Maison Bleue

Every so often you will read of the delights of small market town living, in such places say, as Bury St Edmunds where the pace drops a significant number of notches from, for example, the delights of Notting Hill. Some towns in Britain already enjoy the ready availability of good restaurants and one's mind thinks immediately of Ludlow in Shropshire, with more fine establishments per head of the population than probably anywhere else in Britain.

In Bury St Edmunds a French-style restaurant where the chef, Pascal Canevet, majors on fish, is perhaps part of a movement to encourage that ancient town in the same direction. Carnivores are not completely overlooked and the menu carries a section rather grimly entitled "Butcher's Corner".

However, there's nothing grim about the dishes offered, together with the roll call of wonderful piscine names and treatments that has frequent recourse to the word 'smoked'. Let's start with the shellfish, a plate of which is designed to tickle the tastebuds and will include two langoustines, three oysters and a crab claw.

At the other end of the scale, and there are stopping-off places in between, is the Royal plate, a breathtaking presentation of half a lobster, half a crab, three langoustines, three oysters, five whelks and two tiger prawns.

The spicy Thai-style smoked haddock and coriander fish cake is served with a rice vinegar, soya and a mild chilli dip, though for my part the plate of home-smoked salmon, with a grilled brioche and horseradish cream, capers and red onions would need some serious avoiding action. Any quality fish menu is, almost of a necessity, going to mirror a changing market subject indeed to wind and tide, and Maison Bleue is no exception. It is this element of uncertainty that catches the interest and makes every visit a voyage of discovery.

On the grill are simple dishes like tuna and mashed potato with a Stilton sauce, classics such as Dover sole with the chef's own interpretation of a butter-based sauce, and it is surely one of the hallmarks of a successful approach to cooking fish that a minimalist approach in general pays off almost every time. There is room for subtlety in a whole sea bass flambéed with Pernod or the combination of properly cooked salmon with a carefully constructed Bearnaise sauce, but in general simplicity is the order of the day.

They offer different variations on lamb, chicken and beef and it is much to their credit that the wine list, which is full of fish-worthy whites, also does justice to the carnivores, though the tendency to drink red with anything, particularly shellfish does seem to be on the increase.

The décor and front of house arrangements are faultless as one has come to expect with this modest but convincingly effective East Anglian group. If you are looking for further information, then you will find that a'plenty on their comprehensive Website, including menus. It should not come as a surprise to learn that it has been named as East of England's restaurant of the year 2009/2010 by the Good Food Guide.