A dad drove his four children on a 250 mile round-trip to enjoy lunch at the world famous Binley Mega Chippy only to find it closed. Simon Harris took his four children, seven-year-old Luke, five-year-old Emma, four-year-old James and one-year-old Thomas, on a trip to visit the takeaway made famous on TikTok.
The family drove 125 miles from their home in Hockley, Essex, to the shop in Binley, Coventry, on Sunday, June 12. But after a five-and-a-half-hour journey, they were left gutted to find the shutters down on the famous red-and-yellow eaterie.
Simon, 38, said: “The kids were more excited than I was to go to the chippy. Luke and Emma love watching TikTok videos.
“I save a lot of videos for them to watch. There was one point where you couldn’t move for Binley Mega Chippy videos with that catchy tune.
"I wanted to get there early in the day before it closed. There were four or five other group of people there, too who had obviously done the same thing.
“There’s a sign saying closed on Sundays but on Google it says open. To be fair I was just glad we were there. I was glad the kids took it so well, it was great to be there and get a couple of pics of it.
“The owner came out and thanked us for the support and was in disbelief over the popularity the place has got. It was a little bit disappointing.
“We ended up walking around there and having giant pizzas so it wasn’t a wasted journey.”
Binley Mega Chippy owner Kamal Gandhi, 70, has recorded profits rocket by 30 per cent, after thousands of fans descended on the chippy last month. Mr Gandhi, who has run takeaways for 30 years but took over Binley Mega Chippy seven months ago, said: “The whole thing has gone crazy.
“Everyone who comes here is very excited and we love giving them what they want which is great food. I hope this is no flash in the pan and they keep coming back.”
Since the chippy went global, Mr Gandhi and his 10-strong family who run the takeaway, have had customers from as far away as Australia and Texas eager to try his grub.
Simon, runs his own blog page called Man Behaving Badly, admitted he’d been trolled online since his failed chippy trip.
He said: “People were saying ‘why are you wasting petrol’ ‘why are you dragging kids half-way over the country’ and that ‘we're going through a cost-of-living crisis’.
“The kids wanted to be there. You can’t do anything these days, on the internet or in general. I don’t know what it is, it’s just a day out with the kids.
“It's not like I went out for afternoon tea with the Taliban, we just went out.”
Binley Mega Chippy has been welcoming people from the UK and abroad since videos and memes featuring the business started going viral with millions of views. The reason for the West Midlands chippy becoming world-famous in a matter of days remains unclear but seems to have been prompted by a catchy fan-made jingle.
Young people can now be seen outside the shop singing the theme tune as they wait in line to sample their £4.99 Morbius Meal of fish, chips and mushy peas. The chippy started to gain the attention of millions when a TikTok food reviewer posted a slideshow of the UK's best takeaways, naming Binley Mega Chippy first.
Since then it has spawned numerous parody accounts, memes, comedy videos and has even featured on Harry Hill’s TV Burp. First opened in 2004, the takeaway changed ownership eight months ago and is now run by Kamal Gandhi.
