IT was a stormy night, and at Storm Fish Restaurant in Poole the chefs were cooking one up. On the evening I was blown through the door the restaurant was an oasis of calm amid a raging gale.

The season and weather are important for Storm on the High Street as it claims to be the only fish restaurant in town for which the owner catches the fish.

It was started in 1999 by experienced fisherman Pete Miles and his wife Frances.

Now, although not all the fish used in the restaurant is caught by Mr Miles, he keeps tabs on where it comes from.

To get the negative out of the way first, the downside of Storm is that it is expensive. But you pay for quality and everything is pretty much perfect.

The menu is reassuringly brief with eight starters and nine main courses to pick from but there is still plenty of choice.

It is mostly seafood based, but there was also soup, pork salad and steak on the menu as well as some vegetarian options - although I am not quite sure why you would go to Storm and not sample their raison d'être, the perfectly cooked and gorgeously presented fish.

For my starter I chose pan-fried medallions of spiced monkfish with fennel sambal (£7.50) and my friend had warm salad of pulled pork and baby spinach, with apple, sultana and calvados compote (£7.50).

My three small pieces of fish were excellent and accompanied by an interesting salad.

The pork salad was delicious, sweet, warm and Christmassy. The apple and spices went very well with a generous portion of pork on a bed of baby spinach.

After a brief argument over the choice of main course, with both of us wanting the same thing, I won and tucked into a baked fillet of halibut with Welsh rarebit topping, on mash and wilted organic greens (£17.50).

It turned out to be the ultimate in comfort food - warm mashed potato, wilted greens and a solid chunk of fish with a cheesy topping - ideal for a winter's night.

My friend had pan-fried fillets of sea bream on homemade tagliatelle with a spiced tomato sauce (£17) which was also very good - just spicy enough to counteract the strongly flavoured fish.

After this I was absolutely full but otherwise I would have been tempted by the Piggy Platter (£9.50), three small portions of different puddings.

My friend could not resist the dark chocolate and brandy pot with pistachio biscotti, although it was so rich he was not able to finish it.

We washed down this feast with the house white, a very palatable Muscadet.

The waiters were knowledgeable, attentive and friendly, although it was not really necessary for both of them to check how we were getting on with each course.

Storm is a very special restaurant but, be warned, if you go once you might get addicted - and it is quite a pricey habit.