Anstruther Fish Bar

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Anstruther seafront with the Bar in view.

The Anstruther Fish Bar is an award winning fish and chip shop in Anstruther, a fishing village in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland.

The Bar is situated on Shore Street, the harbour front in Anstruther, and is particularly popular with the town's increasing number of tourists. It sells take-away fish and chips, which are often consumed at the public seating area opposite the shop, where local fishermen land crab and lobster. Unlike many Scottish fish and chip shops, it also has a restaurant; the Bar is nautically themed with 52 seats and views over the Firth of Forth. It also hosts an ice cream parlour and employs over thirty staff.

The Anstruther Fish Bar has won the ‘Best Fish and Chip Shop’ in Scotland accolade on three occasions in the last six years, 2000/01 and 2001/02 and most recently in 2006-7. It was also named ‘Café of the Year 2005’ for Scotland by Les Routiers and won the Seafish Friers Award for Excellence every year between 1996 – 2006. In 2007, it was runner up in the U.K. 'Fish Shop of the Year' competition.^[1]^[2]

The Anstruther Fish Bar has featured in national television programmes such as 'Scottish Passport', 'The Holiday Programme', 'Scotland's Larder' as well as BBC Scotland radio. It has also enjoyed international recognition. In 2004, 'Talking Island Productions' produced a feature on the business for Japanese television, and part of an episode of 'The Wandering Golfer' for 'The Fine Living Channel' (USA) was filmed from the kitchen and restaurant of the Fish Bar. It also featured in American Magazine 'Bon Appetit'.

It has served Prince William, Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro.^[1]

The shop has had a number of owners, but is currently operated by Argo Fish, a small local firm owned by Robert and Alison Smith of St Monans, Fife.