Hale Barns, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

“You know you’re in a restaurant with imaginative owners when the Sunday ‘specials’ are lobster thermidor and partridge”, and where you might find “beautiful seafood” as well as your “first taste of squirrel!” – “husband and wife owners” Kevin (chef) & Rachel (FOH) Choudhary “have flair and imagination but perhaps most importantly they love what they do”. High-ceilinged and filled with plants, it’s a “very pleasant and unusual place” where the worst complaint concerns “a slight tendency to overload the dishes with ingredients”.

2021 Review: A “new restaurant serving ultra-fresh fish from Fleetwood” (but also Shetland scallops, Irish sea trout and Cornish monkfish), set up by fishmonger Jamie Barrett, who owns the Marple Fish shop round the corner. A former car spares shop, it's now a hybrid country-pub and beach shack, style-wise.

“The landlord is the chef and he knows how to cook fish, which he sources from the best suppliers”, say regulars at this unusual and “delightful” Peak District village pub which is “supported by the community” – having bought the freehold 20 years ago when the venue faced closure. “Good ales” completes the picture.

A “great, popular local fish restaurant” where the “brilliant” and “affordable” catch often comes chargrilled, or with influences from other seafood-loving nations (“favourites include the Thai curry prawn dish”); the “recent addition of outside covered tables” is an added boon. After six years in the game, a much-touted sibling in Sale’s foodie-oriented Stanley Square development was due to launch in summer 2023.

Feedback is limited and mixed on Richard Caring’s ostentatious newcomer, at the gateway to Spinningfields in a unit that was previously Armani Emporium – now filled with fish tanks, ocean-themed murals and with plenty of sea-nymphs and mermaids. It’s a somewhat less expensive version of the Mayfair original, but menu-wise cut from the same cloth of pricey sushi, fish and seafood, often with a pan-Asian twist. Not one for foodies, but if you’ve money to burn and need more content for your Insta it’s not (yet) past the sell-by for an expensive selfie.