UK’s top fish and chip shop finalists announced

The top 10 fish and chip shops in the UK have been announced in the national Fish & Chip Shop of the Year competition.

The 10 finalists will now go head-to-head in the national finals in a bid to win the title of National Fish & Chip Shop of the Year 2009.

The competition, which is organised by Seafish, the authority on seafood, recognises the quality, value and choice offered by fish and chip shops across the UK. Previous winners have seen their sales increase by 40 per cent within months of winning the competition.

The ten shops must now present to a panel of industry experts, providing the judges with information about their business, before answering questions from the panel of leading industry figures on industry-related topics including sustainable sourcing, health and safety and maintaining product quality.

Nikki Hawkins, competition judge and project manager for the competition at Seafish, said: “The standard of entrants continues to increase each year and we are witnessing fish and chips shops paying an increasing amount of attention to sustainable sourcing as well as offering quality, value and choice.  This industry has come a long way in 22 years and competition for the National title only gets fiercer each year.”

The winner will be presented with the champion’s crown by popular TV chef, Aldo Zilli, at a ceremony on 21 January at the Park Plaza Riverbank in London.

Nearly 276 million fish and chip meals are sold each year from over 10,500 shops, making fish and chips Britain’s favourite takeaway. According to Seafish, fish and chips contain 36 per cent less calories than a chicken korma and pilau rice, and 42 per cent less fat than a doner kebab with pitta and salad.  Recent studies also showed that fish and chips had the lowest salt content of all the takeaways tested.

The ten finalists are

•          Atlantic Fish Bar, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland
•          Broughton Fish & Chips, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
•          Daniel’s Fish & Chips, Weymouth, Dorset
•          Finnegan’s, Porthcawl in Mid Glamorgan, Wales
•          Fish & Chicken, Ballymena, Northern Ireland
•          Great British Eatery, Birmingham, West Midlands
•          Linford’s Traditional Fish & Chips, Peterborough, Lincolnshire
•          Metro Fish Bar, Bury, Lancashire
•          Royal Fisheries, Whitby, North Yorkshire
•          Scooby Snax, Colchester, Essex

Richard Caring hits back at endangered fish report >>

National Fish and Chip Shop of the Year regional winners announced >>

Fish and chip shops leading the way in sustainability >>

Scottish fish and chip shop named best in UK >>

Wrexham fish and chip shop closed after E. coli outbreak >>


By Rosie Birkett

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