Best Fish and Chips in Dublin: Leo Burdock & the City’s Top Chippers

Ask a Dubliner where to get chips and you will not get a restaurant recommendation. You will get an argument, conducted with real heat, about a shop three streets from where they grew up, and it will end with them telling you that the famous one in town is for tourists. They are half right. Dublin’s chipper culture is genuinely deep — deeper than the seafood restaurant scene, older than most of the pubs people queue for, and built almost entirely by one small group of Italian families who arrived in the early twentieth century and have been frying cod ever since.

This is a guide to fish and chips Dublin actually eats: which shops are worth crossing the city for and which are coasting on reputation, whether Leo Burdock deserves the queue, what to order and what the words on the board mean, why “a one and one” is Italian, where to eat chips beside the sea, and what you should expect to pay. It also covers the spice bag, which is not fish and chips at all but is what a great many Dubliners now order instead, and which you should try at least once.

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Quick Answer: Where to Get the Best Fish and Chips in Dublin

For the classic city-centre experience with the history attached, Leo Burdock on Werburgh Street, going since 1913 and the oldest chipper in the city. For the best fish, Beshoff Bros, whose several branches are consistently the cleanest and freshest in Dublin and whose founding story is better than any other restaurant’s in the country. For what Dubliners actually eat, Macari and Borza, two of the Italian-Irish family shops that have been feeding the city for half a century and more. And for chips beside the sea with the boats that landed the fish tied up in front of you, Beshoffs of Howth, twenty-five minutes on the DART.

The honest verdict on the famous one: Leo Burdock is good, it is a genuine institution, and it is not the best fish and chips Dublin serves. If you have one chipper meal in you and you care more about the food than the photograph, walk past the queue on Werburgh Street and go to a Beshoff Bros or find whichever neighbourhood chipper is nearest to where you are staying. If you want the history, the queue and the paper parcel outside Christ Church, Burdock’s is exactly right and you will not regret it.

Shop	Where	Best for	Format
Leo Burdock	Werburgh Street, D8 and branches	History, the classic pilgrimage	Takeaway
Beshoff Bros	Several branches, city and suburbs	The best fish, consistently	Takeaway and sit-in
Macari	Northside branches	What Dubliners actually eat	Takeaway
Borza	Southside branches	The great local argument	Takeaway
Beshoffs of Howth	Howth harbour	Eating by the sea	Restaurant and fishmonger
Your nearest chipper	Everywhere	Honestly, often the best	Takeaway

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Why Dublin’s Chippers Are Italian

This is the part almost nobody tells visitors, and it explains the entire trade. A large proportion of Ireland’s fish and chip shops were founded by families from a single small area of Lazio — the Val di Comino, and the town of Casalattico in particular — who emigrated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and went into the fried-food business in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and beyond. The surnames on the shopfronts are the evidence: Borza, Macari, Cafolla, Fusco, Forte, Aprile. Four and five generations on, the same families are still frying.

They also gave Dublin its slang. “A one and one” — meaning one fish and one portion of chips — comes from Italian shopkeepers saying uno e uno across the counter, and it stuck. It is the single most Dublin thing you can order and it is genuine, not a tourist-board invention. Our Irish slang guide has the rest of the vocabulary, and the history guide covers the wider immigration story.

The other founding family is not Italian at all. Ivan Beshoff was a sailor on the battleship Potemkin, whose crew mutinied in 1905 in one of the sparks of the Russian revolutions. He eventually settled in Dublin, went into fish, and lived to be reportedly 102 — the last surviving Potemkin mutineer, dying in Dublin in 1987. His descendants run Beshoff Bros and Beshoffs of Howth. There is no better provenance in Irish catering.

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The Chippers, Assessed

Six shops, assessed honestly. Between them they cover every version of fish and chips Dublin does well, from the tourist pilgrimage to the harbour restaurant to the neighbourhood counter nobody writes about.

