At the Oyster Shack in Bigbury, Devon, you can feast on locally caught fish and shellfish – including whole Devon crab – under a giant red awning. A few miles away, Beachhouse is a white-washed hut above a pretty shoreline where the blackboard menu offers up buckets of mussels, bowls of crab linguine and crispy fried whitebait.
Over in Essex, eager diners queue outside the West Mersea Oyster Bar, a humble diner on the Blackwater Estuary, for Colchester Natives or Mersea Island Rocks, followed by grilled lobster or fish and chips.
Oysters are also on the menu at Solebay Fish Co in Southwold, Suffolk, a wood-clad structure where the day’s specials might include huge crevettes, blackened on the grill then slathered in garlicky butter.
Head to Riley’s Fish Shack, a converted shipping container in Tynemouth, for locally landed fish cooked on a wood-fired grill overlooking the beach. Just add sunshine.
