The Battle of the Fish bars: which Anstruther chippy really tastes best?

I don't know whether you've been following this huge national controversy recently, but our nearby town of Anstruther has been the centre of a veritably sizzling debate as to which of their seafront's chippies really serves the best fish supper.

Fife's Anstruther Fish bar has regularly won the Seafish 'Best Scottish Fish and Chip Shop of the Year' award since 2000, and queues for its takeaway fish supper run for yards along the street at weekends.  However, locals have been mumbling for years that the Wee Chippy down the road is just as good. In September of this year, the Observer Food Magazine finally picked up on these subversive voices and chose the Wee Chippy to feature as the best place in the world to eat fish and chips:

The nearby Anstruther Fish Bar wins all the plaudits – it was named Fish and Chip Shop of the Year by the National Federation of Fish Friers last January – but locals swear by its rival, The Wee Chippy, which serves sublime fish and chips on the same street and without the endless queues.

Having precious little else to do on this sunny Saturday, T, his brother J, and I strode bravely out to settle the contest once and for all: which Anstruther chippy really tastes best?



Method

There being three of us, and three takeaway chippies on the Anstruther harbour front, this worked quite well.  We each went to one of the cafes at 2pm (to miss the worst of the lunch rush), timing how long it took to be handed the fish and chips from the moment we walked in the door, and weighing this up against the price of their standard fish supper with salt and vinegar, and the quality of the offering. Here are the results:

In third place: The Waterfront Restaurant
I managed to draw the short straw and had to order from the definite underdog of the three chippies.    There was no queue, so my order was taken immediately and cooked while I waited.  The two blonde girls behind the counter watched 'Ritchie Rich' on their television screen while frying and compiling my dish.  So far so good.  The £5.20 price tag was a little surprising, but this did include a fork and a takeaway box. The whole process from walk-in to take-out took six minutes, although being forced to watch an early-nineties kids' film whilst waiting made it feel like much longer.

Initially the fish looked quite appetising, until I saw the meals produced by the other two chippies.  As time went on and my box remained fairly full, the chips went decidedly soggy and the batter began to fall off the slightly straggly looking fish and attach itself firmly to the potato instead.  It was not such a pretty sight.  On the plus side, the fish was tastier than it looked.

Overall - the wait was the shortest, but Waterfront only came second on price.  If you're looking for the classic, suburban, inland fish and chip taste, this is the pla(i)ce to come.  There was that decidedly musty taste about the chips which I associate with that sort of chippy, and the fish was absolutely fine, but nothing special. It would probably hold up quite well against the average backstreet London fare, but only just.

In second place: The Wee Chippy
The wait at the Wee Chippy was only seconds longer than the wait at the Waterfront Restaurant.  T visited this establishment, and emerged with stories about the staff pumpkin carving competition they were running, which offered clientele the possible prize of a free fish supper if they cast their vote as to which pumpkin was the best. He also scored the best box; corrugated cardboard instead of single-layer card, although he did have to pay five pence for a plastic fork.  However, the Wee Chippy came out trumps on the price: a fish supper with salt, vinegar and fork came to £4.75.

While we waiting for J to emerge from the Anstruther Fish Bar, we compared samples and the Wee Chippy raced ahead immediately.  The batter was a more golden yellow, making the Waterfront's perfectly normal-looking covering seem almost anaemic in comparison. The chips had held their shape better and both fish and chips looked crispier.  After another five minutes we decided that we should taste our lunch-suppers before they went cold, and the Wee Chippy's dish tasted just as it looked; beautifully crisp batter (although it still had the tendency to fall off the fish), and crispy, light chips with a consistent texture and fresh taste. The fish T received was the largest of the three, and also the thickest; it was moist and almost chicken-y in the centre. There were noticeably fewer chips in this portion than there were in the Fish Bar's or the Waterfront's, but still plenty more than necessary to make a meal.

Overall, we were heartily impressed with the Wee Chippy.  If you're looking for crispiness and a decent helping of fish, we'd definitely recommend this place. It came a close second for waiting time, and first for value, and if it weren't in Anstruther, it would definitely be the jewel of any other village. On a quick scan just now, it appears that the two chefs who run the Wee Chippy are actually classically trained, one having worked at Buckingham Palace, and the other at Gleneagles Hotel. Maybe next time we're in there we'll order souffle instead.

In first place: The Anstruther Fish Bar
Yes, the queue was the shortest we'd ever seen it and it still took fourteen whole minutes for J to walk out with his fish supper, and yes, at £5.40 per portion (for Haddock, it would have been £5 for hake) it was the most expensive chippy on the front, but unpopular as this verdict may be, we still enjoyed the Fish Bar's offering the most.   The batter was not just crispy, but almost juicy, and the fish was pristinely white. The chips even crunchier than those at the Wee Chippy, although they were also hotter, being eight minutes fresher than those from either of the other two establishments, so a completely objective opinion was hard to come by.  The presentation box, although not corrugated like the one from the Wee Chippy, is covered in corny pun headlines like 'Codfather orders battering of fish' and 'Shark accused of fish murder: "I was nowhere near the plaice!" he protested'.  Some might say that this would negatively effect the enjoyment of the food, but I love puns so this box wins bonus points with me.

The one niggle was that we think the staff had a poor salt-and-vinegar-ing technique; one end of this box was bordering on inedibly salty while chips eaten from the other end didn't taste like they had been seasoned at all, and although the Fish Bar's staff are generally quite good at also salt-and-vinegar-ing the fish, they seemed to have missed this time so the fish was quite plain. Still tasted great though!

Conclusion:
We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Wee Chippy and it was a great chance to try their supper with a minimised risk (if it was awful there would still be two others to share).  T and I will continue to frequent the Fish Bar, but if there's a queue we'll head to the Wee Chippy instead, safe in the knowledge that it, too, is quite a catch.