Leo Burdock — the institution

Werburgh Street, in the shadow of Christ Church, since 1913, with several branches across the city now. It is the oldest chipper in Dublin, the most photographed, and the one every guidebook sends you to. The queue is real and moves quickly; there is no seating at the original, so people eat standing in the street or on the wall opposite, which is part of the appeal.

Is it worth it? For the experience, yes — it is a proper piece of Dublin, the location is perfect if you are doing the medieval quarter, and the chips are good. As a straight food judgement it sits somewhere in the upper middle of the city’s chippers rather than at the top, and it is priced for its fame. Go if you are already at Christ Church or St Patrick’s; do not cross the city for it.

Beshoff Bros — the best fish

Several branches across the city and suburbs, and the most consistent operation in Dublin. What sets it apart is exactly what you would hope from a family that has been in fish for a century: the fish is fresher, the frying is cleaner, the shops smell of the sea rather than of old oil, and the potatoes are treated with respect. If you want the best fish and chips Dublin can put in front of you without a booking or a bus journey, this is the answer.

It is also the most comfortable option for a family or anyone who would rather sit down, since several branches have proper seating. See family restaurants in Dublin for the rest of that category.

Macari — the northside favourite

Half a century of frying, Atlantic cod, Maris Piper chips, and the shop a very large number of Dubliners mean when they say “the chipper”. It is the birthday-party chipper, the after-the-match chipper and the post-pint chipper, and its regulars are fiercely loyal. Not a tourist destination; entirely the point.

Borza — the southside answer

The other half of the argument. Borza has branches on the south side and a devoted following who will tell you flatly that it is the best chipper in Ireland. The Italian-Irish lineage is the same as Macari’s and so, broadly, is the menu; which one you prefer usually turns out to depend on which side of the Liffey you grew up on. Our neighbourhoods guide explains rather more of Dublin than you would expect through exactly this sort of division.

Beshoffs of Howth — chips by the sea

Howth harbour, twenty-five minutes on the DART from Connolly or Tara Street for a couple of euro on a Leap Card. Beshoffs is a restaurant and a fishmonger’s as well as a chipper, and it sits on the harbour front with the trawlers tied up in front of it. Fish and chips here, eaten looking at the boats, is one of the best cheap afternoons in Dublin — and you can walk the Howth cliff path first to earn it. The Howth village guide covers the whole trip and the seafood guide covers the more serious end of the same category.

The sit-down option

Dublin now has a small number of places doing fish and chips as a restaurant dish rather than a takeaway — better fish, better beer, table service, roughly double the price. They are worth knowing about if you want the dish without the paper bag, and they sit somewhere between a chipper and a proper seafood restaurant. For everything else the city does with fish, the restaurant guide is the place to start.

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What to Order and What the Words Mean

Ordering fish and chips Dublin style takes about ten seconds once you know the vocabulary, and rather longer if you do not.

The board in a Dublin chipper contains several things that will not be obvious to a visitor.

• A one and one — one fish and one chips. The classic order, and Italian in origin.
• Cod — the default, and the safest. Haddock is the other standard.
• Ray — skate wing, on the bone, in batter. Distinctively Dublin, unusual elsewhere in Ireland, and genuinely excellent if you have not had it. This is the order that marks you out as someone who knows what they are doing.
• Smoked cod — a Dublin speciality: smoked before battering, deep yellow inside, much stronger flavoured. Divisive and worth trying.
• A batter burger — a beef patty deep-fried in chipper batter. Exactly what it sounds like. A cultural artefact rather than a food group.
• Curry sauce, garlic sauce, taco sauce — the three great chipper sauces. Curry is the default; taco sauce is a mystery to everyone including the people who love it.
• Mushy peas and a pickled onion — traditional, still available, increasingly ordered ironically.
• Salt and vinegar — you will be asked. Say yes.

And the spice bag

Not fish and chips, but it has taken over the same social slot and no honest guide can leave it out. A spice bag is chips, shredded fried chicken, sliced peppers and onions, tossed in salt-and-chilli seasoning and served in a paper bag by a Chinese takeaway. It was invented in Dublin around 2010, and within a few years it had become the country’s most-loved takeaway, repeatedly voted so. If you are eating out of a bag in Dublin at midnight, this is now at least as likely to be what is in it as cod. See late-night food in Dublin for where and when.

