here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nThough it has since closed, Andy has launched other ventures, and their pies remain a firm favourite of Stopfordians, and are still sold under their new guise, Blackbird.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_Lens-Chippy-Droylsden-5.jpg\")
The golden-hued pies at Len’s Chippy(Image: MEN)<\/p>\n
Announcing the news last month, the pie master explained that the chippy has been named after his late grandad who he has described as \u2018the best person\u2019 he ever knew.<\/p>\n
He also set out his stall early: \u201cThe classic English chippy is a lost art and my main aim is to bring back the traditions of a proper community chippy with some of the quality we do in the restaurants creating top drawer food for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intrigued by his promise to be a go-to for quality chippy staples, I found myself just east of the city centre testing out the new chippy.<\/p>\n
Having tried and tested a fair few fish and chip shops in recent years, I was pleased to see a somewhat stripped-back menu.<\/p>\n
![\"Inside](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_Lens-Chippy-Droylsden.jpg\")
Inside Len’s Chippy in Droylsden (Image: MEN)<\/p>\n
Rather than losing the will to live looking at a blackboard overrun with choices and panic buying, at Len\u2019s the menu was neatly divided between, fish, chips, pies and sides.<\/p>\n
A fish by itself – a rather sad choice if you ask me – was priced at \u00a35.50, while chips are available in a number of sizes – a cone (\u00a32.50), small (\u00a33) and large (\u00a34).<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll talk more about the sausages in a short while, because they\u2019re something quite special here, but they were \u00a33 while a pie on its own was a fiver.<\/p>\n
As you would expect there were a number of combinations and add-ons too, but without it becoming overwhelming and overkill. To share, we opted for a small fish and chips (\u00a37.50), sausage (\u00a33), and the pie, chips, peas and gravy (\u00a39.50), plus a side of curry sauce (\u00a32), and two cans of pop.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_Lens-Chippy-Droylsden-2.jpg\")
The fish, chips and sausage at Len’s Chippy(Image: MEN)<\/p>\n
On the small but mighty menu, you\u2019ll also find pie barns (\u00a38), spam fritters (\u00a31.50), battered sausage (\u00a33.50), chip barm (\u00a34), plus a range of sauces including a proper beef and veggies gravy made from scratch (\u00a32.50).<\/p>\n
Value for money wise, and given the pressures on takeaways and restaurants, I found the pricing to be pretty fair given the current climate. It\u2019s also well noted the challenges those running chippies have faced in recent years, with the price of oil and fish just one of the barriers they face.<\/p>\n
After a short wait, the goods are carefully transported to the car and unwrapped, knowing full well that the smell of salt and vinegar will be a hard job to shift, but probably well worth it.<\/p>\n
We tried the fish first, which may not have had that thick layer of batter that some chippies pride themselves on, but for me, I prefer it a little trimmer and less ostentatious – sometimes all that batter can be hiding a distinctly average piece of fish.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2_Lens-Chippy-Droylsden-3.jpg\")
The meat and potato pie with gravy and peas(Image: MEN)<\/p>\n
Cardboard fork at the ready I started to flake the fish up, and as steam gently wafted upwards, filling the car, took that first bite. Soft and light, the freshness of the fish was what grabbed me first, while the thin layer of golden, crispy batter made it a match in chip shop heaven.<\/p>\n
The chips, chipped daily using Cheshire spuds were plentiful, and while on the paler side were cooked beautifully. I’m glad that they were on the more conservative side when it came to the salt and vinegar too, I can’t stand when they’re doused and end up being soggy and forgettable.<\/p>\n
It is the pie and sausage though where this chippy shines. I’d come back for the fish and chips, but I’d happily have one those pies on repeat prescription.<\/p>\n
There’s a choice of steak, three cheese and onion, chicken Balti, steak and kidney pudding and meat and potato. We kept it classic and went with the latter, which tussled for position in the paper box alongside another portion of thick cuts chips, perfect peas and proper gravy.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Lens-Chippy-Droylsden-6.jpg\")
A close up of the meat and potato pie with gravy and peas(Image: MEN)<\/p>\n
If you’ve had one of the pies from Ate Days A Week in the past, then I’m preaching to the converted, but they’re some of the best around. There’s a reason they’re the pie masters and as the rich, pepper filling poured out of it’s casing, rubbing shoulder with the glossy peas and smooth gravy, I couldn’t think of a better combination.<\/p>\n
The sausage meanwhile is as far from the frozen aisle as you can get. A proper butcher’s sausage it’s the perfect add-on for this chippy tea, the meat perfectly seasoned and easy to divide up, unlike some chip shop sausages where it’s rubbery to cut and taste.<\/p>\n
My only slight gripe would be the curry sauce. For me, it was too watery, especially when I think you need it to be quite thick to be mopped up by the chips, but as far as new chippies go, I really do hope this one – with its lovingly made fish and chips, award-winning pies and stellar sausages goes all the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stockport pie royalty has expanded its footprint opening a new chippy in east Manchester – we went to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,30761,393,3052,4884,2465,8827,8886,19336,280,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-421308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-droylsden","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fast-food","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-cafes","15":"tag-manchester-restaurants","16":"tag-restaurant-reviews","17":"tag-restaurants","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115197499633545871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Len's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_Lens-Chippy-Droylsden-4.jpg\")
Len’s Chippy opened in August (Image: MEN)<\/p>\n