Glasgow chippy sells ‘fish supper roll’ with calorific results

The calorie-laden meal has appalled food critics, who claim dishes like this have made Scotland one of Europe’s fattest countries.

But its creators have hit back, arguing the gourmet sarnie is healthier than a takeaway pizza or curry.

They say the dish, which costs £5.75 and comes with extra chips on the side, has been going down a treat with fast food lovers who simply can’t get enough.

Packed into a brioche bun, the burger is made up of a layer of mushy peas, chips, battered haddock, and homemade tartar sauce.

The burger alone delivers a substantial 700 calories, but once a big side order of chips has been added, it climbs to more than 1,000 calories.

That’s around two-thirds of a woman’s standard daily allowance.

“We’ve had a lot of customers ordering it, then coming back and ordering it again – so we know they love it,” said manager Harin Bassi of fish and chip bar, Hooked.

“Our head fryer works to keep up to date with trends and knew there was a craze for burgers.

“So this is everything you’d normally get on a plate, but in a brioche bun.

“About two-thirds of customers order chips with it, which is funny.”

Their mastermind head fryer was, she said, working hard to come up with a range of seafood burgers set to launch this year.

Hooked, which opened in July 2014, has built up a customer base so dedicated that some drive up to 45 minutes to get their hands on its suppers.

“We only fry in rapeseed oil, which is 5% saturated fat,” said Harin, 36.

Bog-standard chip shops often change their oil once a month, while Hooked switches it every other day.

It doesn’t keep its fish frozen, and makes its own mushy peas in-house.

“Even though you might not think it, fish and chips has fewer calories than a takeaway pizza or a korma,” she said.

“It’s also packed with protein and starch.”

One regular at Hooked, Michael Dempster, 38, a digital developer from Cathcart, regularly treats himself to one of the suppers after a night out.

“I think it’s taking the fish supper to its natural, logical conclusion,” said lean Michael.

“Everything tastes better with a bit of bread wrapped around it.”

However, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, Tam Fry, was less enthusiastic about Glasgow’s latest gastronomic offering.

“By eating this you are pushing the limits for almost every piece of dietary advice there is,” he said.

“It’ll give the person indigestion for a fortnight, I’d have thought.

“The recognised amount of calories for lunch is 600, with a dinner of 800 and a breakfast of 400.

“It is just an outrageous number of calories in a meal.”

The forum believes takeaways have a “responsibility to the customer to put the calorie count on the menu”.

Last week it was revealed obesity could be costing Scotland up to £4.6 billion a year.

The whopping figure was revealed in a Scottish Parliament briefing which said the problem was putting a “significant and growing burden” on the nation.