Fish, fish, fish: it’s what you’d want/expect at a seaside resort town, isn’t it?  And it’s what you get at The Little Fish Market in Hove.  The Little Fish Market has been getting rave reviews in the past year, both locally and nationally and when my best friend told me he had a good meal there I decided it was time I should try to get a table. I began by phoning and leaving a voicemail in February asking for their next available Saturday night.  I waited and waited but got no reply, so in March I tried to book online through their website.  I had to repeatedly enter dates, each time being told there wasn’t availability, until finally I got a table for 28 July.  I was amazed at having to wait four months for a table in my home town, but such is the buzz about the place.

When Mr. A, Mr. AR-B and I arrived for our 7pm reservation the joint was empty and the one-man front of house manager, Maitre d’, waiter and sommelier jokingly greeted us with “so Mr McCullough you’ve booked the whole venue tonight”.  It was in fact fully booked and the other diners arrived in dribs and drabs up to 9pm, but it felt odd eating with empty tables around us. I assume this was deliberately arranged so that the kitchen wasn’t overwhelmed, because The Little Fish Market is famous for having only one chef working in a tiny subterranean kitchen, the chef/proprietor Duncan Ray (plus a KP).  As it was quiet I asked if I could go down to take a picture of the kitchen, but when I got there chef Duncan said “it’s not really the done thing, but go ahead”. I quickly snapped the shot above, but because I felt chef didn’t want me being there I didn’t chance taking his photo, so I briefly complimented him on his business’ success and then made my retreat.  Our meeting felt strained and odd.

Back with my friends, we kicked off with a delicious and refreshing cocktail of gin, elderflower and Davenport sparkling wine (from Kent).  While we imbibed, our waiter Rob brought us some canapés: first a tiny bowl of smoked cod roe, cucumber dice and basil oil, with tiny circles of flatbread to eat it with. I forgot to take a photo! but it was very pleasant, if quite ‘light’ . Being a pedant with Asperger’s I pointed out to Mr. A-RB that the British use the word ‘roe’ to cover more than fish eggs, and that he’d in fact eaten a male cod’s sperm, known as ‘milt’ 7/10.  Next came half a toasted and buttered crumpet each, topped with sweet brown shrimps, which I loved (I’m a big fan of potted shrimps) 9/10 The final canapé was a piece of halibut in a squid ink tempura batter on top of a “Thai flavours” puree. It was lovely 10/10

For the first course Rob brought us “Monkfish with a red pepper sauce” and warmly encouraged us to dip some of the thick slice of stone-baked sourdough he’d brought us a few moments earlier, in the sweet pepper sauce. There was a little yellow pepper dice on the fish and then a crisp potato gallette, which added texture to the dish.  The monkfish was beautifully cooked and tender. 8/10

The second course of the £65pp set menu was Mackerel with heritage tomato salad, ricotta and a basil oil.  The tomatoes had great flavour (it had been a hot summer after all), the fish skin had been charred and the ricotta was lovely, but there was very little of it. The flesh of my mackerel was white and it didn’t contain as much flavoursome oils as it could have done, but this was a nice fresh tasting dish. 8/10

Our third course was halibut, served with a tomato-butter sauce, courgette and drops of olive and basil purees. The fish (“ethically farmed off the Scottish island of Gigha”) was very nicely cooked, the sauce was tepid but refreshingly sharp. 8.5/10

The final savoury course was wild bass, which came with an oyster raviolo sitting atop a dollop of braised leeks, cucumber spheres and a chive and fish veloute. The bass was well cooked, but it was very “wet”, I would have favoured pickled cucumber to add more acidity, and the raviolo tasted too strongly of oyster for me, and I found it overpowered everything on the plate, particularly the dollop of overcooked leaks. I didn’t really like this dish. 6/10

Dessert was simply called “Strawberry” on the menu; one white chocolate-dipped strawberry, a couple of fresh strawberry quarters, strawberry essence, a strawberry tulip and the smoothest of quenelles of strawberry sorbet and an elderflower gel. I thought it was a pretty little dish just bursting with the flavours of summer in England 8/10. It would have been nice to have more raw strawberries there and potentially a white chocolate sorbet instead of the chocolate-dipped fruit, because the white chocolate sweet flavour worked very well with the acidic berries.

Our final bill was £105 each for the meal, a delicious cocktail, a dessert wine, a bottle of Californian Viognier and coffee.  Overall I felt I had had a ‘nice’ value for money meal, but it wasn’t particularly noteworthy. Based on the hype I expected a bit more creativity, making better use of the wide range of fish landed locally which home cooks might not be used to eating at home (think spider crab, razor clams, turbot etc). 8/10