REWIND three weeks.

It’s Saturday, the sun is shining and we are heading to Whitby, looking forward to a good mooch about and fish and chips for lunch.

Just as we come off the moors and into town, the phone rings.

Daughter Laura, eight and a half months pregnant, is not just going into labour, she’s had the baby, thanks to an airlift to hospital in Inverness from a remote Scottish island. Dramatic stuff, and you’ll hear more about it in a forthcoming Letter from Rum.

So we turned the car round, headed back for Darlington, threw some things in the car and hit the high 350-mile road to Scotland.

Three weekends later, mother and baby Maggie are doing very well and we drive to Whitby again, fish and chips very much in mind.

Of course, there are those who say that fish and chips in Whitby can mean only the Magpie, the cafe as famous for its queues as it is for the quality of its fare.

But I’ve never bought into the Magpie myth. Yes, the fish and chips are good but never good enough to justify queuing for half an hour or more for the privilege of paying over the odds.

Instead, after the obligatory climb up to the abbey and a bracing walk round the harbour, we sought out the Quayside, less than 100 yards from the more famous establishment.

It is a handsome building, built originally as the town’s bath house, museum and library.

We had heard good things about the Quayside. Owned by the Fusco family since 1999, it has won a trawler-load of awards, and Stuart Fusco, the eldest son who runs the restaurant, is a former Young Fish Fryer of the Year. Not many people have that on their CV.

The restaurant has also won Les Routiers recognition as Cafe of the Year in 2005, and this year it is Yorkshire and the North East’s best fish and chip takeaway in the National Fish and Chip Awards – for the third year running.

The Victorian look of the outside is echoed inside which was busy. Initially, we thought there wasn’t a table free but we were sat down in seconds and looking at a surprising lengthy menu. As well as fish every which way (cod, haddock, plaice, lemon sole, scampi, hake, fishcake etc), there was decent selection for vegetarians (quiche, salads, lasagne) and, on a specials list, lightly battered haggis.

Looking at what others were eating, by far the most popular choice at the Quayside is the £12 Yorkshire Special. That includes a choice of cod or haddock, chips, mushy peas, tartare sauce and Bothams (of Whitby) bread and butter plus a pot of tea.

That was Sylvia’s choice. I picked something off the specials menu – the “MSC hake and chips” (£9.20). MSC? That stands for the Marine Stewardship Council and its approval certifies that the source is a sustainable fishery – in the case of this piece of hake, South Africa. Which seems like a long way to come but then the state of the North Sea fishery is well documented and one of the dispiriting things about a visit to Whitby is the lack of fishing activity. But that’s another story...

Sylvia’s haddock came from Norwegian waters, that day’s cod came from Icelandic waters, caught by the trawler Gnuper. They take fish sourcing very seriously here.

Sylvia had the better deal with the haddock. Beautiful, white, flakes of fish that held together well on the fork. My hake was a little soft in comparison and not as flavoursome; would it be reasonable to assume, given its origin, it had been frozen somewhere along the line?

But the beef dripping batter used for both was perfectly light and crispy and the chips were sensational – just the right size, not remotely soggy and more than most people could reasonably eat. The mushy peas needed some seasoning to bring them alive but the home-made tartare sauce was very good indeed – nicely acidic and creamy.

The bread and butter wasn’t touched, I’m afraid. The tea was good and strong. All in all, two fantastic plates of fish and chips.

The Quayside was fiercesomely busy but service was briskly efficient (it needs to be given the turnover) and friendly but we didn’t feel at all rushed.

We paid £23.80 for our food – good value for a one-course meal which sustained us for the rest of the day.