Be My Chip

Probably not as new as I think it is Be My Chip has exploited the need for a proper Fish and Chip shop on Sutton’s High Street.
Ideally situated near a school and 6^th form college, there’s a captive audience to make lunchtimes a real rush. Just in case you were in any doubts of its tuck-​shop credentials, chocolate, crisps and pop are on sale for those who just can’t face school dinners. Don’t tell Jamie Oliver.
I prefer to go on an evening when the customers become a little older. The Chicken Meat and Chips with lashings of salad and mayonnaise is particularly nice, and the handy trays means there’s no washing up. At this time of night parking isn’t too much of a problem, although it’s restricted somewhat. There is a little car park round the back, although we prefer to pull up outside where there’s a series of bays on the opposite side of the road.
I don’t fancy your chances of finding a space in the daytime though!

The pun on which the name was based has, if not on the proprietors, surely been lost by now on the customer. But that’s the only complaint really — this is a large, traditional chip shop with a cracking menu and rave reviews. It also has the cutest single table and seat outside for anyone brave enough to open their wrapping in full gaze of passing motorists.
I don’t know what’s the greatest praise I’ve heard for it: that a friend walks four miles there and back so Be My Chip’s chips can be his chips, or that when seeking to extend its hours of operation, workers from the court, fire and police stations over the road wrote to the council offering letters of support.
So what’s the deal? Can’t its batter be beaten?
It’s not so much that the food is spectacularly different or super-​cheap, rather that it’s rare these days to enter a chip shop of this size, slightly romantically stepping down from street level to go inside. Local businesses and students from the neighbouring college form a swathe of its customer base, which isn’t too shabby given a main road location which doesn’t encourage residential trade. Parking, then, becomes an issue outside of office hours as you’ll likely be driving so that you can (was this the pun) be a guest. But you should be able to find a legitimate bay outside the police station and former court building on the opposite side of the street. It might be a scramble for that table though.