If you're thinking of going for an end-of-summer lunch in Whitby, your initial choice might be to wait your turn in a snaking queue outside the world famous Magpie Café, or go for some upmarket seafood at the Egon Ronay-rated Greens.

But as an ex-local and connoisseur of many of the restaurants in the seaside town, I'll let you into a little secret.

Situated on the corner of Bridge Street and Church Street on the east side of the River Esk is Hadleys Fish Restaurant, a little gem on Whitby's foodie map.

The recently extended restaurant is unpretentious, yet has plenty of charm, plus a warm and friendly atmosphere and, with its huge picture windows, is a great vantage point from which to watch the world go by.

I took my friend Nina with me as she had never tried the food there before. She is also is a bit of an authority on seafood, especially fish.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that, as a vegetarian, there's often very little choice in a seafood restaurant for me to try, but on the menu at Hadleys there is a fair variety, including egg, vegeburger or vegetarian lasagne with chips.

In good old seaside fish and chip restaurant fashion, the dishes on offer at Hadleys are not convoluted or a la carte; they are just simple yet very tasty, with a good choice of fish dishes for fish lovers, plus plenty more choice to tickle your fancy if fish isn't your thing.

You could go for cod, plaice, haddock, scampi and homemade fishcakes in various sizes (including jumbo haddock or cod and chips, or even the whale-sized double cod or haddock and chips - I've only ever known of one person to have tackled that dish and won).

If, however, you've a meatier palate, then there's a choice of sausage, chicken, chicken tikka curry and locally made steak pie.

There's also a dedicated kids' menu, with favourites such as cod and chips, egg and chips, scampi and chips and sausage and chips.

We were seated in the original area of the restaurant with its Formica toppedtables scrubbed spotlessly clean (like every other part of the restaurant), and were given the menu to browse.

It didn't take me long to make my choice - there are no starters, but looking around at the large portion sizes that were arriving on other customers' tables in the busy restaurant, that didn't bother us one iota.

I went for vegetable lasagne and chips (£7.25) with a side portion of mushy peas (90p); all prices include the great traditional British staple of tea, bread and butter.

Nina, meanwhile, went for a standard sized haddock and chips (£6.75) with a side portion of mushy peas.

The food arrived surprisingly quickly considering how busy the restaurant was, and I was pleased to see that my lasagne was home-made.

The food looked appetizing and I couldn't wait to tuck in, but before we could, the policy is that the waiting staff are paid on delivery of food.

Our friendly and obliging waitress then asked us if we wanted any sauces and condiments, and they were swiftly delivered in stainless steel bowls which we thought was a nice touch, as often in such restaurants and cafes you get those fiddly packets which are hard to open and often end up splattering you with sauce.

All of the food was piping hot and freshly cooked. My lasagne was rich and creamy, with layers of pasta, handchopped vegetables topped with a tasty béchamel sauce, and was not overly cheesy.

The chips were freshly cooked and fried to perfection - not too crispy and yet not soft The dish came with a freshly cut salad garnish, with ruby lettuce leaves and cherry tomatoes, and the peas came in a stainless steel bowl on the side, so there was plenty of them.

Nina's fish, meanwhile, was substantial in size and lightly coated with a delicious batter, neither overly crispy nor underdone.

The fish itself seemed to have been freshly plucked from the sea and was full of flavour and cooked to perfection.

Unlike some battered fish she has eaten in the past, it did not leave an oily after-taste.

We both managed to clear our plates, though still had some tea in the pot to spare.

There is an ice-cream menu from which to choose to wrap up the meal, but they are prepacked, so you would be better placed, as we did, to go for a bit of a wander around the town to walk off your lunch, and then try one of the locally-made ice-creams available from various outlets in the town.

Our bill for the two dishes at Hadleys came to £15.80, which we thought was well worth it for the fantastic food.

Natalya visited on Monday, August 20, 2007.

Hadleys Fish Restaurant, 11 Bridge Street, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO22 4BG. Telephone: 01947 604153.

factfile

Food: Basic, yet tastyService: Friendly Value: ExcellentAmbience: Warm Disabled access: NO