British cuisine might be the big joke of the world, but there are three dishes we know that convince all naysayers: Sunday roast, a full English breakfast and fish ‘n’ chips. Originating from Spanish and Portuguese Jewish immigrants, fish ‘n’ chips is beloved by all of Britain reaching its peak in popularity in the early 20th century. (It was one of the few foods in the UK not subject to rationing during the wars.) You’ll find a chippy on most high streets.
Taking a seed list of some of the most populated cities, as well as some of the most popular staycation destination spots in the UK, Betway recently set out to discover which cities reign as the best spots to enjoy a classic fish ‘n’ chips. With Birmingham featuring among them. In fact, the most highly-rated fish ‘n’ shop in Brum, Gabriel’s in Harborne, was also revealed to have the most extensive menu in the report. With 113 options to choose from, 46 of which are vegetarian-friendly.
To work out the UK’s Chippy Captial, Betway picked the chippy in each location with the highest rating and highest number of reviews. It then ranked each destination using the following factors:
- Number of fish ‘n’ chip shops
- Number of menu options at the highest-rated takeaway
- Number of vegetarian/vegan options at the highest-rated takeaway
- Number of Google reviews/ratings of the highest-rated takeaway
- Distance from the highest-rated takeaway to the nearest beach
- Number of IG hashtags for fish and chips in each location
- Number of TikTok Views for fish and chips in each town/city
- UK monthly searches for fish and chips in each location.
The team then used a normalised ranking function to score each data point out of 10, which gave each location an overall score out of 80. Bristol was crowned the Chippy Capital scoring 60/80. Nottingham followed close behind as the second-best city for its fish and chips, with a score of 59.8/80. While London took third place with an overall score of 58.3/80, followed by Edinburgh in fourth with an overall score of 55.6/80.
Birmingham features ninth on the list, scoring 46.8/80. If you don’t think that’s impressive then where have you been living? Birmingham is pretty landlocked and has no beaches nearby. So to score so highly – beating out the likes of seaside towns like Bournemouth, St Ives, Brighton, Padstow and many more – speaks volumes. Despite our lack of access to the freshest fish.
To see the full research from Betway head here.