A fine fishy dishy

In his diet book, 3D, the Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld reveals that the only animal flesh he was allowed to eat on his recent diet was horse. It was some diet he had there - he lost 90lbs and shrank from démodé porker to Vogueish skeleton in less than a year. But largely, he ate fish. Horse and donkey, for all their nutritional qualities and low-fat content, are not fashionable meats in Europe these days, whereas fish, once a poor man's food, is the best friend of the wannabe pipecleaner person.

Alec Smith is the owner of Smith's in Shelley Ongar, Essex. Smith comes from a fishy family - three generations of them did their time at Billingsgate. His uncle is still the kitchen's blocksman - the chap who prepares the fish. Smith's is known for its fish, so less than ten per cent of the menu is meat. It is also known as the Essex Langan's, and the Essex crowd loves it. Posh, Becks and Romeo, and Rod Stewart have all been in recently.

Customers were happy layers of generations, handsome, well-dressed Essex families. It's a destination restaurant, and on Sunday lunchtime this felt good, as if we were out for a bit of a treat. I felt glad to have a man with a poky sports car on hand to chauffeur me up the M11.

We started with an ordinary lobster bisque and some mussels grilled in their shells with garlic butter and basil. Both of us yearned for more garlic -without it the hot butter just felt oily. We snuck a little shared mid-course of Smith's own pickled herrings, which were sweet with no vinegary shocks. Halibut steak with brown butter and capers was big, cooked to perfection, and full of meaty flavour. I chose badly - a skate wing fried in matzo meal. The matzo stole too much moisture and the skate gave no saltiness, so overall, it was simply bland and dry. The chips were big, yellow, oldschoolchippy chips and ace.

There was the odd moment of fiddly fuss to mess up an otherwise easy ambience. Fresh, sweet rolls with shiny, eggy tops were brought to the table with the wine. The waitresses were driven to distraction because my roll sat on the tablecloth throughout my starter and main. Every few minutes a different waitress would come over and fret over it. 'No, I'm not finished with it,' I'd say. Eventually one of the chief waitresses came over and firmly put down a sideplate. And is there ever a need for three plates rattling on top of one another? Even when we split a pudding (roasted pineapple with butterscotch sauce and ice cream), they brought two of these clattering stacks. As affectations go, I'd rather see monogrammed butter.

Other than that, it was a blissfully relaxed lunch, and the hours passed easily, despite no more than a half bottle of Chablis. Alec Smith came over to talk, and when I mentioned misgivings about the matzo meal, he agreed that it does dry fish out, but 'we have a fair bit of Jewish trade and they like the kosher coating and tend to eat their fish drier than most.' Smith's reflects the desires and needs of its regulars, which is what has kept the place ticking over for the past nine years.

Smith's
Fyfield Road, Shelley Ongar, Essex, CM5 0AL