Seadogs, Edinburgh

David Ramsden owns a few restaurants in Edinburgh. I wouldn't call it a chain, although they all run on a similar theme - firstly, they are all dog-themed/decorated (Ramsden is a loving dog-owner, I have read, which explains the obsession). Secondly, they serve what restaurant critics might call 'good, honest food', which means it is cheap. At lunch, most mains don't reach much over £5, and at dinner you'd be hard-pressed to spend over £20 on a full meal. The first of the group is simply 'The Dogs', of which the cuisine is definitively British (not strictly Scottish, but notable local favourites like Colcannon mash are dotted around the menu). Second to appear was 'Amore Dogs' (the love for his pets grows greater), which is Italian. This year saw the opening of 'Seadogs' on Rose Street, where as the name implies, there is no meat on the menu.

The idea of a fish-only restaurant was promising - generally when restaurants stick to one thing you assume that thing will be good. I like the fact that they didn't cop out and stick a steak on the menu like so many fish restaurants do. J and I had decided on a meal here as a start of the week treat, and we arrived completely empty-stomached after exerting ourselves with exercise in various forms. The space has been successfully transformed from what is essentially a low-ceilinged commercial premises to a fairly cozy dimly-lit restaurant. Dark wooden tables are adorned with the signature bright red plastic jugs that are found in the sister restaurants, and there's a kind of DIY element with cutlery brought to you in a glass with napkins.

The menu is reminiscent of London's St John Bread & Wine, not in the ingredients necessarily but in the way dishes are listed not in formulaic categorization of 'starters' and 'mains'. Instead dishes vary in size, and in a lot of cases can be served either small or large. I like this idea, and J and I vowed to come back at lunch time to sample a variety of the smaller dishes. We toyed with the idea of the smoked mackerel and peppered rhubarb jam, but were somewhat gruffly discouraged by Ramsden (who served us), who implied we wouldn't need it to accompany the whole bream for two that we'd already set eyes on. His reasoning was that if we wanted dessert, we might as well finish the bream and see how full we were, rather than eat a starter and main and realise we were too full for dessert. It seemed odd for the owner not to want us to try more food, but he was right in thinking we might be full.

The bream was so amazingly full of perfect lemony flavour. It was certainly not bland but had a very comforting, home-made side to it. We were confused as to how it would be served as it had been called 'whole baked bream, mussel and creamed leek bap'. Fish sandwich perhaps? Well, it was not so much a 'bap' as in 'bacon bap', more of a sourdough roll, hollowed out and filled with creamy deliciousness, bursting with leeks and mussels. I would return for this dish alone. In fact, I think it will be hard to try not to order this again.

We'd set our hearts on the treacle steamed pudding for two, but there was no way we could eat that now. Settling for ice cream, we slowly spooned away scoops of cream, rum & raisin, and honeycomb flavours. After paying our bill (which, by the way was less than £40 and had also included a bottle of decent white wine), we walked out feeling truly gorged but were already planning our next visit.

Seadogs

43 Rose Street, Edinburgh

0131 225 8028

www.seadogsonline.co.uk