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STEPHEN PEEL SAYS IT WASN'T JUST THE FOOD AT THE LIVERPOOL CHIPPY WHICH IMPRESSED HIM 15:29, 31 May 2025 A man who has reviewed 120 chippies across Britain has revealed which one in

Liverpool is his favourite. Stephen Peel, 62, has been eating at two fish and chip shops a week for the last 15 months. He started his The Chippy Tour to celebrate the iconic meal, which he

says the country is in danger of losing, with many chip shops forced to close due to high costs. On his tour, Stephen has been rating chippies out of five. Stephen travels around the country

with a branded truck equipped with an electric food warmer that maintains a temperature of 65°C which is handy for winter reviews and allows him to park and review his food anywhere using

its attached folding table. However, Stephen, who is a seasoned home chef with several best-selling recipe books, says presentation and customer service are just as important as the food

itself. Speaking to the ECHO, Stephen said: "You're not going to know until you go in, but you don't want a pile of weeds outside. It's got to be presentable. "If

they’re going to look after that, you think they're going to look after you and the food if you like. A lot of people say it doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside, but

it does. "If you take care of that, you're going to take care of your customers, or you're considering them at least. Then when you go in, you want everything to be tidy. You

want to look around and think, yeah, this is a chippy. "And you want the staff to be smiling and actually speak to you, not just move their head as a gesture of what you want. You want

them to say, Can I help you, please? You want politeness. They're the first things I'd look for." Of course, many Scousers call Chinese takeaways chippies. Stephen, who used

to live on Childwall Valley Road, recognises this and makes sure he takes into account the wider menu when he’s reviewing a chippy. He said: "I have to get the fish and chips in each

one. But I'm looking for something else too. They might make their own fish cakes, chili and rice, pies, puddings, anything. "It's surprising how many chippies do some strange

foods. I've had haggis pour-over, which was just haggis mince over chips. I was scared to death of it when I first saw it, but it was lovely. I've had deep-fried pizza and a Wigan

kebab." Stephen was inspired to start reviewing chippies when he thought about the barbershop his wife, Susan, used to run in Halewood. He said: "She had that barber shop for 25

years, and it got pushed out by lots of other barber shops. "It made me think about the traditional chippies. I was thinking, they're going as well. Lots of other takeaways are

building up around them and they're dropping like flies, which is a real shame. "I've been a bit of a home chef. I've got a number of bestselling recipe books. Fish and

chips is the takeaway food of choice for me - any kind of chippy food, really. "I said to Susan, We've got more time on our hands; maybe we should go up and down the country and

try to raise awareness about the fact that we're losing our chippies, and you need to get out there and support them. "I still think it's better value for money than a pizza,

a bucket of chicken, or a burger and fries. I think there are far fewer additives and preservatives in a portion of fish, chips, and peas than in most other things. "It's all the

other things they sell and the families behind them. People would say, it's just chippy. But you can see there's so much more involved when you get to meet the people, and you can

see that they want to be the best. "They want to create the best batter; they want to cook with the best ingredients. But they're concerned about their family’s livelihoods.

They're all complaining about the prices of everything. "It doesn't really make any difference whether they're on a high street, on the beach where they've got loads

of footfall, or just a quiet backstreet, they're all suffering at the same level. It's a strange thing." Stephen has reviewed 15 chippies in Merseyside, with six of them in

Liverpool. Out of all of them, his favourite is Yanni's on Lord Street, which got five stars from him. The city centre chippy is run by Yanni Hamajan and his partner Sandra Lawton and

people have travelled from as far as the USA and South Korea to try its food. But Stephen says it was the customer service rather than the chips that impressed him the most. He said:

"It was heaving when we went, but I loved it. Yanni and his wife were working like the clappers, and they were smiling. It was a lovely environment considering how busy it was."

Stephen’s order from Yannis was fish and chips along with pots of mushy peas, gravy, and curry sauce. He ate it using his truck’s table in the coach park on Riverside Drive in Otterspool and

was thoroughly impressed. Stephen said: "Then the food was obviously spot-on. It was great, but it's everything else that made up for it. We came away with big smiles on our

faces. Article continues below "The way they handled their business, it was so professional. They were like a well-oiled machine, the way they moved with each other. It was

fantastic." Stephen says he turns up to chip shops unannounced, doesn’t tell staff he is a reviewer, and avoids any kind of "special treatment". You can find out more about

The Chippy Tour via the YouTube channel here.