John Long’s Fish and Chip Restaurant in Belfast has topped the prestigious Best Fish and Chip Shop 2024 pops, as compiled by The Times.
Little Wolf in Strangford, Co Down, was 6th and Morton’s Fish and Chip Shop, in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, was 14th.
Legend has it, broadcaster Eamonn Holmes, once declared, were he given just days to live, he would head straight to John Long’s for his last supper.
A 20-minute walk from the harbour front, the enduring popularity of a Long’s fish supper is attributed to the freshness of its fish, landed at Kilkeel in Co Down, and the lightest of batters, a 104-year-old secret recipe.
Long’s also offers traditional pasties (battered minced pork with onion and potato), a Belfast staple according to owner John Copeland, who said: “People like it the way it is, and you don’t change the wheel”.
Other celebrity Long’s patrons include Sean Bean and Dara Ó Briain. A Long’s fish supper costs from £11.
The Times’ tasters eulogised the Little Wolf fish supper as “so crispy is the batter, so flaky the fish and so fat the chips, it’s actually worth missing the Strangford-to-Portaferry water shuttle to get your hands on one”.
The alternative menu of wood-fired pizzas for which Little Wolf is as renowned, will be appreciated by children and fussy eaters.
A Little Wolf Fish supper costs from £11.75.
Situated beside the Marconi memorial on Ballycastle’s harbour, Morton’s Fish and Chip Shop “rivals the Giant’s Causeway, the Bushmills distillery and the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge as an Antrim coast wonder”, according to the impressed Times’ tasters.
A Morton’s fish supper costs from £10.40.
