Derbyshire chippy is one of top 50 in country

After four months of mystery dining, Fry Magazine’s has announced its 50 Best Fish and Chip Takeaways of 2017 and only one Derbyshire chippy has bagged a spot on the prestigious list.

Fairfield Plaice, on Victoria Park Road in Buxton is the only restaurant to make the list every year the competition has been running.

Reece Head, competition organiser, said: “Running a fish and chip shop gets harder every year with so much going on behind the scenes, so to serve up excellent quality food with a matching level of service and atmosphere day-in day-out deserves to be recognised.

“All the shops that made the 50 Best have proved they go the extra mile to give their customers the best possible experience, whether that’s detailing the boat that catches the day’s fish, running weekly specials, or simply taking time out to ask customers how their day has been.

“This is what puts these chippies ahead and keeps customers coming back time and time again.”

The takeaways made the list after an independent company sent mystery diners to all those shops that entered the competition and assessed a range of front-of-house aspects from staff friendliness, cleanliness of the takeaway to product knowledge.

Points were also awarded for the quality of the food with everything being critiqued from the crispness of the batter, to the texture of chips, to the flakiness of the fish.

With a number of shops tying on the 95 per cent cut-off point, over 50 takeaways made the prestigious list, of which more than half were new entrants to the list for 2017.