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 to 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.