Fish and chip shop nets five star status

A PORTKNOCKIE chipper voted the best in Moray has now earned a five star rating from review website TripAdvisor. The fish and chip shop, which came top of a poll of Moray chippies run by our sister paper, the Northern Scot, revealed the news of their latest catch on their Facebook page. The good news has left owners Moira Proctor, who originally hails from Elgin, and Ian Nuttall, from Guernsey, delighted. “It’s a huge boost,” Ms Proctor said. “It’s lovely to know that the hard work ourselves and our staff have put in has
paid off with customers giving us such wonderful reviews. “Since we announced that we’d got the five stars, we’ve had a fantastic reaction from our customers, we’ve been overwhelmed, really. “We don’t really go in much for awards as such, providing good food and good service is far more important to us, but it was such a nice honour to
get, we had to put it on our Facebook page. After all, without our customers spreading the word and putting in their reviews, we would never have got it. “It’s also nice for our 15 staff to be
recognised like this, and they’re all delighted. After all, we couldn’t do it without them.” Since opening the shop in March 2014, the business has continued to
thrive every year. This year has been no exception, with customers regularly queueing out the door for their suppers. In addition to a strong local clientele and a vigorous tourist trade, the pair can also count on support from as far away as Grantown, Elgin and even Peterhead. And the secret of their success, according to Ms Proctor, is quite simple. “Good food and good service have been key things which have attracted a strong and loyal customer base who’ve been fantastically supportive,” she said. “Word of mouth has been the most important thing for us. This year we’ve joined Route 250 which I’m sure has helped, too.” The pair have recently invested heavily in the business, and have installed new branding at the front of the shop. Next year it is the turn of the back kitchen to be revamped. Running a booming fish and chip shop is a far cry from what Ms Proctor and Mr Nuttall expected when they moved to Portknockie from Guernsey where they met. Mr Nuttall, who, has previously run a fish and chip shop, was an emergency medical technician with the ambulance service and Ms Proctor was a nurse. Both had initially expected the chipper to be a part-time project, with them working part-time alongside this. To keep up to date with what is happening at Portknockie fish and chip shop, follow them on Facebook.