A food reviewer says a down-to-earth Yorkshire fish and chip shop serves up the tastiest supper in the UK – but some have questioned the colour of the batter in the dish.
YouTuber @Garyeats shared a video entitled ‘The UK’s best fish and chips – wow, wow, wow!’ and revealed that, after eating the popular British meal at takeaways all over the country, he’d found fish and chip nirvana in a corner of West Yorkshire.
@Garyeats said that he first made his way to George A Green Fisheries in Wakefield after fellow YouTuber Mr Yorkshire, aka Danny Malin from Rate My Takeaway, tipped him off about how delicious the fish and chips there were.
The 18-minute video posted this week sampling the dish shows @Garyeats ordering a battered haddock with chips for £9.50 – alongside a hearty fish cake, two fish scallops and pots of mushy peas, gravy and curry sauce.
The food reviewer also marvels at the fact that he’s offered ‘scraps’, tiny pieces of leftover batter that are popular in northern England but largely unheard of elsewhere in the UK.
The fish and chips at the takeaway are cooked in beef dripping, which creates a darker than average hue to both the battered haddock and the chips.
While many said that’s exactly ‘how they should be served’ – others suggested the deep brown shade was ‘off-putting’.
YouTube food reviewer @Garyeats claims he’s found the nation’s tastiest fish and chips in a takeaway in Wakefield, West Yorkshire – where he paid £9.50 for a substantial portion of haddock and chips
However, the dark colour of the fish batter, and particularly the chips, weren’t to everyone’s taste
One person wrote in the comments after watching the video: ‘The colour of those chips is incredible!’
Another added that the colour was spot on, saying: ‘That’s exactly how I like my fish and chips. Brown and crispy. Nothing worse than a pale, anemic chip that is undercooked.’
However, one fish supper fan penned: ‘The fish and chips looked a bit off-putting with the dark colour.’
Another added: ‘Some people might think the batter and the chips look too dark but that is what they should look like if cooked in beef dripping. They are so much more tasty like that.’
One person surmised: ‘That’s not overdone, that’s perfect.’
Others agreed it was one of the nation’s best, with one person writing: ‘My mum used to send me to that chippy for tea after school, I’m 67 now and still go. Best in England.’
Earlier this year, the National Fish and Chip Shop Awards gave the title of Britain’s best fish and chip shop to Darlington-based Yarn Road Fish and Chips.
The competition’s judging criteria is rigorous, with interviews, mystery taste tests and skill assessments all undertaken by competitors.
Owner Will Burrell says that its his shop’s ingredients which saw it outmuscle rivals and claim this year’s title.
‘It starts with the best ingredients that money can buy. We use Icelandic, sustainable cod fillets fried in a nice clean oil with a light batter’, Burrell said.
The shop had already received rave reviews online, with one Tripadvisor user writing: ‘Visited last year for the very first time and their fish & chips are delicious! Everyone is always friendly, welcoming and efficient but never impatient.
‘The shop is kept clean and high standards maintained overall. Love the food, prices are good and if it wasn’t for my waistline, I’d be there every week!’
Another penned: ‘Never disappointed with the standard of the food and plenty of it.
‘Always call for take away lunch when in the area, you wait for the food to be cooked fresh, but it is worth it.’
However, the takeaway boss, serving up portions for £9.90, issued a stark warning about price rises for the nation’s favourite dish due to rising costs of food.
Burrell warned: ‘Our dish is still under a tenner but there are big price rises are coming in the industry. The cost of fish has gone through the roof and the cost of potatoes are on the rise.’
Last month, another award winning fish and chip shop in Greater Manchester was accused of ‘ripping people off’ after it raised the price of haddock to £8.20.
Chips @ No 8 in Prestwich has regularly been hailed as one of the best fish and chip shops in the region. It has also made it into a few national lists, and often draws in big crowds during the day.
Dan Edwards, owner of Chips @ No 8 in Prestwich, has defended the company’s price rises
And Brad-Lee Navruz, who runs The Nippy Chippy in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, apologised to customers recently after charging £15 for fish and chips as a result of widespread price rises
Run by owner Dan Edwards, the takeaway has defended raising the price of its haddock at the weekend, which it has described as its biggest seller besides chips.
The takeaway said the cost of ordering a box of haddock from their suppliers had increased by 125 per cent in the last seven years.
Costing £58 a box in 2018, Dan said the cost of haddock had now ‘jumped to an all-time high’ of £130 a box.
Dan said that the £4.70 cost of haddock in 2018 would now cost around £12.70 today, not factoring in overheads and utilities which would see it priced at around £15. Instead, the shop has begun temporarily changing £8.20 for haddock until the price drops.
Saying he would ‘continue to support our domestic fisherladies and fishermen’, Dan said he was sharing the news in a bid for ‘transparency’ after being accused of ‘ripping people off’.
He posted: ‘We temporarily increased the price of haddock to £8.20 on the Saturday so that we weren’t in danger of making a loss after we factor in the overheads and the reason for this post was someone accused us of “ripping people off!”. So this is for transparency.