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The Neighbourhood Chipper Rule

Here is the thing every list of the best fish and chips Dublin has to offer gets wrong, including, to an extent, this one. Chippers are a neighbourhood business. There are several hundred of them across the city and its suburbs, most are family-run, and a very large number of them are excellent — which is why a Dubliner’s answer to this question is always about their own area rather than about the city centre.

The practical consequence for a visitor is simple. If you are staying anywhere residential — Portobello or Rathmines, Stoneybatter, Drumcondra or Clontarf — the chipper at the end of your street is very likely as good as anything you would queue for in town, and considerably cheaper. Ask whoever is behind the desk at your hotel or hostel. It is one of the few questions where the answer you get will be immediate, specific and genuinely felt.

The corollary is that the city-centre chippers on the busiest tourist streets are, with the honourable exception of Burdock’s, the ones least worth your money. Volume trade does not reward care.

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What You Should Expect to Pay

Fish and chips Dublin sells is one of the few genuinely cheap things left in the city, but chipper boards change and the fish price moves with the market, so treat these as planning figures and read the board rather than trusting any published list, including this one.

• Cod or haddock and chips from a good city chipper: expect somewhere in the region of €10 to €15.
• Chips on their own: a few euro, and one of the cheapest hot meals in Dublin.
• A spice bag: usually a little under the price of a fish supper.
• A sit-down fish and chips in a restaurant: roughly double the takeaway price, with a beer on top.
• Beshoffs of Howth and the harbour restaurants: restaurant pricing, and worth it for the setting.

By Dublin standards this is cheap food, and it is one of the few categories where the city is not more expensive than London. Cheap eats in Dublin and cheap food in Dublin cover the wider budget-eating question, and Dublin on a budget puts it in the context of a whole trip.

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Make a Day of It: The Howth Run

The best version of a fish and chips Dublin outing is not in the city at all. Take the DART north from Connolly or Tara Street — twenty-five minutes, a couple of euro on a Leap Card — to Howth, a working fishing harbour on a peninsula at the north end of Dublin Bay.

Walk the cliff loop first, which is about four and a half kilometres round the head with the sea below you and Ireland’s Eye offshore. Come back down to the harbour, watch the seals that live around the pier waiting for scraps from the boats, and eat. There is a Sunday market by the West Pier. The whole day costs less than a single Dublin attraction ticket. See the Howth cliff walk, Howth village and the DART guide.

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Gotchas

The things that most often go wrong between you and a decent bag of chips.

• Leo Burdock has no seating at the original shop. You eat standing in the street, which is fine in June and less fine in February.
• Chipper opening hours are unreliable. Some close at eleven, some run to three at weekends, and they change with the trade and the season. Check before you make a journey.
• Sunday is the quietest day and a number of chippers either close or shut early.
• Ray is on the bone. Delicious, but not the order to give a small child.
• “Chips” means thick-cut chips, not crisps. Crisps are crisps.
• Some small chippers still prefer cash or have a card minimum. Carry twenty euro.
• Prices are on the board, not online. Published chipper prices go stale within months.
• Howth gets very busy on a fine Sunday. Go early or go on a weekday.
• The DART stops earlier than the buses do, so check the last train back from Howth if you are eating in the evening.

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FAQ: Fish and Chips in Dublin

Where is the best fish and chips in Dublin?

For the fish itself, Beshoff Bros — the most consistent operation in the city, run by descendants of the Potemkin mutineer who founded it. For the classic experience and the history, Leo Burdock on Werburgh Street, going since 1913. For what locals actually eat, Macari on the northside or Borza on the southside, both Italian-Irish family shops of long standing. For the best setting, Beshoffs of Howth on the harbour. Honestly, the best chipper in Dublin is usually whichever good one is nearest to you.

Is Leo Burdock worth it?

