By the Sea: Jay Rayner's 10 Best Value Places to Eat on the British Coast

As islanders, many of us have an intense love affair with the sea, even if we don't see it from one end of the year to the next. When we imagine ourselves on the shore, we envision being in a simpler place; a less difficult place, a place built for calm. Granted, many of us have fantasized summer lives, and part of that fantasy is eating good food by the sea, at a price that won't force us to think about selling a vital organ. Fortunately, this should not remain a fantasy. Here are 10 recommendations of great places along our beautiful coastline where the food is great and the price called good value. Here you'll find gloriously thick crab sandwiches for just a few pounds, as well as cheese toast at great value prices that will sustain you through Britain's quixotic summer weather. There is of course fish and chips; there must be fish and chips. But there are also seafood platters, Southeast Asian curries, intriguing small plates and more.

For more doubt, they are not lists cobbled together from reading vaguely convincing websites. I was lucky enough to eat the food provided by each of them, often more than once. Yes, it's a personal selection, but it's a selection that has been properly tested on the road, in the service of a good appetite. You can have your own favorites. We would love to hear about it. These, however, in no particular order, are mine.

At his flagship restaurant, Morston Hall, Galton Blackiston does all the brilliant, high-tech things you'd expect from a chef with the usual stars and garlands in his name. No 1 Cromer is an entirely different matter. Yes, it's a bit brighter than your average chippy, with prices to match, but I...