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A family business tucked in a shopping precinct on a housing estate is worth shouting about. This long-standing restaurant still has the soul of a fish and chip shop – despite serving treats like oysters and lobster at smartly clothed tables in a bright, modern room. The quality is outstanding and, for the prices, seems almost too good to be true. Nothing is fancy (bread is a buttered roll, napkins are paper), but nearly everything is nicely done. Starters of deconstructed prawn cocktail and large sweet mussels in spicy tomato and white wine sauce with garlic bread were generous and faultless.
A mixed salad was a damp squib – mushy or garden peas are more the thing – but the chips were properly potatoey and hand-cut. Spanking fresh, the cod’s thick, white and opalescent flakes came in golden, crisp batter neither too thick nor greasy; you could also have it fried in matzo meal or grilled. The fish supper deal of prawn cocktail, cod and a dessert (perhaps crème brûlée with crunchy molten demerara topping) is a bargain. Wines from a helpfully annotated list are remarkably inexpensive, and the bill comes with slices of watermelon. It restores your faith in eating out.