Bites: Seafood and eat it

Seafood, raw and cooked; eat it at a bar. A selection of cracking seafood counters.

Kiku

Kiku

While there's sort-of sushi all over the shop, this Japanese restaurant, established in 1978, offers the real thing at prices that show it's far superior to the supermarket sort. The basically black interior is rather unforgiving, but the food is some of the best in town. If you eat sushi at the counter it's prepared in front of you by three highly skilled practitioners. That explains why the clientele is predominantly Japanese. 17 Half Moon Street, London W1 (020-7499 4208)

Loch Fyne Bar and Grill

The latest and most southerly of the chain that started beside a Scottish loch where the oysters and mussels are caught and which has spawned branches across the country. As well as the restaurant and outdoor terrace, Portsmouth's Loch Fyne has a bar where you can get a quick fix of oysters and other top-notch crustacea. The cold counter sells lobster, oysters and crabs to take away, too. Prices are reasonable: six oysters £6.95; dorade, king scallops, fennel and sauce vierge £12.95.

Gunwharf Quay, Portsmouth (02392 778060)

Rogano

A glorious Glasgow art deco institution that still dishes up glamour and great fish. The cooking may not entirely live up to the surroundings, but you can't go wrong with a shellfish assiette or smoked seafood – up here you know it hasn't had far to come from the sea. The oyster bar, for all the oysters you can swallow, seafoody salads, sandwiches and appropriate libations, makes a luxurious perch.

11 Royal Exchange Place, Glasgow (0141-248 4055)

Wheeler's Oyster Bar

Tiny parlour and counter seafood shop with a kitchen that punches well above its weight. Whelks, cockles, oysters, winkles – the treats that have always drawn Londoners to Whitstable – are well represented. Then there's an ambitious but successful menu of, say, lobster ravioli on baby leeks, and caramelised scallop with pea and asparagus risotto. Oysters from a giveaway £3.75 for six.

8 High Street, Whitstable, Kent (01227 273311)