Battered white fish (cod or haddock) deep-fried with thick-cut chips, salt, malt vinegar and mushy peas. The defining British take-away dish, eaten in London since the 1860s.
Fried fish came to London with Sephardic Jewish settlers in the seventeenth century. Joseph Malin opened the first identifiable combined fish-and-chip shop in 1860 in Bow, east London, pairing the Jewish fried-fish tradition with the northern chipped potato. By 1910 there were 25,000 chip shops in Britain; London's surviving institutions include The Golden Hind on Marylebone Lane (1914), Poppies (Camden, Spitalfields, Soho) and the Sea Shell of Lisson Grove. The Friday-night fish-and-chips habit owes to Catholic and traditional working-class fasting customs that the chippy slotted into perfectly.
2 editor picks for Fish and chips in London, ranked by editorial score. All London signature dishes · Fish and chips across every city.
J Sheekey ★ 4.5
covent-garden · 28-32 St Martin's Court, London WC2N 4AL
The Caprice Holdings seafood institution on St Martin's Court in Covent Garden London, opened 1896, runs a pre-theatre fish-focused menu with the oyster bar next door.
Wright Brothers Borough ★ 4.4
borough · 11 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AD
Robin Hancock and Ben Wright's seafood counter on Stoney Street next to Borough Market in London, opened 2002, runs a daily-fresh oyster menu and a serious fish pie.