Worth doing once, yes — it is the oldest chipper in Dublin, the location beside Christ Church is perfect if you are walking the medieval quarter, and it is a genuine piece of the city rather than a manufactured attraction. But it is not the best food in the category and it carries a fame premium. Go if you are passing; do not cross the city for it. If you want the best fish and chips Dublin has, go to a Beshoff Bros instead.

What is a spice bag?

Chips, shredded fried chicken, sliced peppers and onions, tossed with salt-and-chilli seasoning and served in a paper bag by a Chinese takeaway. It was invented in Dublin around 2010 and is now the most popular takeaway in Ireland, voted so repeatedly. It is not fish and chips, but it has taken over the same job — the thing you eat after the pub — and every Dubliner has a strong opinion about which local shop makes the best one.

What is a “one and one”?

One fish and one portion of chips. The phrase comes from the Italian families who founded most of Ireland’s chip shops in the early twentieth century, saying uno e uno across the counter, and it has been Dublin slang ever since. Ordering a one and one in a Dublin chipper is entirely normal and will be understood instantly.

What fish should I order?

Cod if you want the classic, haddock if you prefer it firmer, and ray if you want the distinctively Dublin option — skate wing on the bone in batter, which is unusual outside the city and genuinely excellent. Smoked cod is the local curiosity: smoked before battering, deep yellow, much stronger flavoured, and divisive. Ask for salt and vinegar and say yes to curry sauce at least once.

How much does fish and chips cost in Dublin?

Expect roughly €10 to €15 for cod or haddock and chips from a good city chipper, considerably less for chips on their own, and around double that for a sit-down restaurant version with a beer. Prices move with the fish market and boards change, so read the board rather than trusting a published figure. By Dublin standards it is genuinely cheap, and it is one of the few things here that does not cost more than it would in London.

Why are so many Irish chippers Italian?

Because a large number of them were founded by emigrants from one small area of Lazio — the Val di Comino and the town of Casalattico in particular — who arrived in Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and went into the fried-food trade. Borza, Macari, Cafolla, Fusco, Forte and Aprile are all part of that story, and most are still family-run four or five generations on. It is why Dublin says “a one and one”.

Where can I eat fish and chips by the sea in Dublin?

Howth, twenty-five minutes north on the DART, where Beshoffs sits on the harbour front with the trawlers in view. Or Dún Laoghaire, Sandycove and Dalkey to the south on the same line, all of which have good chippers and a seafront to eat on. Combine either with a cliff or coastal walk and you have the best cheap day out in Dublin — see the southside coast guide.

Are there good vegetarian options at a Dublin chipper?

Chips, obviously, and most chippers do onion rings, garlic cheese chips and some form of veggie burger. The frying oil is generally shared, which matters if you are strict about it — ask. For proper vegetarian and vegan cooking the city is much better served than it was: see vegan restaurants in Dublin.

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Keep Planning

• Dublin Restaurants & Food Guide — the parent guide to eating in the city.
• Seafood Restaurants in Dublin — the serious end of the same category.
• Cheap Eats in Dublin — under €20 a head, all day.
• Howth Village — the harbour, the market and the seals.
• Late-Night Food in Dublin — where the chipper fits into the night.
• Traditional Irish Restaurants — coddle, boxty, stew and the rest.
• Dublin Food Tours — if you would rather be guided round it.
• Irish Slang for Visitors — including why it is a one and one.

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Keep Reading

• Dublin Restaurants & Food Guide
• Seafood Restaurants in Dublin

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Photo Credits

Leo Burdock on Werburgh Street at night: Cycle lane in front of Leo Burdock fish and chip shop, 2 Werburgh St, Christchurch Pl, Dublin, D08 HC82, Ireland by Ridiculopathy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Temple Bar streets at night: Dublin, Ireland – panoramio (30) by Roman Kharkovski, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Customers at Leo Burdock on Werburgh Street: Dublin-24-Leo Burdock Fish+Chips-2017-gje by Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fish and chips from Leo Burdock: Dublin-32-Fish+Chips-2017-gje by Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fishing boats at Howth Harbour: A view From Howth Harbour,Dublin,Ireland – panoramio (1) by Geyo John, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.