"This small family-run bistro just up from the harbour is awash with the fruits of the sea. Cream walls are decorated with fishy plaques, prints and posters, while tables, with attractive navy and cream thick plastics covers, are set on polished-wood floors. It's all very homely, unpretentious and honest, just like the cooking. Fish and shellfish from local boats and markets are simply roasted or grilled, with timing accurately judged; Brixham plaice, Star Point crab, lobster from local pots, Dover sole. Blackboard specials add to the haul: perhaps fillets of cod and plaice tempura, monkfish baked with black pepper and sea salt, shellfish platters, or John Dory, red mullet and lemon sole. Service is efficient and pleasant, while the compact wine list offers fish-friendly drinking with plenty of bottles under £20. House wines start at £10."
(Quote taken from the Good Food Guide Book)
   
  Fish bistro is a real 'catch of the day'
By Keith Perry - Herald Express

CONSISTENCY is the key to any successful restaurant. Providing quality food and service night after night, day after day and year after year virtually guarantees a steady turnover of satisfied punters.

For more than a decade now Number 7 Fish Bistro has been doing just that in a friendly unpretentious manner which amazingly has earned it just one major accolade — The Daily Telegraph Bistro of the Year award back in 1995. Quite why that should be the case, ranks as one of the Bay’s great culinary mysteries. Long before The Elephant, further down Beacon Hill, was able to post its Michelin Star, Number 7 had established itself as one of the best eating experiences in the area. And long before “locally sourced” had become a key element of restaurant blurb, Number 7 was flying the flag for Tor Bay’s most famous local product of all — fish. In fact, it promotes itself as “Torbay’s only fish restaurant” and as far as I am aware, it is just that. Surprising when you consider that rich and varied harvest available on our own doorstep. But while many local restaurants dabble in fish as a feature of the menu no others do it exclusively or as well and as famously.

Reputation

True, a discreet note on the menu advises that non-fish dishes are available on request but you would be foolish not to opt for one of the items on which the bistro has built its reputation. The first thing that strikes you on entering the place is its informality. There’s a homely, friendly, unfussy feel about Number 7. A polished wooden floor, neat tables and cream walls covered with fishy illustrations and blackboards offering the day’s specials give it a true bistro feel.

Our most recent visit was on a Monday, a traditionally quiet night for many restaurants, but Number 7 was buzzing as it invariably does. The day’s catch is offered for inspection on a large silver platter, but an extensive menu, plus the enticing specials, mean that ordering is not something you can rush. Sadly, however, it can be a disadvantage because just as one of our party was about to order a crab dish from the specials board the “sold out” sign went up. .

Starters, priced from £3.25 to £7.95, typically feature crab, oysters, seafood broth, mussels, scallops, and my personal favourite, a pot of delicious creamy curried prawns.

Main courses begin at £9.95 and the fresh fish of the day will usually include lemon and Dover soles, plaice, skate, turbot, John Dory, mullet, brill and seabass as well as locally supplied lobster and crab grilled with garlic and brandy or simply boiled.

The key to the Number 7 culinary style is simplicity. I hate my fish messed about with or drowned in overpowering sauces which mask the natural flavour. You‘ll get none of that here — just superb ingredients dished up with a minimum of fuss and just a subtle touch of flavouring with the likes of black pepper, sea salt, lemon or a splash of Vermouth.

One of the most popular dishes on the menu at the moment comprises fillets of fish and prawns cooked in a deliciously light Tempura batter and served with three dips — unmissable. All main courses include a choice of salad or vegetables and potatoes. Wine lovers won’t be disappointed by the list. It begins at £11 a bottle for the house and rises to £60 for what I’m certain is a delicious Puligny-Montrachet Ler Cru (1999/2001). For those who enjoy exploding the myth that you should only drink white wine with fish, there are some tempting reds including a Beaune Ler Cru and a Corton Grand Cru at £45 while the Champagne list climaxes with a whopping Louis Roederer Cristal Brut (1996) at £130. We chose from the middle range — two bottles of a refreshingly crisp Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume at £25.75.

Satisfying

If you haven’t discovered Number 7 then you‘ll find this family-run restaurant a real catch of the day and, if like me, you’ve been a regular visitor over the years, I’m happy to report that it remains one of the most satisfying and enjoyable eating experiences in the area. Our friends Phil and Paola, whose wedding anniversary we were celebrating, had visited Rick Stein’s highly priced Padstow establishment only a fortnight earlier and their verdict on Number 7 said it all — “as good as, if not better” than Britain’s most famous fish restaurant of the lot. There may be plenty of fish in the sea but there aren’t many restaurants, fishy or otherwise, as good as this in our area.