Fit For A King: The 60-Year Legacy of Cockney Kings, Steps From Kits Beach
Fish and chips have never needed to be precious. At their best, they are warm, comforting, laidback, and real. Working person’s food. Food with heart. Food that makes as much sense on a rainy Vancouver evening as it does in the sun, carried in a box toward the beach with your toes already half in the sand.
That is what makes Cockney Kings Kitsilano a city-wide favourite.
For 60 years, Cockney Kings has been one of the Lower Mainland’s great comfort-food institutions: a place built around crisp battered fish, hand-cut chips, malt vinegar, tartar sauce, and the kind of easy hospitality that turns first-time guests into regulars. The original location opened in North Burnaby in 1965, founded by Len and Joan Evans, true Cockneys from East London who moved their family to Canada and brought a piece of that culture with them.
Cockney Kings was never just a fish and chip shop in name. Cockney slang, East London humour, family history, and old-school charm have always been part of the brand’s character. Over the decades, that character has travelled through different neighbourhoods, different operators, and different versions of the Lower Mainland, while still holding onto the fundamentals that made people come back.
At Cockney Kings Kitsilano, Greg Dion is part of that continuation.
Greg is not trying to reinvent the institution. His role is more interesting than that. As Owner & Operator of the Kitsilano franchise, he is stewarding a legacy he first entered as a teenager. He started with Cockney Kings at 15, washing dishes, not necessarily planning a life in hospitality. His parents helped him get the job, and like many first restaurant jobs, it began in the dish pit. It took about two years to get out of there. Once he did, everything changed.
He got into the fryers. He got into service. He got into the rhythm of the restaurant. By 19, he was managing.
There were departures along the way. Greg left, travelled, worked other places, and saw more of the world. But Cockney Kings kept pulling him back. In the end, what brought him back was not just nostalgia. It was the recognition that there was something special in the recipe of the place itself: the food, the people, the pace, the humour, the regulars, and the feeling that a fish and chip shop could mean more to a neighbourhood than the sum of what it served.
That is the perspective Greg brings to Kitsilano. Not the perspective of someone trying to claim authorship over Cockney Kings, but of someone who came into hospitality through it, left long enough to understand its value, and returned with the responsibility of carrying it forward.
The Kitsilano shop opened in September 2023, just a few minutes from the beach. It is a fitting place for the brand’s latest chapter. Fish and chips already belong near water, but in Kits, the relationship feels especially natural. The restaurant sits in Kits Point, close to neighbours like Albasha, Vera’s, and Siegel’s Bagels, on a stretch that has its own local rhythm. From there, a box of fish and chips can make it to the sand almost as quickly as it leaves the fryer.
But the location is only part of the story. What makes Cockney Kings feel like a local institution is how much of itself it carries from one era to the next.
You can see that in the Bill Murray curry poutine. It is a dish that captures the brand’s humour, heritage, and willingness to fold itself into Canadian food culture without losing its accent. The name comes through Cockney slang: Ruby Murray traditionally meant curry, and in some circles, that evolved into Bill Murray. At Cockney Kings, the dish becomes a full English-Canadian mashup: chips topped with house-made curry sauce instead of gravy, cheese curds, signature sauce, crispy batter bits, and green onions. It is playful, a little cheeky, and exactly the kind of thing that shows why Cockney Kings has lasted. It knows what it is, but it still has fun with itself.
That same balance shows up in the craft. The food may be simple, but the work behind it is not. The batter stays light so the fish remains the star. The chips are made from locally grown potatoes, hand-cut daily in staggering quantities. Greg says the team can go through 300 to 400 pounds of potatoes a day, blanching them first, cooling them down, then cooking them again so the centre stays fluffy and the outside gets golden and crisp. Cod remains a West Coast staple, but Greg’s personal pick is haddock: meaty, mild, and hard to beat.
The restaurant’s longevity has never been about chasing trends. It has been about doing the core things properly, then letting each neighbourhood add its own layer.
In Kitsilano, that layer includes beach energy, a takeout-forward format, fish tacos Greg proudly stands behind, and a version of the Cockney King character that has been adapted for the neighbourhood: more shorts, volleyball, and beach-day spirit.
Greg talks about service in practical, human terms. The goal is to know people’s names, their orders, what they are doing on the weekend. Those details matter because they turn a transaction into a relationship. They are also part of why a place like Cockney Kings can remain relevant across generations. The food brings people in, but the feeling brings them back.
As we chat, someone leaves the shop and casually says, “See you next week.” It is a small detail, but it says a lot about Greg’s approach. The kind of moment that explains Cockney Kings better than any slogan could. The regulars know the rhythm. They know the people. They know what they are going to order. And, just as importantly, the team knows them back.
Recognition has followed. Cockney Kings’ Burnaby and New Westminster locations have collected accolades over the years, and the Kitsilano shop has already started building its own reputation. The Georgia Straight Golden Plates recognized Cockney Kings as the best fish and chips in the city in 2024, along with being named Best in Kitsilano Reader’s Choice in the 2026 Vancouver Restaurant Awards. For Greg, the awards feel good because they put the work in context. They are a sign that people notice.
Still, the truest validation might be simpler: a busy lunch, a familiar face, a guest who knows the secrets.
Greg’s wife is Australian, and after many trips there, he has developed a deep respect for the Australian fish and chip tradition. He talks about crumbed fish, dim sims, potato scallops, and chicken salt with the enthusiasm of someone who understands that every version of the dish has its own logic. At Cockney Kings Kitsilano, there are little nods to that world too, but not all of them are advertised. If you spend time there, Greg says, the team will let you in on the things they like, the things they cook for themselves, the things they can make happen.
It pays to be a regular at Cockney Kings Kitsilano.
That may be the simplest way to understand the place. Cockney Kings has endured because it has always been more than a plate of fish and chips. It is a set of rituals, jokes, recipes, characters, cravings, and relationships that people recognize. Greg’s story matters because he came up inside that world, stepped away from it, and still chose to come back.
Now, in Kitsilano, he is helping carry it forward.
The food is familiar for a reason. So is the feeling.
Fish and chips may be working person’s food, but at Cockney Kings, they are treated with a level of care that makes the ordinary feel special. The hospitality is warm. The charm is unmistakable. The quality is steady. Nothing about it is precious, and that is exactly the point.
Still, when the chips are crisp, the fish is light, the regulars are greeted like regulars, and the beach is only a few minutes away, it is hard not to feel that something so simple can still be fit for a king.
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