Flaky white fish in a batter so crisp you can hear it crunch? Chips with full-on fluff-factor, plus magical mushy peas? Now we’re talking.

Discover our pick of the UK’s best fish and chips shops by the sea. Expect top quality in all of the places we’ve picked in our UK coastal fish and chips shops round-up – many of which come with complimentary sea views. Please do check each location is open before making a special trip.

Anstruther Fish Bar – Anstruther, Fife

The one that launched a thousand day trips. Sitting right on the harbour in this East Neuk fishing village, Anstruther has been a pilgrimage site for decades, and the queue along the seafront on a summer evening is part of the ritual. Haddock is the local order, not cod. Eat it on the wall watching the boats, and guard your supper from the gulls – they are organised.

The Rocketeer – North Berwick, East Lothian

Seventy metres from North Berwick harbour, in a handsome old building looking out over Milsey Bay, The Rocketeer works as both neighbourhood chippy and proper seafood restaurant. It took the Scottish Chippy Awards title in 2023 and placed third in The Times’ national ranking. Go for the view as much as the fryer.

Colman’s – South Shields, Tyne and Wear

Frying since 1926 and still in the same family, Colman’s is the reason South Shields keeps appearing on best-of lists it made the Top 50 in the 2026 Fry Awards, alongside neighbouring Smith’s. Fish comes in from North Shields market. The sister site, Colman’s Seafood Temple, sits right on the sand at Sandhaven Beach if you want tablecloths with your batter.

The Magpie Café – Whitby, North Yorkshire

Whitby regularly tops the polls as Britain’s fish and chip town, and the Magpie is why. The white-and-black building on the harbourside has been feeding queues since the postwar years, with fish landed locally and a menu that runs well beyond the classic if you fancy it. Ask for scraps. Then walk it off up the 199 steps.

No.1 Cromer – Cromer, Norfolk

Michelin-starred chef Galton Blackiston’s chippy sits above the beach with a full sweep of the Norfolk coast from the upstairs restaurant. It is the gourmet end of the spectrum without losing the seaside soul: line-caught haddock, Cromer crab, and an ice cream counter for afterwards. Downstairs takeaway, upstairs table service and the view.

Aldeburgh Fish and Chip Shop – Aldeburgh, Suffolk

No sea views from inside, no seating, no fuss — just a queue down the High Street that tells you everything. This is a shop that has stayed deliberately small and deliberately simple. The correct procedure is to carry your parcel the two minutes down to the shingle, past the fishing huts, and eat it looking at the North Sea with Maggi Hambling’s Scallop sculpture along the beach to your left.

Harbour Lights – Falmouth, Cornwall

On the waterfront in Falmouth, with the harbour and the Fal estuary spread out in front of you, Harbour Lights sits about as close to the boats as a chippy can get. Day-boat landings mean the board shifts with what has come in. Eat in overlooking the water, or take it out to the harbour wall and watch the ferries work.

The Rockfish – Dartmouth, Devon

Mitch Tonks’s flagship looks out over the River Dart, fishing boats drifting past on the tide, and the fish is about as traceable as it gets — much of it landed at Brixham a few miles east. Unlimited chips, proper wine list, and a distinctly grown-up take on the seaside supper.

Finney’s Fish and Chips – Benllech, Anglesey

The Anglesey institution, in a seaside village on the island’s east coast, Finney’s has made the Fry Magazine Top 50 and picked up the National Fish and Chip Awards’ Environment and Sustainability Award. Traeth Benllech, a wide sandy bay, is a short walk away and makes the obvious dining room.

Morton’s – Ballycastle, County Antrim

Ballycastle’s seafront chippy is the reward at the end of the Causeway Coast, with the beach and Rathlin Island in front of you. Straightforward, generous and reliably good, the kind of place that anchors a whole day out on the north Antrim coast.

Also worth the detour:

Carron Fish Bar in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, birthplace of the deep-fried Mars bar; French’s Fish Shop on the quay at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk; Ainsworth’s in Caernarfon, eaten in the shadow of the castle; and Locker’s at Marske-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, for chunky chips between Saltburn and Redcar.