Of British-English origin, the phrase fish and chips designates a dish consisting of deep-fried battered fish fillets served with potato chips.

Fish and chips is particularly popular as a takeaway food in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The phrases fried fish and chip potatoes, fried fish and chipped potatoes and fried fish and chips predate the phrase fish and chips. The first occurrences of those earlier phrases that I have found are as follows, in chronological order—all those occurrences are from Lancashire, a county of north-western England, on the Irish Sea (particularly from the city of Manchester):

1-: From the Manchester Evening News (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Wednesday 29^th October 1879 [No. 3,397, page 1, column 3]:

To be Disposed of for £10, a good Fried Fish and Chipped Potato Business, pan and stove complete.—21, Great Jackson-street, Hulme.

2-: From the Manchester Evening News (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Tuesday 2^nd December 1879 [No. 3,426, page 4, column 5]:

TO BE LET, the best Fried Fish and Chip POTATO SHOP in the city.—62, Leaf-street, Hulme.

3-: From the Manchester Evening News (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Monday 12^th January 1880 [No. 3,460, page 1, column 5]:

BUSINESS FOR SALE: Fried Fish and Chip Potatoes: French style: Fixtures, Pans, &c., almost new: busy street in Chorlton-on-Medlock: a bargain for cash: seller leaving country.—Apply RUSSELL, 25, Seedley Grove, Pendleton.

4-: From Shoiny Jim’s Kesmas Dinner, by Ab-o’th’-Yate, dated 201a, Timber Street, Manchester, 15^th December 1881 [sic], published in Ben Brierley’s Journal of Literature, Science & Art (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 16^th December 1882 [Vol. 4, No. 51, page 406, column 1]:

“Friends, you’ll excuse us,” Jim said, gettin up, and turning to th’ company. “Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes it brings good cheer. We have to partake of the cheer.”
“What sort o’ cheer, Jim?” one o’th’ company axt.
“That which maketh the heart glad,” Jim said.
“Fried fish, an’ chipped spuds, eh, Jim?”
“Them’s for ordinary people; not for the lords of society.”

5-: From the Manchester Evening News (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Friday 5^th January 1883 [No. 4,388, page 1, column 4]:

FRIED FISH and CHIP SHOP, cheap: a great bargain: good reasons for leaving.—51, Boundary Lane, Greenheys.

6-: From the column Street Whispers, published in the Cricket and Football Field and Sports Telegram (Bolton, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 17^th July 1886 [Vol. 4, No. 96, page 12, column 2]:

The latest temptation for unfortunate juveniles is the fried fish and “chips” craze. One vendor of these toothsome comestibles undertakes to accept school books from youngsters in return for the “fried snacks” and fish so dear to the heart of schoolboys. A mystery as to the whereabouts of sundry “Mangnall’s Questions,” Second and Third Readers, Grammars, and Geographies is now cleared up, but the revelation has come like a pall upon the heart of Gyp.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase fish and chips that I have found are as follows, in chronological order—with one exception (from Yorkshire, a county of north-eastern England, on the North Sea), all those occurrences are from Lancashire:

1-: From the Burnley Express and Clitheroe Division Advertiser (Burnley, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 16^th October 1886 [No. 463, page 4, column 2]:

ON SALE, ICE CREAM SHOP, fitted up with Fish and Chip Pan and all requisites. Can do £5 a week; a bargain; will teach the trade.—Apply 31, Bridge-street.

2-: From The Umpire (Manchester, Lancashire, England) of Sunday 20^th March 1887 [No. 153, page 2, column 3]:

Cruel—Very!

Our office boy gave an order to a chipped potato and fried-fishmonger the other day for a ’aporth of peas. The man of fish and chips executed the commission, and went into an inner room. A moment later he came out.
“Were you knocking for me?” he asked.
“No,” replied our Journalistic Hope, “I only dropped two or three peas on the floor.”
The merchant strode silently back.

3-: From the Sheffield Daily Telegraph (Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) of Wednesday 1^st June 1887 [No. 9,965, page 2, column 2]:

FIRST-CLASS FISH and CHIP SHOP to be LET; proof trade given, leaving town.—462, London road.

4-: From the football column Odds and Ends, published in the Blackpool Herald (Blackpool, Lancashire, England) of Friday 5^th April 1889 [No. 2,024, page 6, column 2]:

At one time the game stood 3—1, and the good folks of Blackpool were happy, but they changed their minds on seeing the Reds equalise.
The worthy dispenser of fish and chips took a rise out of the Rovers’ supporters when it was 3—1, and was sorry for it before the game was over.