Gilly’s Fry Bar combines Japanese dining and a Sunderland chip shop

Shiitake and chips please... 
Frying in the face of convention: chips and curry sauce will be served, as will deep-fried cod's roe
Shutterstock / r.classen
Ben Norum31 August 2017

It’s the fusion food pairing no one saw coming: northern chippie meets Japanese tempura bar.

Scampi fry, battered sausage and pickled onions will be on the menu alongside raw fish, battered shitake mushrooms and fried cod’s roe at Gilly’s Fry Bar, which launches in Finsbury Park next month.

It takes its inspiration equally from the chip shops of Sunderland, where founder Neil Gill grew up, and the izakaya restaurants of Japan. He is also influenced by his time working as a chef with Alan Yau, the founder of Wagamama.

It will serve battered fish and vegetables and breadcrumbed tonkatsu-style pork and beef, along with fish tartares and oysters.

It will also offer chips served with a Japanese katsu curry sauce, which Gill notes is remarkably close to the classic British chip shop curry sauce beloved in the North.

Man with the plan: Neil Gill

All the food will be available for takeaway, while a selection of highball cocktails, shots and punches will be offered alongside it for those who eat in.

These will include a mix of bourbon, amaro and Dr Pepper, and a salt and vinegar-flavoured whisky shot inspired by a pickleback.

Gill, who lives in Finsbury Park and also runs British restaurant Season Kitchen and gastropub The Lamb locally, said: “We do a lot of fried food in the UK and the chip shop is part of our food culture, but in Japan they have perfected the art of good deep frying more successfully than we have.”

He added: “Compared to your traditional fish shops, the batter will be lighter and more delicate, and designed to simply show off really good quality ingredients. I love the idea of marrying traditional Japanese with traditional British flavours, whilst using age-old frying techniques in the process.”

Gilly’s Fry Bar will open on September 19 close to Finsbury Park’s new City North development.

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