Supporting Small Businesses: Fiddlers Elbow, Leintwardine

Supporting Small Businesses: Fiddlers Elbow, Leintwardine

Hidden down a side street in the Herefordshire village of Leintwardine, you’ll find Fiddlers Elbow, a family-run fish & chip shop. It’s not just any fish & chip shop, this “chippy” has got me making a 45-minute drive to sit in my car and eat their delicious fish & chips… It’s that good!

I first discovered Fiddlers Elbow during summer last year. Mum & I were looking for somewhere to go for lunch and Fiddlers Elbow popped up in the search engine as having gluten-free and dairy-free options. It was a bit of a drive, but I was looking forward to it. I have since been back many times.

With lockdown imposed back in March, we made our last visit for a few months (Oh, such a long few months!). Fiddlers Elbow, however, carried on. They weren’t going to let a pandemic get the better of them! They kept the Leintwardine area fed with their fish & chips, firstly with deliveries and then giving the option to collect too. Lockdown in Wales lasted longer than it did in England, but, as soon as we were allowed to, I finally made the drive and got my treat of fish & chips.

Plaice & Chips from Fiddlers Elbow.
Plaice & Chips from Fiddlers Elbow.

So what makes Fiddlers Elbow so great? Well, they’ve won multiple awards (including Tripadvisor awards, The National Fish & Chip Awards, British Takeaway Awards and more), as well as having been continually awarded a Food Safety & Hygiene Award of 5 stars since 2013. The place is sparkling clean! All of the food is cooked to order, not only that, but they also have a nice range of gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options.

My favourite meal from Fiddlers Elbow has got to be the Battered Plaice & Chips (gluten-free & dairy-free!). The batter is golden and crispy, and the plaice is delicious and flaky. The chips? Cooked to perfection! I will, occasionally, have the Battered Haddock & Chips, and sometimes I am tempted by the “special” – earlier this year I had the Sweet & Sour Battered Chicken Chunks, Rice & Chips and more recently I had the Lemonsole Fish Bites & Chips.

Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls with Chips.
Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls with Chips.

Mum’s favourite is the Southern Fried Chicken Chunks & Mini Chips, whilst Dad loves the Steak & Ale Pie & Mini Chips. They also tend to share a pot of Mushy Peas between them.

Another firm favourite of mine, though they’re not always on the menu, is the Battered Onion Rings. They are divine! Large rings of onion, coated in a light, crispy batter. Yum!

Delicious Onion Rings from Fiddlers Elbow!
Delicious Onion Rings from Fiddlers Elbow!

For those who aren’t quite full after their fish & chips, Ben & Jerry ice creams feature in the dessert section of their menu, just in case you happen to have an empty corner (I never have!).

Fiddlers Elbow are also conscious about the environment with the cutlery (if you need it) being plant-based, making them and the boxes compostable. Straws are also available, should you need them, but these are plant-based too.

I recommend pre-ordering via the Fiddlers Elbow website or app, so you get a notification when your meal is ready to collect. With current COVID restrictions, collection is available via the side window.

Battered Sausage & Chips.
Battered Sausage & Chips.

The customer service provided by Dominic and Linzi (co-owners) is second to none. They go the extra mile for their customers. They get to know their customers and take on-board suggestions, and, of course, service is provided with a smile! Just a week or so ago, I had a message through their app to say they would be adding my favourite onion rings back onto the menu the following day. What a great excuse to go out for lunch the next day!

Find Fiddlers Elbow at 10 Rosemary Lane, Leintwardine, Herefordshire, SY7 0LP.

(This is the sixth edition of my Supporting Small Businesses series).

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Please note: We bought these items with our own money and I am in no way affiliated with Fiddlers Elbow.

32 comments

  1. Ooo I’ve not been to Leintwardine in years, and I’ve not had a good chippy all year either because of the pandemic. Check out those chips & those crispy onion rings…. Mmmmmmmm! Sounds like a great place for a bite to eat. I wouldn’t mind taking a day trip there when all things covid are over. Great post to spread the word about a fab small local business! xx

  2. Kris P says:

    It’s near dinner time here and your photos have made me very hungry, Nikki. I used to adore fish and chips and my husband and I once picked up take-out on a periodic basis for dinner. He now has food limitations (extremely low salt among the most important of these) which would prevent him from eating this. I don’t however, and now you’ve got me wondering where I can find some for lunch one day.

  3. Suzanne says:

    Herefordshire is such a lovely area, we stayed in that area on the way up to North Yorkshire to housesit. Always a treat to have fish and chips a very popular takeaway for us Kiwis.

  4. Ann Coleman says:

    That sounds so wonderful! As a citizen of the USA, I am jealous of the quality of fish and chips you can get in the UK. One day (when this pandemic is over) I do hope to visit and I will definitely eat fish and chips while I’m there. Fiddler’s sounds wonderful, I hope I can try that too! Are the Covid restrictions lifted in Wales yet?

    • Nikki says:

      Parts of Wales are currently back in lockdown, but I’m in a fairly rural area so we’ve just got the minimum restrictions (masks in shops etc). However, rumour has it that the whole of Wales is going to be back in lockdown shortly. I’m guessing they’re going to do it for the school’s half-term holidays in the next couple of weeks.

  5. Shybiker says:

    Yumm! Looks great. It’s good to support small businesses during this pandemic, especially food places. There’s a nice breakfast place an hour away from me that I ride to every weekend, partly ’cause the food’s good and partly because the couple who own it are so nice. I applaud your supporting this spot!

  6. Hi Nikki,

    The fish looks delicious and has made me feel hungry just looking at it! We often go off motorway at Shropshire when we visit our friends in North Wales, so a detour to Leintwardine doesn’t seem out of the way to me, although it is usually hubbie driving!

    We have a chippy attached to a local farm shop, which has won all kinds of awards, so we tend to go there. They have been open for most of Covid time, although you need to ring your order through and pay over the phone, give them your car reg. and they tell you what time to collect. You then stay in your car and they bring the order carrier to your car and leave it by the driver’s door. So no human contact required.

    We have both also taken to ordering sausage and chips, as an adult portion is three home-made sausages, from the pigs they keep and breed on site.

    Thanks for highlighting your local businesses in these posts, it is always good to support them whenever we can!

    Take Care and I hope that all is well with you 🙂

    Yvonne xx

  7. Wow – absolutely love the photos of the food on offer at the Fiddler’s Elbow. It looks absolutely delicious, I can almost taste the crispy batter just by looking at it! Great to support places like this during these tough times 🙂

  8. Stefan says:

    We have a great local chippy here in Southsea, Portsmouth. We normally treat ourselves on a Thursday and go sit near the Hayling ferry and eat as we people and boat watch!

  9. Nancy says:

    ooooh love that you’re giving this small biz a shoutout. Fiddlers Elbow sounds like a delicious place to check out. I am a big fan of fish and chips!! Anything that good is worth the long drive for. Pretty cool how they are recognized by Tripadvisor and such. You can never go wrong with onion rings!!! Love that they have a ton of selections and great customer service!!

    Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me

  10. Aimsy says:

    Ooo you can’t beat a good fish and chip shop. They have a variety of things, don’t they? Perfect for when you don’t fancy fish and chips as such. I haven’t visited this part of the UK before, but I know where I will be visiting if I do!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Aimsy xoxo
    https://www.aimsysantics.co.uk

  11. It’s so important to support local businesses. In fact, I’m a huge advocator of this as I started and run a local community magazine. Such a shame we’re now having a second lockdown. I just hope most – if not all – our small, local businesses weather the storm…

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