The story
On Upper Market Street in Hove, just west of Brighton, The Little Fish Market is a quietly confident seafood restaurant run by chef Duncan Ray. The name is a promise: the kitchen works with the freshest, highest-quality sustainable produce from the British Isles, and the focus is squarely on fish. It’s a small, personal operation – just 22 seats – and the atmosphere is relaxed, the service professional, the cooking exacting.
Ray works closely with his suppliers to guarantee the best available ingredients. The menus change regularly, each dish featuring for four to six weeks, driven by the seasons. Lunch is a three-course set menu; dinner expands to six courses, with an optional cheese course and a tasting menu that runs to seven or eight small plates. The style is simple and ingredient-led, but the precision is unmistakable. The AA Inspector described it as “stunning local and sustainable seafood cooked with exemplary attention to detail, accuracy and an intelligent creative edge.”
Among the signatures is the “TLFM Egg & Soldiers” – a playful, refined dish that appears on both the dinner and tasting menus. It layers Jerusalem artichoke purée, egg yolk, smoked haddock, acidulated cream and passion fruit purée. Other dishes might include raw Orkney hand-dived scallop with wasabi mayonnaise, apple and basil dressing, or grilled gilt-head bream with roasted acorn squash, sage and a pink peppercorn and roast chicken butter sauce. The cooking is grounded, never fussy, and always lets the seafood speak.
The restaurant has earned a Michelin Recommended distinction, a nod to the quiet consistency and quality of what Ray is doing. The dining room, which underwent a complete refit during a closure, now feels fresh and modern, though the focus remains squarely on the plate. There is no bar – guests are welcome to arrive early and have a drink at their table – and the restaurant is open Thursday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, with single seatings at 1pm and 7pm.
For those who love seafood served with integrity and skill, The Little Fish Market is a Brighton-area destination that rewards a journey. It’s a place where the ingredient is the star, and the chef is happy to let it shine.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
It’s now more than a decade since chef Duncan Ray (formerly of the Fat Duck) launched his much-loved seafood restaurant in a converted fishmongers on a backstreet close to Hove seafront. Since then, the intimate dining room has been spruced up with large, well-spaced bare-wood tables, comfortable designer armchairs and a tastefully minimalist interior featuring polished wood floors and white walls hung with seafood-themed art. Ray no longer runs the small basement kitchen single handed, which allows him time to serve and personally explain some of the dishes on his regularly changing seven-course tasting menu. In the beginning, there was just one waiter, now a full front-of-house team is headed up by Ray’s partner, Nicky Stephens, who brings a warm liveliness to proceedings. Open for dinner only, the evening runs rather like a supper club, with all 20 or so diners requested to arrive at 6.45pm. Things kick off with a trio of canapés that might include an artfully composed and delicious seaweed cracker of wild Argentinian red prawn, walnut mayonnaise, pork scratching and confit ginger. The signature ‘TLFM egg’, a riff on an Alain Passard classic, has become a staple of the menu and currently includes apparently random layers of Jerusalem artichoke purée, egg yolk, smoked haddock jelly, acidulated cream and passion fruit purée that actually work brilliantly together. The real stars of the show, however, are the three headline courses featuring the finest, freshest seafood, some of it locally landed. One standout dish involved a superb piece of meltingly soft confit Loch Duart salmon with a 90s-style Champagne foam encircled by a cordon of cauliflower and seaweed purée – although the accompanying mini loaves of Comté-stuffed milk bread, glazed with shrimp and rosemary butter almost stole the show. Desserts are outstanding, too: our chocolate délice, given a subtle, saline tang with the genius addition of capers and some contrasting crunch from a praline base and a crisp pistachio and pink peppercorn tuile brought proceedings to a memorable close. The short wine list leans mainly towards France and while mark-ups are far from greedy, you may have to break the £50 barrier to find a bottle that will do proper justice to the food. Alternatively, opt for the interesting matched wine pairing, curated by Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew of Noble Rot.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Location
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