Ark Fish Restaurant

Big bay windows, blue seats and an extensive fish menu make you feel as if you're relaxing at the seaside, rather than looking out on to the A113 through South Woodford. Ark is a family-run institution - an outpost of the old, now long-gone, East End with the freshest fish from Billingsgate and a loyal local following.

Appetisers include fresh peeled prawns, cockles, winkles and whelks, while starters encompass crab, smoked salmon and oysters. Baked crab came with a light cheese crust, perfectly judged to let the delicate flavour of the crustacean win through. Seared scallops in garlic butter were plump, silky and plentiful. For mains, your chosen fish (cod, haddock, lemon sole, dover sole, salmon and so forth) can be deep-fried, grilled or poached, but it pays to first check the specials board, which is usually full of enticing options. A huge portion of juicy grilled haddock with samphire and beurre blanc would have had Michel Roux weeping with gratitude; sea bass with lightly curried vegetables was no slouch either.

Afterwards, we shared a sticky toffee pudding that was a perfect dome of featherlight sponge in a moat of cream. Ark offers top-class ingredients cooked with precision and without any fine-dining pretensions - how refreshing.