The Mayfair Chippy: elevating Britain’s national dish

The Mayfair Chippy started almost by accident, when fish and chips became the standout dish at a small British bistro in London.

Over a decade later, the restaurant has built its reputation around an elevated version of Britain’s national dish, with sites in Mayfair and Knightsbridge and international expansion now on the horizon.

Co-founder Pete Taylor says the idea came from seeing how strongly guests responded to fish and chips on the original menu, then recognising that very few operators in London were treating the dish with a more restaurant-led approach.

“The Mayfair Chippy started in 2015,” Pete said.

“To be honest, completely by a bit of an accident really.

“Myself and the partners, George and Jamie, we had a little British bistro in Mayfair and we found the most popular dish was fish and chips.

“We looked at the market in London and there was no-one really doing an elevated fish and chip shop.

“So we thought there’s definitely a gap in the market for this concept.

“And then we just rebranded the restaurant, came up with a menu and the rest is history really. It all went from there.”

For Pete, the reason for building a restaurant around fish and chips was not complicated. It was the dish guests wanted, and one he felt deserved more credit.

“It was our best seller on the menu and we just think it doesn’t get enough credit,” he said.

“It’s our national dish, fish and chips. Everyone likes it. There was no real other reason really.”

The story behind the dish

For group head chef Santosh Tulachan, fish and chips has become more than just the restaurant’s signature serve.

“We do amazing fish and chips, we are known for that,” he said.

“But also we do other British classics.”

Santosh has also taken inspiration from the stories around the dish, particularly through his father-in-law and Pete.

“The owners are northerners, but also my missus’ dad is also from back north,” he said.

“When I speak with him, he tells me all about the magic he grew up with with fish and chips, like standing next to the stall getting the little scraps as back in the day they couldn’t afford fish and chips.

“I fell in love with that story, so I wanted to have a good career. I got more inspired because of the stories I got from my father-in-law as well as from Pete, which has engraved on my DNA I think.”

That connection to the traditional chip shop is still there, but The Mayfair Chippy has built a broader menu around it, with lobster rolls, prawn toast, kedgeree Scotch eggs, oysters and crab all part of the offer.

“We don’t only do fish and chips,” Pete said.

“But fish and chips is the main showpiece of the restaurant.”

Fish, potatoes and getting the basics right

Asked what makes good fish and chips, Pete’s answer comes back to sourcing.

“Fish and chips for me is one of these dishes where you can either do it really well or really bad,” he said.

“It’s all about quality ingredients.

“It’s a dish which, if you have quality ingredients, it can’t really go wrong.

“We spend a lot of time sourcing the best Atlantic cod and haddock, the best potatoes, mainly Maris Pipers.

“We actually work with a supplier who chips them for us and we blanch them in the morning.

“That way, the supplier does quality checks on them each morning as well to make sure they’re all the right potatoes.”

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The scale of prep across both London sites is significant, as Santosh explained.

“Normally, on both sites, in Mayfair as well as Knightsbridge, we prep about 400 kilogrammes of chips a day,” he said.

“Our chips are double fried to finish. First, we pre-blanch between 130-140°C, until they are floating. All the liquid inside has evaporated and it has just come to cook.

“We get a nice skin in the early stage, just because that helps us finish the service way, way easier.

“That’s how the chips hold their shape and also the colour when we finish it to fry in the end.

“So yes, it does take a long time in the morning. I have guys starting from sometimes 5:30am, depending on how busy we have the next few days ahead of us.”

Hake, haddock and the return of cod

Fish volume is also high, particularly at Knightsbridge.

“We do about 36 kilogrammes of fish a day,” Santosh said.

“A portion is about 8-10 oz, so you can imagine that’s a lot of fillets of fish that we go through a day just here in Knightsbridge.

“Mayfair does about 20% more at the moment than in Knightsbridge, but that’s the flow.”

Discussing the type of fish the restaurant uses, Santosh said: “We have haddock and also we have hake on the menu.

“Hake is our sustainable fish at the moment.

“We are looking back into cod as we have gotten news from our suppliers that cod is back into the market, that the sustainability issue is (improving) at the moment.

“So it’s coming back in the market, but we are trying to look at alternative sustainable cod as well as hake at the moment.”

Sauces, sides and British classics

The Mayfair Chippy’s offer is also built around the details that sit alongside the fish and chips, including house-made sauces and classic accompaniments.

“We make our own curry sauce,” Pete said.

“We do a bit of a Japanese-style chip shop curry sauce.

“We make our own house tartare sauce and obviously mushy peas.”

Asked for his favourite item on the menu, Pete said: “I like the kedgeree Scotch egg.

“The menu changes here are quite challenging because everything seems to work well.

“We do seasonal changes twice a year, but they’re very minimal.

“It’s the kind of menu which is what it is, and it’s hard to really adapt with the menu.”

Expanding The Mayfair Chippy

The Mayfair Chippy now operates in Mayfair and Knightsbridge, with the next phase of growth set to include another London site if the right opportunity comes up, and potential quick-serve formats.

“We did do a QSR model in St James’s Village, a pop-up a few years ago, which was super successful,” he said.

“So we are looking at maybe doing more of a QSR model.

“Ideally, we want one more site in London. We’ve got Mayfair, we’ve got Knightsbridge, maybe towards the south of the river somewhere, but central.

“We’ve got a franchise partner in Saudi Arabia and we have got an opening there this autumn.

“Also, we’re looking at doing something in the UAE maybe early next year.

“Then we have got some other concepts we’re looking at, fish and chip-based concepts.

“But I can’t speak too much about them at the moment because they’re in development stages.”