Two city chippies have made it into the top five in the South West competing to be named shop of the year.

When Downend's former chip shop, in Badminton Road, closed down, Jason Honey, 39, and his wife opened Good Frydays to ensure residents would not go without their fish and chips.

Under the management of former school friend Lee Hopkins, 41, the business has taken off and is now shortlisted for Seafish's Chip Shop of the Year.

Seafish is the authority on seafood, and serves all sectors of the UK seafood industry. It set up the awards to raise the standards within the trade and enhance the industry's profile.

Mr Hopkins said: "Hundreds of shops enter so we thought we'd see how we measured up to the competition, we had to complete questionnaires and submit 200 customer voting cards.

"Then we were told we were in the top five for Avon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. We couldn't believe it, we've only been going 18 months."

Mr Honey said: "It's fantastic, we've both lived in Downend all our lives and when the old chip shop closed we thought it would be a good idea to keep it going rather than see the area without a chippie."

The next step will now be for a mystery shopper to sample the food at all five shops and inspect the premises, and the winner will be the regional entrant into the national competition.

Although new to running a chip shop, Mr Hopkins used to manage a takeaway and said he was proud of the high quality of the food sold at Good Frydays.

He said: "The assistant manager also worked in the food business and from our past experiences we agreed that quality always sells.

"We try and get the best products for the best prices and hope to give customers value for money."

Farrow's Fish and Chips, in Wells Road, Totterdown, has also been shortlisted, the shops will find out next month if they are one step closer to the national final in January 2010.