If you’ve ever driven the A64 east out of York toward Scarborough on a Saturday afternoon in August, you’ve probably noticed the slow, patient procession of holiday traffic, which includes caravans, families with their kids’ bikes on the back, and the occasional coach. However, you might have also noticed something else. On the road past Malton, some fifteen minutes outside the city, there is a sizable facility with a sizable parking lot, a prominent sign, and a layout that is obviously intended with coaches in mind.
It’s Thompsons Fish and Chips. It has been located in the tiny community of Hazelbush along this section of the A64 since 2002. It gets crowded on Saturday afternoons for the same reason that it has been there for so long. It does what it does well and regularly, and its patrons are aware of this.
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Owner | John Thompson — independent owner and operator since the 1990s; began in Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, where he developed his own approach to preparing fish and chips before expanding to a successful Wetwang takeaway, which he sold in 2001 |
| Address | Malton Rd, Hazelbush, York YO32 9TW, United Kingdom — situated directly on the A64 between York and the North Yorkshire coast |
| Format | Modern 120-seater restaurant with a separate takeaway counter; large car park sized to accommodate coach parties; opened in 2002 in a purpose-built building designed to John Thompson’s own plans |
| Recent Refurbishment | Restaurant completely refurbished in recent years (~2022–2023, after roughly 20 years of operation) — providing comfortable, modern, relaxing seating for couples, families, large parties, and business travellers |
| Phone & Booking | +44 1904 468022 — booking advisable for group bookings and coach parties; further details accessible via the company website |
| Standard Hours | Monday–Thursday: 11:30 am – 7:00 pm; Friday–Saturday: 11:30 am – 8:00 pm; Sunday: 11:30 am – 7:00 pm |
| Summer Hours (2026) | Sunday–Thursday: 11:30 am – 7:30 pm; Friday–Saturday: 11:30 am – 8:00 pm — extended hours through the busier coastal travel season |
| Guest Reviews & Reference | Customer reviews available through Tripadvisor and Google Reviews; the restaurant is a regular stopover on the A64 route between York and Scarborough/Whitby |
The restaurant’s backstory is the kind of slow-build hospitality story that is worth sharing because it is truly unique in 2026, even though it is not covered by trade magazines. Stamford Bridge, the East Riding village most famous for the battle in 1066, is where John Thompson began his career. Before opening a takeaway restaurant in Wetwang, he spent several years honing his method for making fish and chips there.
After the Wetwang company grew to such an extent that he sold it in 2001, he spent more than a year searching for the ideal site for his next project. In 2002, he chose the Hazelbush location on the A64 because it was close enough to York to attract locals, far enough out to catch the traffic heading toward the seaside, and had enough space to construct the kind of facility he had in mind.
He did not build a refurbished restaurant or a converted store. With a 120-seat restaurant on one side, a separate takeout counter for patrons who wanted to grab their food and go on, and a parking lot big enough to accommodate coach parties without anybody having to walk around the block, it was a specially constructed structure created according to his own plans. At this level of organization, this type of custom design is uncommon.
The majority of independent fish and chip operators adapt to whatever location is available. Thompson designed the site with the business in mind. Twenty years later, the outcome is a restaurant that has fared better than the majority of its competitors during the same time frame—despite the COVID restrictions, the wider cost-of-living pressure on the hospitality industry, and the unrelenting margin compression that has forced the closure of numerous independent restaurants throughout the United Kingdom.
The restaurant has a modern air thanks to a recent renovation that was finished in the previous several years, but it hasn’t altered what patrons come for. The chairs have been rearranged. The decor is cozy, contemporary, and obviously created with longer-stay eaters in mind: business travelers pausing for a dinner in between meetings, families allowing kids to eat slowly, and couples lingering after their plates.
The staff is courteous when coaches arrive with little warning, and the phone number is +44 1904 468022. Group reservations are advised. During the week, regular hours are 11:30 am to 7 pm, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday. During the busiest travel season in 2026, Sunday through Thursday hours will be extended to 7:30 pm. This is not exotic at all. It’s all the exact kind of operational detail that a badly managed independent restaurant misses.
When you walk into Thompsons Fish and Chips on a day when half the dining room is packed by holiday patrons and the other half by locals, you get the impression that this is how an independently owned regional food business should appear when it is doing successfully. Fresh fish, cooked chips, and well-prepared traditional accompaniments—the food is the food. The prices are reasonable. The place fulfills the purpose of its design.
John Thompson is not in charge of a vast empire. He is purposefully operating a single location on a road where his clients are frequently in a rush and where stopping for an hour to have a proper lunch is just what they require. After selling the Wetwang company and renovating the Hazelbush site twenty-four years after his Stamford Bridge beginnings, he has created something that is unlikely to change much over the following twenty years. That’s the whole idea.
