A load of Pollacks save chippies

At the Sea Shell fish restaurant in Lisson Grove they are almost convinced. Cod may be endangered so they'll quite happily settle for a load of pollacks.

Now that the Worldwide Fund for Nature has said that cod and haddock should have the same status as tigers and pandas, the Sea Shell's manager Aidan Keegan has decided to test out the alternatives. The best, he thought, was a long brown thing called a ling and a short green thing called a pollack.

Neither of these words have so far figured much in the vocabulary of the average chip shop customer - although, according to Mr Keegan, the same may not quite be true of fish shop owners.

Having prepared samples of both, alongside control samples of cod and haddock - just to make the whole thing scientific - he decided to inflict them on his regulars. The fish looked like cod, underneath the crisp batter, and it smelt like cod. But would it taste like it?

"Are you sure this isn't cod?" said Brian Whittaker, a retired butcher from Marylebone who appears almost to live on fish. "Cod's something I was brought up with. I always have cod. I always have had cod."

"I can't tell the difference. It's really quite nice. If somebody gave this to me and told me it was cod I'd believe them. I won't have to have dinner when I go home now."

One-nil to the pollacks. The ling, slightly darker, with a slightly stronger flavour and a different texture, wasn't ready when he was there. It had its first test on Eva Robertson from Maida Vale, there with her three-year-old son Tony and her little niece Katie, 11. Eva, who usually goes for rock salmon, likes the pollack too, saying: "This is nice." However, she did disagree with Mr Whittaker, saying: "If somebody just came and gave me this, I'd think it was haddock," she said. "It's very nice actually."

Katie liked it too - although she still likes rock salmon best. Tony had no opinion because he likes only chips and meat.

Then Eva bit into the ling, which has a slightly rubbery texture. "Oh, I prefer this one," she said. "It's just like cod. I'd definitely buy that one. If they stop selling cod and haddock I'd be quite happy with this. I'm sure if people tasted the alternatives they'd buy them. It's just that they're not used to asking for them."

Katie still liked rock salmon. Then, however, came the acid test: a hungry London cabbie who happens also to be a fishy gourmet.