Mortehoe Shellfish

...Without question, the Cipriani is a properly great restaurant. At peak times, it now does just under 500 covers aday. Very few top restaurants in Britain do anything like the same volume. So even if we must judge it in fiscal terms alone, it is the success story of the year.

Meanwhile, down deepest Devon Mortehoe Shellfish is right at the other end of the price and style scale.

Yet in this ordinary back garden of a semi-detached house in Mortehoe village, you can dine like a king on native lobster caught cooked, drained and served by Mrs Huelin and her family. They cost £16 each- which is only £5 more than a slice of Cipriani chocolate cake. Don’t look at me. I love them both.

When her fisherman husband died four years ago, Mrs Huelin and her family cast around for ways to carry on the family seafood business. While her son took over the fishing duties and went out on the boat at Ilfracombe, Mrs Huelin turned her sitting –room and back garden into a non-licensed restaurant and speared mad lobster signs all over her front lawn. She can’t guarantee her washing will be in off the line if you turn up unexpectedly.

She also bought an old ambulance and turned it into a mobile fish van in winter, when the restaurant is closed, she gets by selling sprats for the sea lions to a local wildlife park. What an incredible woman. I love her enterprise and spirit, and she remains worthy of just as much admiration as the glitziest Michelin chef.

Eccentric, but endearing, Mortehoe serves the freshest shellfish you can eat anywhere in the country. By boiling her lobster for six minutes only – Mrs Huelin insists that most lobster is overcooked-and then leaving them to drain and cool, she has hit on a foolproof way to serve them at their juiciest and crunchiest.

She wrote to me to say that some customers had travelled more than 100 miles to have lunch at her home after reading my review-and no one left unhappy. Brilliant..