We booked a table at Maison Bleue having seen several recommendations, not least of all from Jay Rayner, food critic for The Observer. The only down side to this was that even booking a couple of days before, the earliest table available was for 8.30pm, so for the weekend the mantra must be ‘book early’!

The restaurant had a lively buzz about the place and service was swift without being too rushed.

Maison Bleue gives itself the title of ‘the unconventional fish restaurant’, which must mean unconventional for Bury St Edmunds as the relatively small dining area is neat and tidy rather than a mish-mash of styles and themes that you sometimes find elsewhere.

The menu, naturally enough, concentrates on fish, although land based produce gets a fair airing on the menu, and is cooked with just as much care and precision as the moules and oysters.

Jay Rayner made the comment that “There’s an awful lot of mail-order cashmere in this room.” Sure enough, the clientel are of a more senior generation than your average bar restaurant, but that does make the place feel very upmarket, yet reasonably priced.

Grumbles? Well perhaps the very polite waiters were a little too keen to top up our wine glasses, with 3 different (yet very smart an polite) young things assisting us to empty our bottle or very nice wine rather rapidly. I believe that was just being a tad over-attentive rather than a deliberate ploy.

I had lemon sole for my main, which I also felt was perhaps a little flavourless, and yes, I know that it’s too easy to kill the taste of such a delicate fish, but a little butter sauce would have been welcomed.

Overall though, a very pleasant dining experience which we will no doubt be having again!

Maison Bleue, 30-31, Churchgate St, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1RG