HarGlees! Top quality fish & chips opens in Westbury high street!
H
arlees – a third generation family business – opened recently in Westbury and owner Richard Long says their slogan, “Fanatical About Fish’ is at the heart of everything they do. The nautically-themed and ambiently-lit shop chain restaurants only use cod and haddock from sustainable sources, to help secure fish stocks for the future and to ensure environmental kindness and responsibility. Cod and haddock are fished in the cold waters of the Burren Sea off Galway. “It’s frozen within five hours of being caught on factory trawlers which have their own processing plants on them, and it keeps the quality absolutely superb,” said Richard. He also sources products directly from fishermen closer to home. “I go down to see fishermen at Weymouth – they don’t know what they’re going to bring out of the sea but they might have some really good stuff and I’ll say, ‘wow, I want that’, and then we can get that nice fresh fish straight out to the shops and put it on the menu board – some nice skate or brill or sea bass – and it’s fresh.” Richard says what sets Harlees apart from other, nearby takeaways is the customer experience. “We do things differently,” he says. “We want it to be not just fish and chips, but to be an experience because the very best fish and chips are fresh fish and chips. You cannot beat it straight out of the cooker, on a plate, on a table, piping hot. “We don’t serve our takeaways in bags so it hasn’t steamed up or anything, so you’re not
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Chippy Chat & Fast Food Magazine • November 2020
losing the crispness of the batter. You’ve spent all this time and effort to do this great product, then put it in a bag and it’s gone soggy. We use boxes with steam holes so the air can circulate.” “We’ve recently developed our own batter – it’s unique to us. Everyone’s got their own recipe but even I don’t know the recipe, it’s that secret! “It’s a very light crisp batter and our feedback from customers has been so positive so we cook to order. “We want people to see our logo above the shop and think “Harlees – it’s good, it’s reliable and I know I can go there and know what I’m getting.”
Online ordering Due to the Covid-19 climate, Harlees is currently offering takeaways only, which can be ordered via their own app. “We are concentrating on the takeaway and getting the click and collect service right,” Richard explained. “We want people to do click and collect because the advantage with that is you can go online to order it, book your timeslot, come in, pay for it by card, and your food will be ready for you to pick up straight away “We have been avoiding phone usage purely because it takes us away from doing customer service and the cooking.” “We all have to move with the times and that’s how we do it,” Richard added. “We want to concentrate on the customers we’ve got and to do that we want to avoid doing phone orders.” On the app the business will be advertising promotions and customers can peruse the regularly updated menu. Chippy Chat & Fast Food Magazine • November 2020
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