St Clements - St Leonards on Sea

Nick Hales goes down to the local day boats almost every day to procure spanking fresh fish supplies for his relaxed neighbourhood restaurant St Clements, a short stroll from the beach at St Leonards on Sea. Having earned his stripes at big London venues like L'Odéon, he now applies his skills impressively in a very different way.

The menu is topped up with a board of specials that could change two or three times each session, and there's no unnecessary fancywork or flim-flam when it comes to the dishes themselves. A plate of local smoked fish (from the Weald Smokery just up the A21) comes with horseradish cream and rye bread, sea bass might be served with a Greek salad, while cod is topped with a Parmesan and herb crust and served with creamed leek sauce.

Occasionally, something more exotic turns up – a Thai salad of char-grilled king prawns, gurnard and cuttlefish, for example – and meat fans are assuaged with slow-roast belly pork, mustard mash and red wine sauce or roast leg of organic lamb with peas, broad beans and mint salsa. To round things off, the kitchen produces crowd-pleasers like sticky toffee pudding or chocolate truffle cake with crème fraîche and Kent cherries.