Second helpings: Other up-market fish and chips

Allports Y Maes, Pwllheli - Fishbar, London - Rudland Stubbs, London

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A frying shame

Allports Y Maes, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, Wales, tel: 01758 612 641

Sarah and John Allport's first fish and chip shop in Porthmadog was twice named by the Sea Fish Industry Authority as the best fish and chip shop in Wales. Then last year, just 12 months after opening their second shop (and 35-seater café) in Pwllheli, it was named the best fish and chip shop in the UK. Haven't eaten there myself yet, so there might still be a glimmer of hope in the dark, crunchy world of the British chippy.

Fishbar 2 Fernhead Road, London W9, tel: 020 8960 3434

Tucked away in increasingly fashionable Maida Vale, Fishbar is the brave new face of fish and chippery. Behind the plate glass and eggshell-blue awning, lobsters, prawns and sea bass recline on ice with samphire and jars of red pepper salsa. Traditionalists order cod and chips at £6.50, while those in celebratory mode go for grilled lobster and chips for £18.50. For do-it-yourself fish and chips, there is a slinky fresh fish shop next door.

Rudland Stubbs, 35 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross Street, London EC1, tel: 020 7253 0148

This seafood restaurant is housed in what was once a sausage factory – but then this is Smithfield, so practically everything was a sausage factory at one time or other. It's a welcoming place with marble-topped tables, bentwood chairs and charming staff. And it's one of the few seafood restaurants to do fish and chips that doesn't smell as if it does fish and chips.