of standards and professionalism embedded within the businesses that entered this year has been outstanding, and I know the judges had a tough job determining the top 10 businesses.
“I’d like to offer up my congratulations to all of those who made the shortlist and wish them the very best as they prepare for the next stage of the competition, but also thank them for upholding our high industry standards and helping us to reinforce the U.K.’s reputation as the home of the world’s best fish and chips,” said Williams.
According to Seafish statistics , U.K. consumers paid 329 million visits to fish and chip shops in 2014, the same as in 2013, with food and drink purchases totaling GBP 1.1 billion (EUR 1.5 billion; USD 1.7 billion), an increase of 0.5 percent on the previous year.
