Best and most beautifully located chippy in Scotland bar none? (Anstruther Fish Bar (Fife))

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Anstruther Fish Bar (Fife)
Date:	27/08/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sells wonderful quality of fresh battered fish; and perfectly-cooked chips

Disadvantages: Can take a while to be served if the chippy is busy, which it usually is

This chippy in Anstruther has to be the most amazingly good fish-and-chip shop on the face of the planet. It regularly wins 'best chippy in Britain' awards, and quite rightly so.

Two words I have to say to you: beef suet, and if you don't want to chance eating saturated-fat-cooked, deep-fried goods, you'd best go somewhere else and buy a salad or something for lunch instead.

Having acknowledged, a long time ago, that you'll never find better fish and chips anywhere (ANYWHERE), our family have been visiting the Anstruther Fish Bar for years and years, and sometime in the early to mid 1990s - I seem to remember it was around the time of one of the major BSE scares - during one of our visits, my Mother asked one of the staff what it was that made the Anstruther fish and chips taste so good.

"We fry them in beef fat", my Mother was told.

"It's all cooked in beef fat!" my Mother called loudly to the rest of us, out across the extremely busy restaurant.

It all went so quiet in there you could've heard a pin drop, because at the time, everybody knew that if you were supposed to be avoiding beef products for health reasons, then you were DEFINITELY supposed to avoid eating anything that had been cooked in saturated fat.

Now, I don't know if they're still frying things in their 'secret ingredient' at Anstruther Fish Bar, but when I went there at the end of last month at the first bite of crisp, golden, chip, my mouth was filled with a wonderful, very distinctive aroma - a taste I associate with Scottish fish n' chip shops from the 1970s, one that (excluding during this one visit to a fish n' chip shop in New Zealand, a country which funnily enough they say is a lot like Scotland was in the 1970s) I haven't consciously encountered anywhere since. I think it was beef fat, actually.

On to more relevant information. The Anstruther Fish Bar, which is on the sea front 'parade' in the East Neuk of Fife town of Anstruther, is easily recognizable because it's very, very popular and there is usually a large queue of people waiting outside of it. New visitors should be aware in case of confusion that there is another fish n' chip shop (that also sells pizzas and kebabs) at the other end of the parade. (I've never visited that one so can't comment on the quality of its product). The Anstruther Fish Bar is at the end of the parade where the Scottish Fisheries Museum is. Parking in Anstruther is slightly tricky although there are two public pay-to-use car-parks just outside / adjacent to the good chippy, but both are quite small and tend to fill up quickly, especially at busy time and in summer.

There is a sit-in restaurant (which I haven't visited) as well as a takeaway at the Anstruther Fish Bar. Probably because this chippy is so popular, there are quite a few picnic seats and benches outside on the sea-front, which provide a nice place to eat your takeaway - there are lovely sea views of Anstruther harbour, and out across the Firth of Forth. The fish - cod or haddock - is of excellent quality and unparalled freshness (though unfortunately fishing boats no longer put into port at Anstruther, they get regular fish deliveries from Aberdeen) ; for just under a fiver you usually get about one and a half battered fillets, and a generous portion of thick, beautifully-cooked chips, all packed in a nice thin cardboard box.

Because of the local fame and popularity of this restaurant you are quite likely to have a longish wait if visiting at lunchtime or dinnertime; we had to wait about 40 minutes to be served on our last visit even though the queue didn't appear to be that big when we arrived. It is a testament to how brilliant this chippy is that customers are prepared, and happy to stand in line for this long to buy its wares.

I can't recommend the Anstruther Fish Bar strongly enough, although obviously, as it mainly sells deep-fried food, it would be an idea if you live near it (tempting though the notion might be) not to eat there every single day.

Summary: Perfect location, utterly perfect fish-and-chips