A chip shop like no other - Manchester’s celebrated ‘second best chippy in the UK’ reviewed

Not all chip shops are created equal. Not many of them share a party wall with a Michelin starred restaurant, for example. But Ancoats’ Hip Hop Chip Shop does.

And it’s really not like other chip shops, not least because this week it was named the second best chippy in the whole of the UK, only being pipped to the top spot by some place in Mayfair.

It scored the accolade thanks to the crunching of a host of complex data, from Tripadvisor reviews to Instagram hashtags. But can data translate into a decent dinner?

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The short answer is yes. But if you’re hoping for your usual chippy experience, prepare to have your life flipped upside down, as Will Smith once said to Jazzy Jeff.

While having eaten from its travelling van on a few occasions - it’s done up to look like a huge tape deck, and is currently to be found at the Carlton Club in Whalley Range - I’d shamefully never ventured into its shop in Ancoats, despite passing it dozens of times (it opened in 2018).

Perhaps joining a few other Johnny Come Latelys last night, it was busy as it approached closing time at 9pm, but a table was grabbed and a menu scoured. For hip hop fans, you’ll be treated to a confident and authoritative playlist - spanning Gangstarr and Slum Village to Nas and Lauryn Hill (though there is some effing and jeffing if you’re offended by such things).

The wallpaper on one wall is back issue covers of the iconic Hip Hop Connection magazine, gig posters cover another and the front window is covered in decals to look like the spines of classic albums from the Jungle Brothers’ Done By The Forces of Nature to Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde.

They’ve gone all in on the theme. Let’s hope that the food is up