a family-run chippy, serving the best quality fish and chips and not much else. And that's pretty much what we found.

Arriving early in the evening much of the bench seating was taken with a queue already forming at the counter as we were serenaded by the familiar crash, bangs and sizzles of a busy chippy.

The first thing we noticed was the menu. Unlike the take-aways only a few doors away Sea Tree does not serve every kind of British fast food under the sun, just fish and chips together and the usual accompaniments of home-made fish cakes, fish pie, mushy peas, pickled eggs and so on.

Styled on fashionable enterprises in London, like The Fish Club in Clapham, all the fish is purchased three-times a week from the vast Billingsgate market in Canary Wharf where some of the best North Atlantic fish and seafood can be found.

The fish can be prepared just how you want: there's the traditional battered way, but also pan-fried or grilled if so desired. The variety of the fish on sale impressed us. Also many of these - salmon, trout, bream, tuna, and prawns, as well as the old favourites of cod, haddock, plaice, skate, and calamari can also be bought fresh - a bonus for a city in dire need of a permanent fish mongers. The menu, we were told, will change with the seasons from mussels in winter to whiting in the summer and mackerel in the spring to salmon in the autumn.

More new experiences for us were, firstly, waitress service at a chip shop; two Americans - the home of fast food - working in the original take-away had a humorous irony, and secondly, the chance to eat healthily and order a salad. So we decided to sample the old with the new. One went for the traditional cod, chips and mushy peas whilst the other opted for a calamari salad.

The salad was neatly presented with watercress, rocket and red onion among others and topped off with thick chunks of tender calamari. Next time though we will definitely be ordering a side dish as the salad was not as filling as expected - the bowl of boiled new potatoes looks a good option.

Happily the cod and chips were just how they should be: light, fluffy fish, almost too big to fit on the plate, coated in a crispy, golden batter. And the chips were excellent too, a Dutch variety, but grown in Newmarket and prepared in the in-house peeler and chipper, had just the right consistency -not too crunchy but not overcooked either.

We washed everything down with Frobishers' fruit juice in the wonderfully-named Bumbleberry flavour.

Another pleasant surprise was the desserts on offer: the dish of the day was chocolate tort but the piece de la resistance went to the outstanding brown bread ice-cream. Hand-made on the premises, the taste from such bizarre ingredients was delightful with a unique texture combination - creamy but chewy.

In addition to the fish all being sourced from sustainable stock, all packaging was biodegradable, (just like it always used to be!) but alas not made using the traditional daily newspaper. It is not cheap fast food, but comparable to pub prices whilst, being fresh not frozen, of infinitely higher quality.

We are pleased to say Sea Tree proved to be a wonderful back to the future experience and a welcome re-birth of the great British fish and chip shop.