The Little Fish Market

The Little Fish Market is a twenty-cover seafood-only restaurant on a side street in Hove, five minutes from the seafront. Chef-owner Duncan Ray opened it in 2010 after senior positions at Anthony Demetre's Arbutus and Wild Honey in Soho; it has held a Michelin Plate consistently since its first year and is widely regarded by chefs across the south of England as the city's most technically accomplished kitchen.

The format is deliberately restricted: one dining room, twenty seats, one tasting menu, seafood only, no substitutions. The menu changes with each week's landings from the South Coast boats — Newhaven, Shoreham, Rye Bay — and runs to seven or eight courses. Signatures are less about specific dishes than about a consistency of handling: turbot cooked on the bone, a langoustine course that arrives within twelve hours of the catch, a John Dory dish that changes sauce every week but always uses reduced shellfish stock.

The wine list is exclusively white, sparkling, and dessert — a deliberate constraint that forces Duncan's wife (and restaurant co-owner) to build deeper vertical coverage of Burgundy, Loire, Alsace, and English whites than most cellars twice the size. The pairing menu (£65) is the way through the room; it genuinely extends the tasting menu rather than just ticking glasses.

Twenty covers means the reservation is tight. Dinner Tuesday through Saturday, lunch Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday; three to four weeks out is normal for weekend dinner. The restaurant has a bar counter for four facing the pass and these four seats are the single best solo-dining experience in Brighton — Duncan is always on the pass, conversation happens naturally, and the tasting menu at the counter takes about two-and-a-half hours start to finish.

Four bar-counter seats facing the pass, Duncan Ray cooking directly in front of you, a seafood tasting menu that rewards concentrated attention — The Little Fish Market is the Solo Dining pick in Brighton. Book one of the four counter seats (ask explicitly when reserving), arrive at 19:30, and plan on two-and-a-half hours.