A landmark York fish restaurant has finally had its chips!

The closure was announced yesterday (Tuesday) on its social media.

It follows months of uncertainty for the Loch Fyne restaurant at Foss Bridge House in Walmgate.

A spokesperson for Greene King confirmed to the Press: “It is with sadness that we have made the difficult decision to close our York Loch Fyne restaurant. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their support over the years.

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 “We have explored all options to keep the business open, and even gained planning permission in 2022 to convert it into a pub, but sadly it has not been possible to go ahead with this. We are now consulting with our team at the restaurant and looking at opportunities we can offer them at our other pubs in the city.”

Clearance of the premises is already underway.

York Press: The exterior of the restaurant

The ‘final’ closure follows other periods of closure during the floods of 2015 and during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the closure of many sister restaurants nationally.

This latest closure comes as the restaurant chain has closed further venues across the country, most recently in Edinburgh several weeks ago, leaving a sole surviving branch in Portsmouth, according to its website.

Suffolk-based brewery Greene King bought the restaurant chain for £68.1millin in 2007, with plans then for expansion.

The restaurant at Foss Bridge House opened on the ground floor of the former FR Stubbs ironmonger building in November 2006.

The ironmongers had operated in the building erected in the late 19th Century from 1915 until 2001.

Last year, Greene King submitted plans to convert the building into a pub, with “expanded food provision” which would trade under the Metropolitan Pub Company, a ‘premium’ part of the hospitality giant.

York Press:

The changes, which included a ‘speakeasy bar’, were approved last September.

However, earlier this year, Greene King told the Press its plans for the site were ‘under review.’

Greene King operates a number of pubs in York, including four within a mile of the now-closed Loch Fyne restaurant.

They are the Lendal Cellars, Ye Olde Starre Inn on Stonegate, the Windmill on Blossom Street and the Golden Lion on Church Street.

The Loch Fyne restaurant was a relatively popular feature on the York dining scene, though it was often quiet during weekdays.

The review website TripAdvisor gave it four stars out of five, ranking it 127 out of 564 York restaurants.

Out of 1,812 reviews, 978 said the venue was excellent and 419 said very good. Some 122 rated it very poor and 96 terrible.

The restaurant’s last review on TripAdvisor from September called it the ‘worst restaurant ever’, citing ‘bland’ food and ‘awfully slow service.’

However, directly underneath this review, a diner lauded ‘excellent’ service and ‘phenomenal’ oysters and cocktails.