Marcos

Marco's On The Shore is one of the best-known fish-and-chips shops on the east-coast Scottish harbours, trading from the small pink-fronted building on the Shore at Arbroath Harbour. The shop is independent and family-run, and Marco's has held the harbour-front pitch for many years, with an adjoining ice-cream parlour next door for the after-meal walk along the quay.

The fish is fresh haddock fried in a light crisp batter — the chippy standard that gets the highest mentions in the Marco's reviews — and the menu sits to one side of the typical Scottish chippy format: a single tightly-edited offering of haddock, scampi, pies and chips, sides, and the harbour-pier extras of pickled onion and curry sauce. Trade builds heavily on summer days when the seafront and abbey-area visitors come down to the Shore for lunch, with the benches along the harbour wall acting as Marco's outdoor seating. Reviewers single out the freshness of the fish, the lightness of the batter, and the harbour setting — though queue waits build up in season.

The Shore at Arbroath is the working face of the burgh — the small fishing harbour where the famous Arbroath Smokie is still smoked in barrels in the Fit o' the Toon, and where the lifeboat station sits.