Anstruther

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Anstruther Fish Bar

Taylor Shelby
Taylor Shelby
First Reviewer
5 out of 5
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2
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Editor Pick

Britain's Best Fish And Chip Shop

  • October 22, 2009
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Denise Scotland from Scotland, United Kingdom
Anstruther’s famous Fish Bar is somewhere I had wanted to visit for a long time but despite the fact it is reasonably close to home never got round to paying it a visit. My sister suggested that we make a detour on our way home from swimming a few nights ago and I jumped at the chance. It has the distinction of being recognised as the UK’s best fish and chip shop in 2008/2009 and Les Routiers café of the year in 2005 amongst other awards. It is a chip shop that the rich and famous are meant to love, Prince Charles was rumoured to visit when he visited Prince William at the nearby St Andrews university and there are many press clippings and photos within the shop with famous faces smiling out from them, the funniest one being a clipping from Hello! Magazine that shows Camilla Parker-Bowles looking very windswept as she walks along the street clutching a bag full of fish and chips.


Anstruther is a fishing village located in the East Neuk of Fife near to St Andrews and is well off the beaten track so is an unusual location for an award winning restaurant. The fish bar is on the main street opposite the picturesque harbour and if it is a nice day then there are wooden benches outside which would make a perfect location to sit and eat your chips while you enjoyed the views out over the sea and watched the boats coming and going.

As well as taking your food out you also have the option of eating within the restaurant. I wasn’t impressed by the seating areas which comprised of horrible tables which have uncomfortable plastic chairs bolted into place, I know it is only a chippy and not a five star restaurant but I still would have expected something a bit nicer. The restaurant area is also small and there is only seating for around 30 people, apparently during the day there are queues of up to an hour for tables which will be unpleasant for both the people standing waiting and the poor people eating their dinner with the pressure of knowing they are short of space and want your table back as soon as possible. The toilets while scrupulously clean also showed signs of age with rust spots on the bin and pieces of silver missing from the mirror, you would think that since the shop is so busy they could afford to make a few improvements. Eating out at the Anstruther Fish Bar is certainly not going to be classy night out, the fact that the food in the restaurant is served in cardboard boxes doesn’t help but at least you get a real knife and fork to use!

The menu is slightly different from the average chippy menu, they have a wider range of fish on offer from the traditional haddock either in batter or breadcrumbs to more unusual offerings like Pittenween prawns, a dressed Crail crab or smoked haddock. The fish is all locally sourced from the nearby fishing villages and had been fished in a sustainable way.

There are some of the other Scottish chip shop favourites on offer like haggis, sausages, black pudding or burgers but you won’t find deep fried pizza, chipsteak or the deep fried mars bar here. I like the fact that the meats used are all high quality and sourced from local butchers. The prices for take away food is very similar to the prices charged by other chip shops in the area, it costs more to eat in but you can still get a plate of fish and chips with bread and butter and a drink for under £8 so they have obviously not used their fame to push their prices up which was nice to see.


Between me and my sister and the kids we tried out battered haddock, a burger, home made macaroni cheese with chips and mushy peas. The food was all cooked to order meaning a short wait for our food but we welcomed the fact that everything was fresh and piping hot. The burger was on the small side and very average in a seeded bun. The macaroni cheese was divine, home made with full fat milk and Scottish cheddar it was perfectly cooked and almost as good as home made. The haddock was a bit of a disappointment, the skinny fillets of fish seemed to be slightly dry and overcooked and the special recipe batter tasted very ordinary indeed, I have certainly had better fish from a chip shop before. The mushy peas were good and obviously better quality than the ones from a tin.

The chips were simply outstanding. I am not normally a fan of chip shop chips as they tend to be slightly soggy and mushy but these were without a doubt the best chippy chips I have ever tasted. I’m not sure what variety of potato is used to make these chips, the menu states that they are grown on a local farm exclusively for the shop. The chips had the perfect texture, they were crisp on the outside and perfectly fluffy and moist on the inside and they seemed to retain their heat a lot longer than other chips I have had in the past. They were perfectly seasoned with salt and vinegar and dipped into some ketchup were a real treat, the portions of chips were also huge more than any of us could manage to finish.

A range of ice creams made on the premises are also available, these are also very reasonably priced and much better than the average ice creams you can get.

I was slightly underwhelmed by my visit to the Anstruther Fish Bar, yes the macaroni and chips were great but I can’t forgive them for serving up very ordinary fish. I think it’s a restaurant which to a certain extent is a victim of its own success as the food is good but the fact that people travel far and wide to eat here means it is really busy and the badly designed and dated interior makes the whole experience less pleasurable, doubling the size of the shop would help. It is certainly a good chippy and I would recommend that you visit if you are in the East Neuk of Fife just so that you can say that you have experienced the countries best chip shop but it is not somewhere that I would travel miles out of the way to visit.
Editor Pick

Anstruther Fish Bar

  • March 17, 2005
  • Rated 5 of 5 by Taylor Shelby from Charleston, South Carolina
We asked around in St. Andrews about where to eat when we visited, and everyone said the same thing: "Anstruther Fish Bar." In 2001, it was voted the best fish and chips anywhere in Scotland. They weren't kidding. What makes the food so great here is that it is incredibly fresh. The fish is caught right next door in Pittenweem and shipped over a few times a day.

The restaurant is hilarious. I was expecting to find something dark and salty, but it actually looked like a '50s diner. If you have been to the Varsity in Atlanta, it is similar to that. There were turquoise enamel chairs and white formica tables, and all the workers were wearing blue aprons and paper hats. I felt like I had just walked into the movie Grease.

There are a lot of different fish to choose from, which confused me a little. I chose haddock, because the girl at the counter told me that was the most popular. They serve it up in simple paper dishes with a heap of fries (chips) and some sort of wonderful vinegar sauce on the side. It was nothing short of spectacular. Everything was fresh and perfectly cooked.

They also have a shop on-site that sells a large variety of ice cream and other sweets, so you can sate that sweet tooth also. It was pretty busy, so I guess it was good stuff.

They open at 11:30am, and we got there early. By the time we left, there was a long line streching out the door, always a good sign in a small town. Either get there a little early, or be patient and wait in line. I assure you, it will be worth it.

From journal Scotland Sans Tourists - A Journey in Fife

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