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The Shiptonthorpe branch was a former Little Chef located on the A1079 between York and Hull at the A614 junction near Shiptonthorpe, East Riding of Yorkshire.

The Little Chef first opened in 1972 and was positioned alongside a filling station at a small roundabout service station. Roundabout sites were always great places for Little Chefs as they provided easy access to all routes and were usually highly visible too. Here, the roundabout site could serve two major roads which were both prone to a lot of long distance traffic so the chances of attracting passing traffic to the restaurant was quite high. It was a well planned Little Chef site.

In the Granada era, the branch saw the addition of a Burger King outlet. This however closed in the mid 2000s and was replaced with a VIP Coffee Lounge. The Coffee Lounge included luxurious furniture and even balloons! 

Sadly, in 2007, Little Chefs parents, who by now were People's Restaurant Group, hit financial problems and the brand was taken by new owners, venture capitalists R Capital. Not all the sites transferred over and Shiptonthorpe was one of the 41 to be closed in 2007.

However, good news came to Shiptonthorpe in 2008/09. At this point, the Little Chef restaurants were headed up by Ian Pegler, who had previously headed up Little Chef in the latter Forte days. Pegler was on a mission to grow numbers and to look at some of the former sites which may still be profitable. In 2008/9 he set about re-opening 5 branches, one of which was Shiptonthorpe. It happily reopened and continued its trading. The Little Chef was still fully furnished when it closed so all it needed was an update in paint and all was good. Sadly, there weren't high hopes for long. 

In 2012, RCapital announced that 67 unsuccessful Little Chef restaurants would close and Shiptonthorpe was sadly listed. The Little Chef closed in 2012. The following year, the Little Chef was demolished in order to make way for a new McDonald's building.

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