Dolphin Fish Shop named SA’s best, but Fish Out Of Water wages social media battle over crown

Allan and Samar Hamoudan have watched generations walk through the doors of their fish and chip store – after 18 years, they reveal what makes them the best in the business.

A family-run fish and chip shop has received the coveted title of SA’s best for the third time, despite a social media battle erupting when last year’s winner was accidentally named in top spot.

The Great Australian Fish & Chip Awards, run by Seafood Industry Australia, named Dolphin Fish Shop and Take Away in Netley as SA’s best in the customer-voted competition on Thursday morning.

Allan and Samar Hamoudan, who have been at the held of the business for 18 years, said they were overwhelmed by the support of their loyal customers and “incredibly grateful” to have been named SA’s best.

Allan and Samar Hamoudan pose for a photo in their takeaway store Dolphin Fish Shop at Netley, which was named SA’s winner at The Great Australian Fish & Chip Awards. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

“We’re over the moon, it really shows that hard work and dedication pay off,” Mr Samoudan said.

The couple encouraged customers to take part in the community-voted award, which allows for one entry per email address per day.

Mr Samoudan said quality, care and community were at the heart of what made Dolphin Fish and Chips so special.

“All of our customers are from around us – we’ve been here for almost two decades so we’ve seen kids become adults, teenagers get married and have kids of their own,” Mr Samoudan said.

“They’ve become like an extended family to us.”

Allan and Samar Hamoudan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Business has been booming for the Netley store since the accolade was announced, but Mr Samoudan said him and his wife still found time to give back to those who supported them.

“We give vouchers for free chips for the local neighbourhood watch group … the whole neighbourhood comes in and helps us out, so it’s nice to do something minimal to give back.”

The couple said they were not fazed by a war of words that took place on social media after the announcement, focusing instead on the success of their own business.

Hyde Park’s Fish Out Of Water, which took home the title in 2021, took to Instagram to air their concerns with the competition after accidentally being named on a Facebook post as the winner of the 2022 award.

Fish Out Of Water co-owner Chris Thompson said his staff members were left “upset and disappointed” over the mistake, initially believing they had been named the winner.

The Hyde Park store had earlier pulled out of award over concerns of voter fraud, after they received “a number of fake votes” within the first few days of the competition that had not been submitted by their customers.

“We got a wad of people who voted for us with fake votes and we went, ‘Yeah, that’s not us’, and asked them to remove them,” Mr Thompson said.

“Another store in NSW said they were going to withdraw due to fake votes and we went, ‘You know what, we should do the same’.

“So we asked them to withdraw.”

The Great Australian Fish & Chip Awards has denied claims of any fraudulent votes being counted.

Fish Out Of Water owners Kate Symons and Chris Thompson have claimed fishy behaviour after missing out on top spot at this year’s Fish & Chip Awards. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Fish out of Water Hyde Park claimed it won the Great Australian Fish & Chip Awards, but Seafood Industry Australia says it was “human error”. Picture: Facebook

Great Australian Fish and Chip Awards edited a Facebook post after mistakenly naming Fish Out of Water the winner. Picture: Facebook

A Seafood Industry Australia spokesperson said Fish Out Of Water’s name had been included in the Facebook post “out of human error” and the issue had since been rectified.

They confirmed the awards had received a number of fraudulent votes in the first two days of voting, which were removed once identified.

At the opening of the voting period, users were only required to enter their name and email address to place a vote.

After reports of alleged fraud, a number of additional security measures were put in place to sure up the system against fake votes – including identifying the colour of the award’s logo, input of a one time password sent to the voter’s email address, answering an additional security question and completing a ReCaptcha.

Seafood Industry Australia CEO Veronica Papacosta said SA’s 2022 best fish and ships winner, Dolphin Fish Shop and Take Away, was crowned as part of more than 60,000 votes across the country.

Both Fish Out Of Water and Dolphin Fish Shop and Take Away have previously been named as two of The Advertiser’s picks for SA’s best fish and chips.