Best fishmonger: The Fish Plaice
Saturday 14 November 2009
Latest in Features
On Facebook
Life & Style blogs
Online House Hunter: England’s most romantic places
Our Online House Hunter goes in search of romance this Valentine's Day...
Online House Hunter: Rugby – a Dickens of a town
Charles Dickens didn't think much of the railway town of Rugby in Warwickshire, calling it Mugby. Bu...
Online House Hunter: Mortgage relief
Banks would appear to be finally relinquishing their stranglehold on mortgages. Our Online House Hun...
I'm lucky to live in Brixham, Devon, home to some of the best seafood in the country. The fleet here is diverse, we have beam trawlers catching our valuable flatfish, potters, divers, netters and handliners and the market sees about 40 species of wonderful fish and shellfish everyday.
One of the buyers you will see there every morning, hovering over the best boxes of dayboat fish, is Bob Gibson, who runs The Fish Plaice in Paignton. He isn't buying for restaurants, shops or supermarkets, it's just for his wonderful fishmongers. His early-morning buying skill will be rewarded with a van full of the very best of the morning's auction; then it's off to the shop to be sold by his wife, Tracey, and son, Jordan.
Bob is a proper fishmonger, a real craftsman with a long history in this now very complicated world of buying the best sustainably caught species he can and preparing it for sale at a price his customers can afford. There are no fancy sauces, anchovies or canned tuna on sale here: this is a fishmonger as it should be, a man you can trust to buy the best fish he can and sell it to you with honesty, integrity and great skill – every community should have one.
1 Victoria Street, Paignton, Devon, 01803 526595
Runners-up
The Scallop Shell Garry Rosser was one of my chefs and he has followed the passion he had for seafood into his very own shop – it's one of the best operations I've seen.
White Row Farm, Beckington, Somerset, 01373 831641
The Fish Deli at Ashburton A real destination for the fish lover in this picturesque town.
7 East St, Ashburton, Devon, 01364 654 833
Selfridges I visit the fish counter whenever I'm in London and it's always fascinating – they have Alaskan crabs, blue crabs, giant prawns ...
400 Oxford Street, London W1, 0800 123 400
Mitch Tonks runs The Seahorse, Dartmouth, 01803 835147
- 1 And the Bafta for best dressed goes to...
- 2 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 3 The Ten Best Scotch Whiskies
- 4 Chemotherapy is 'safe during pregnancy'
- 5 The 10 best gins
- 6 Apple tries to bar Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone in US
- 7 Modern lovers: The 'sexual body warriors' and pioneers transforming 21st-century relationships
- 1 Kate Allen: It's time for America to put an end to this shameful scandal
- 2 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 3 Chemotherapy is 'safe during pregnancy'
- 4 Rhodri Marsden: What we like and what we don't like are often closer than you'd think
- 5 BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules
- 6 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 7 I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams
- 8 Henry does it his way, ending on a high note
- 9 Modern lovers: The 'sexual body warriors' and pioneers transforming 21st-century relationships
- 10 Redknapp hints at same old faces for England
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Apple admits it has a human rights problem
James Lawton: AVB looks all at sea
Procrastination: Not now – I'm busy
Silent revolution at the Baftas
The diva who had – and lost – it all



Comments