There's no doubting the theme here, I think, as we pull up outside this 18th century former coaching inn bedecked in lobster pots.
The Fish House is a new restaurant with rooms, at the foot of the South Downs, four miles from Goodwood racecourse and six north of Chichester. It's a bold investor who opens a £4m venture in the midst of a recession – but owner David Barnard is no risk-taker. With two highly successful restaurants under his belt – The Crab & Lobster in North Yorkshire and the award-winning Crab at Chieveley in Berkshire (he sold both) – he felt ready for a new challenge. If the Saturday night we visited is anything to go by, he has nothing to worry about. My beaten up, rusty Honda looked a sorry sight next to the gleaming 4x4s and BMWs. Inside there were a lot of men in their best Saturday slacks and women who looked as if they'd had their hair done for the occasion.
I've stayed here before in its previous incarnation as the White Horse Inn, a B&B whose owners were among the first to adopt a comprehensive eco-policy. Barnard says the Fish House is as eco-friendly as its predecessor – with eco-cleaning products, eco-insultation and low-output machinery all in use – he just doesn't advertise the fact.
Inside, the bar and dining room are dripping with fishy paraphernalia, from little metal fishing boats hanging above the oyster bar to chairs that look like coiled rope, from the fish-print cushions to the fish tank that forms part of a glass wall between restaurant and kitchen. All of which felt a bit odd in a country inn 15 miles from the coast. However, Lawrence, the manager, assured us that, bar the oysters (from Carlingford Loch in Northern Ireland) and the Scottish hand-dived scallops, the fish is ordered daily from sustainable sources on the south coast. And any sense of incongruity soon evaporated when we sat down to dinner. My lobster and mango blini starter was fancy but somehow underwhelming, but my companion's crab lasagne – delicious hand-made pasta with fresh crab and a seafood bisque – gave me food envy. My main of dover sole with a brown shrimp sauce was perfectly cooked and the lemon tart was probably the best I've ever tasted.
Retiring to our room took the gloss off the evening a little. The 15 rooms, all named after fishing ports, are arranged in two wings behind the inn (with two above the bar). There are four themes; ours was driftwood but what struck me more than the chunky wooden bed and lime-washed wardrobe was the colour scheme: a garish feature wall with an orange and red sea-anemone print – or were they chrysanthemums? – with matching orange and red rug. Every other room was occupied so I couldn't sneak a peek at the other themes: Bhutan (I've no idea how this land-locked country became a theme), plum and aqua, but I suspect they might have been more soothing on the eye.
There's certainly been no scrimping on the rooms: Egyptian linen, an espresso machine, plasma screen, furniture made from reclaimed wood and a shower head in our bathroom the size of a dustbin lid.
At breakfast we watched through the fish tank as the chefs cooked our fry-ups – another excellent meal of homemade black pudding (very good, by all accounts), local sausages and bacon, before we headed for the downs to walk it off.
Top tip Drive a mile or so up the road to Harting Down, for a heart-pumping walk that takes you up on to a ridge for classic views of rolling countryside punctuated by church spires.
• Sunday and Monday evening deal is £150 per room for DB&B. It's worth checking for late deals: I called on a Tuesday morning and they had two rooms that night for £49 each, room only.
Sally Shalam is away
