Livebait - Manchester

Livebait has got just the right stuff to lure hungry diners into its bright, friendly restaurant. The atmosphere is brasserie-ish in the sense that it's informal and relaxed, but with witty conversation bouncing off the white-tiled walls it's anything but subdued. This particular branch is arranged over two floors, and it has the same high-quality super-fresh fish and shellfish that makes the food so memorable in other locations. The most popular dish is the Livebait Platter, a huge international grouping of Nova Scotia lobster, Dorset crab, Madagascan crevettes, Atlantic prawns and Indian Ocean crevettes that serves at least two people. Starters range from steamed mussels to fish soup with aioli to taramasalata, mains range from straightforward fish and chips to panfried seabass and fantail crevette linguini with chilli and ginger and baby spinach. If you can manage it, the blackberry and apple crumble with clotted cream is fab. Effective cocktails and nice wines - more than a dozen are available by the glass.