Carpe diem – seize the fish! Actually, what fish! has done is seize on a gap in London’s eatery market and try its level best to fill it. Or maybe that should be fillet…

The Venue
Appropriately enough, eating at fish! is rather like sitting in a goldfish bowl. Located in the heart of Borough Market, it’s virtually on the doorstop of Roast, that temple to carnivores everywhere. With floor to ceiling windows all around, fish! is no place for illicit get-togethers, but it is a pescatarian’s palace.

The Atmosphere
On a dreary Wednesday evening when most Londoners are either on a diet, on the wagon or in the red, fish! is abuzz with diners. Its glass surround keeps out the rain and its gleaming steel kitchen, around which is wrapped a substantial bar area, beckons the hungry. Inside, its lighting is sufficient to keep the dark at bay without dazzling, although its chairs and tables smack slightly of a school canteen and proper linen napkins would be nice.

The Food
It’s good to be hungry if you’re dining at fish!. Portions are on the generous side and there is almost too much choice. Starters include Thai crab cakes with sweet chilli dip, devilled whitebait, calamari, hand-picked dressed Cornish crab – which, at £11.95, is the most expensive – and a seafood salad (£9.95). This last is excellent, a sumptuous mix of squid, plump prawns and scallop complete with coral. Too many restaurants seem to think that the coral is undesirable. So, so wrong. The chefs at fish! know their stuff, too, when it comes to temperature. Taking on board the perils of warm shellfish, they serve this salad just below room temperature, so you get the full flavour. Devilled whitebait (£5.95) delivers, too, the uniformly tiny fish just dusted with paprika to provide zing rather than overpower. It is served with an excellent, punchy tartare sauce, made on the premises. If your taste and your wallet tend to oysters, you can order as many as you fancy at £1.95 each.

Restaurateur Tony Allan, the savvy entrepreneur behind fish! and its siblings, uses Jarvis the Fishmonger and all produce is responsibly sourced from sustainable stock. While the menu features good old fish and chips with mushy peas – it would be unthinkable not to – classic fish pie, tuna burger and scallops wrapped in pancetta, the main event is the catch of the day. These are listed and ticked to indicate availability, a dazzling array including swordfish, skate, Icelandic cod, red snapper, sea bass and bream, John Dory, lemon sole, halibut, tuna, sardines and monkfish, steamed or grilled. You then add a sauce.

The monkfish (£16.95) proves an excellent choice with six meaty pieces, perfectly cooked and red wine gravy on the side. The latter is bold and well seasoned; it works well with the robust monkfish but other options including herb and garlic butter, salsa verde, hollandaise and spicy salsa are also on offer. The garnish of seasonal vegetables – containing, commendably, pak choi – is rather more than just for show. The scallops (£19.95) are terrific. Six of them come wrapped in crispy pancetta – a cause for some concern, at first, that they may be overcooked – and they are succulent and flavourful. The dish comes on a roasted field mushroom, for no discernable reason, with another generous garnish of peppery leaves and roasted baby tomatoes, which works. A side of perfectly cooked new potatoes (£2.25) also goes down well.

Puddings (£5.25 – £5.95) include sticky toffee pudding and bread and butter pudding with optional ice cream or custard. Both are generous portions and well presented, the latter being particularly light and fluffy, although it could have done with more fruit.

The Drink
Forget the white with fish rule – as any discerning diner knows these days, red wine can go with anything that swims (or bumbles along the seabed in shell). The list includes a wine of the month and some reserves, priced accordingly. The house red, a Montepulciano, could lend itself to the emphatic flavours of both the scallops and the monkfish but the house white, a Trebbiano, slides down equally nicely. Both are £15.95 a bottle and £3.95 a glass, which seems a tad steep for the latter. On the other hand, £33.95 and £35.95 for, respectively, a Gavi and a Chablis, is perfectly reasonable. But if you’re going to fork out £44.95 for the house Champagne, you might as well stump up another tenner for a bottle of Ruinart.

The Last Word
Although fish! Has been the subject of criticism in the past, things aren’t what they used to be. Either the team behind the enterprise have taken note, or the place has simply got its mojo back – fish! is back on fine form.

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