The dish is a popular staple at some high-end restaurants, but prices have also risen at the average High Street chippy.
(Bloomberg) — It is as British as a red phone box, rain at Wimbledon and the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Fish and chips is the everyman’s dish, a fixture on village high streets and resort seafronts for more than a century.
And now diners are getting used to paying higher prices for the dish, from the humble “chippy” takeaway to tables from Michelin-starred chefs.
At the Harrods Dining Hall, the dish goes for a minimum £35 at Kerridge’s Fish and Chips run by Tom Kerridge. And Richard Corrigan’s great seafood bastion Bentley’s serves traditional fish and chips for £27.50, jostling on the menu with lobster thermidor. “It flies out of the kitchen,” Corrigan says. “We’re selling more than ever. In difficult times, I think it’s a plate of something comforting.” At 1 Lombard Street in the City, the £24 beer-battered fish and chips is a mainstay; owner Soren Jessen says he sells more than 100 portions a week.
But it’s not just Michelin-level meals that are getting more expensive. Prices at cheap chip shops have been battered by the soaring price of everything from fuel to fish, potatoes and oil. The price of cod has risen from £8 per kilo to £14. In the past year, the cost of the dish has risen almost 22%. Traditionally, fish and chips—anointed with salt and vinegar, then bundled in newspaper—would go for around £7.50 just three years ago. Now, it’s often £11, to go.
At Catch Me, in the Westfield Shopping Centre, costs have risen for chef Pascal Aussignac’s £12.50 fish and chips. “We can’t pass on all the costs, so our margins are lower now,” he says. “We have a good footfall here; I think if we were on the high street we would be struggling.”
The imposition of a 35% import tariff on Russian fish imports—including mainstays frozen cod and haddock—has been devastating for many chip shops. “These extra tariffs will push thousands of shops over the edge,” said Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, the industry’s trade body.
“Real fish and real potatoes are always going to be more expensive than industrial, ultra-processed food,” says Kerridge, who runs several restaurants in the UK, including two with Michelin stars. He contrasts those sourcing challenges with those of chippies’ high street rivals, namely, fried chicken and burger joints. “Forty years ago, when I was a kid, fish, potatoes and fat were all cheap. Now, the costs are crippling: potatoes have gone up 300% in price in just the last 18 months.”
Kerridge champions sustainable seafood, a concept that didn’t exist when he was young. The “Market Day Fish” on his Harrods menu might be gurnard, pollock or whiting: less recognizable than haddock or cod, but sustainably caught and in plentiful supply. Market fish will be £35, while plaice goes for £40. His fish comes fresh from day boats, not frozen from trawlers, and operating a concession in Harrods isn’t cheap.
At Kerridge’s Bar and Grill, at the Corinthia Hotel, South Coast line-caught haddock is £29; the Cornish turbot goes for £60. Both are served with pease pudding, tartare sauce and the chef’s signature Matson curry sauce, an homage to one from his local chippy, near the council housing where he grew up. “I wish people really understood what goes into a plate of fish and chips,” he says. “Fishing is hard, dangerous, manual work.
There is hope in the unlikely shape of a small shark: specifically, the Northeast Atlantic spurdog, known more attractively as “rock salmon.” It was popular in fish and chip shops for decades, until marine stocks dwindled and catching it was banned in 2010. Supplies have recovered sufficiently to allow spurdog to be fished again. The chance to put “rock and chips” back on the menu is “good news for British fishermen, and fish and chip shops,” Cook says.
If you can stomach the prices, here are several outstanding places to indulge in deep fried fish, enclosed in a shattering, golden crisp shell, with a serving of fat tender chips alongside.
Kerridge’s Fish and Chips, Harrods
Grab a banquette or perch on a stool at Kerridge’s excellent, and not inexpensive, homage to the art of the fish fryer, set in the ornate surroundings of the Harrods Dining Hall. The batter is gluten-free and shatteringly crisp, the fish pearly white and super-fresh and the chips triple-cooked and fluffy, with the option of his signature Matson spiced sauce on the side.
Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill
This venerable Mayfair restaurant opened in 1916, selling a humble menu of oysters (they were cheap back then) and fish and chips. It now boasts one of central London’s bigger outdoor terraces, as well as multiple cozy dining rooms. Richard Corrigan’s menu is a paean to the joys of seafood but, more than a century later, many diners still come here just for the fish and chips: With ethically sourced and superbly fresh fish encased in light-as-a-feather batter, it has stayed strong.
The Fryer’s Delight
Long-established Holborn chippy The Fryer’s Delight is big on London atmosphere—its Formica tables are lined with cabbies, locals and students—and low on prices: expect thick-cut chips and golden-battered cod, haddock and rock, fried to order, the old-school way, in beef dripping to give the batter more crunch and flavor, for around £11.
The Mayfair Chippy
The checkerboard floors and décor may be inspired by old-school chippies, but the North Audley Street location means the prices are substantially higher. At £22, though, a big plate of fish, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce, with a choice of HP sauce gravy or curry sauce, is one of the cheapest Mayfair dining options and—with succulent, sustainable fish encased in light, crisp batter—one of the best.
Golden Union
Golden Union has welcomed around 1.7 million customers to its white-tiled, wooden-paneled Soho shop over the last 15 years, and nothing has changed over time. The cod, haddock, coley, plaice and pollock are all sustainably sourced, and the chips are hand-cut: a chunky fillet of flaky, perfectly cooked, lightly battered cod with chips is £15.50 at this great standby in the West End.
Catch Me
Chef Pascal Aussignac, owner of the Michelin-starred Club Gascon, got into the fried seafood business 15 years ago with a place called Chip and Fish. In 2018, he updated the concept at this smart little corner of the vast Westfield mall in Shepherd’s Bush. There’s now a raw bar, and several pasta and seafood dishes, but classic fish and chips still makes up 50% to 60% of the orders, Aussignac says. “We get through a ton of potatoes every week,” he adds. His French skills ensure that the chips emerge crisp from the fryer, and the fish is sustainable and gleamingly fresh.
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