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TripAdvisor reviewers have snubbed the capital’s high-end fine dining hotspots to crown a humble south east London chip shop the best restaurant in London.

The Golden Chippy on Greenwich High Road hit number one spot on the website on Monday, with one breathless reviewer urging diners to “forget what you believed about fish and chips”.

With a string of similar comments branding the chip shop’s fare “sublime”, the venue is currently ranked higher than celebrated establishments like Gastronhome and The Ledbury.

The chippie serves up traditional cod and chips at £7.20 for a standard meal or £9 for large. In contrast, the first fine dining restaurant on the list is Gastronhome in Battersea, where mains cost around £30.

Owner Chris Kanizi said its online fame even meant he had received a reservation from Hong Kong, while coachloads of up to 60 people had enquired about group visits.

Mr Kanizi, whose restaurant only has space to seat 12 people inside, said: “The secret is to do the job properly properly with lots and lots of TLC.

“You have to love your job and only serve what’s good enough for your belly. It’s a very simple policy.”

Mr Kanizi, who runs the business with “right-hand man” Krishna Kharel and four other staff, opened the business 13 years ago after previously presiding over a café two doors down.

He said: “When people read these things on TripAdvisor and Google they then to come from other parts of England and Scotland when they’re in London.

“They want to make sure that it’s as good as their home towns.”

“I had a family call last month enquiring from Hong Kong,” he said. “They said ‘we’re coming to London and we’re wondering if we can book a table for four.’

“They were even more excited about it than I was. They eventually came and got their table for four.

“When they looked at it from the outside they had question marks in their head. Is this really the place that’s number one? But they really enjoyed it.”

Mr Kanizi said part of the key was using “old school” ingredients, creating his own batter and always using fresh fish.

He said: “Here it’s never ‘job done’. We always go one stop extra and that’s how I get satisfaction.”

The 56-year-old went on: “It’s heart-breaking that sometimes you have to turn away parties of 50 or 60 people when coach parties turn up.

“But instead of having a 150-seat restaurant go empty I’m glad I’ve got something like this that’s always full up.”

Space might soon be even harder to come by with hundreds of reviewers filling the TripAdvisor site with glowing write-ups. One wrote: “The batter is crispy and melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

“The chips taste fresh and the fish even fresher. If you eat in, they give you a fabulous salad. The staff are smiley and lovely and the chef is justifiably proud of the food he serves. A class act.”

Another claimed: “I've been to lots of places to try different fish & chips, but The Golden Chippy definitely is best I've ever had.

“Crunchy on the surface, the fish melts in your mouth, sublime!”