A "perfect" fish and chip shop has been named among the top in the country.

Maggie's Fish and Chips in Hastings has once again been ranked among the best chippies in the UK by The Times. 

In the list of the 23 best, Maggie's, in Rock-a-Nore Road, was ranked 21st. 

Judges compiled the list after driving more than 5,000 miles around the UK to find the best beaches in the country.

The Times said the first-floor chippy is "so perfect" that it almost earned the Stade beach, which it called a "gravel stretch", a place in its top 50 beaches.

Judges said: "So fresh was the cod (straight from the market downstairs), so simple the dining room and so enchanting the views that it’s like a seaside pastiche dreamed up by Disney imagineers — a suspicion deepened by the miniature train that puffs through the tunnel beneath the restaurant."

The team at Maggie's are no strangers to awards, having already been ranked among the top chippies by The Times last year and The Observer this year.

READ MORE: Sussex restaurants named among top 50 UK fish and chip takeaways

The restaurant has also won a Good Food Award.

"Maggie Banfield may no longer be at the helm, but Stan, Lionel and all the fabulous Maggie's team certainly are doing her proud, taking on the baton and serving some of the best fish and chips on the south coast," Maggie's website says.

"Choose from staple favourites: cod, haddock or scampi and chips, with portion sizes to suit and a tailored menu just for children. Daily fish specials are also on offer, skate, dabs or monkfish to name a few."

The full list of top fish and chip shops is:

  1. John Long’s, Belfast, County Antrim
  2. Redcloak Fish Bar, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
  3. Harbour Lights, Falmouth, Cornwall
  4. Finney’s, Benllech, Anglesey
  5. Colmans Seafood Temple, South Shields, County Durham
  6. Little Wolf, Strangford, County Down
  7. The Tunny Club, Scarborough, North Yorkshire
  8. Whitehead’s Fish & Chips, Hornsea, East Riding of Yorkshire
  9. Les and Rita’s Fish Bar, Rhyl, Denbighshire
  10. The Rocketeer, North Berwick, East Lothian
  11. French’s Fish Shop, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk
  12. The Haven, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
  13. Bennett’s Fish & Chips, Weymouth, Dorset
  14. Morton’s, Ballycastle, County Antrim
  15. Lighthouse Fisheries of Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire
  16. The Mermaid, Barmouth, Gwynedd
  17. East Coast, Musselburgh, East Lothian
  18. Steel’s Corner House Restaurant, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire
  19. Fraser’s, Penzance, Cornwall
  20. Fishers of Hunstanton, Norfolk
  21. Maggie’s, Hastings
  22. The Magpie Café, Whitby, North Yorkshire
  23. Lewis’s Fish Restaurant, Seahouses, Northumberland