SEAFOOD experts at Hix Oyster and Fish House are celebrating after being shortlisted in the inaugural Restaurant of the Year competition.

The awards, presented by Seafish and The Caterer, recognise the UK’s best restaurants serving fish and shellfish on their menus.

The accolades also aim to recognise evidence of fish and shellfish knowledge among staff.

Entries have been reduced to a shortlist of ten restaurants, which will be visited by a mystery judge before a final judging panel select a top five to be revealed in early June.

Alongside the Lyme Regis restaurant, the current shortlist includes Christchurch restaurant The Jetty – and Weymouth’s Crabhouse Café was also highly commended.

Andy Gray, trade marketing manager for Seafish, said: “The new Restaurant of the Year competition provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase the wide range of restaurants, pubs and cafes that are excelling in providing customers with top quality fish and shellfish dining experiences.”

After the mystery judging, staff from the final five restaurants will be invited on an all-expenses paid study trip to Brixham in Devon later this year.

Once there, they will then have the chance to further hone their knowledge regarding the catching, processing and supply of seafood from the south west of England to other parts of the UK, and to meet a range of key industry players while experiencing some of the world’s freshest and tastiest seafood.

They will also be invited to an awards ceremony at Benares Restaurant in London on June 24, when the overall winner will be announced. The winner will receive a trophy for their restaurant, and an individually designed seafood masterclass at Billingsgate Seafood Training School with a guest chef.

There will also be a range of other prizes including vouchers for cookery equipment and signed copies of cookery books.

Restaurateur Mark Hix is keen to encourage budding chefs and last year launched the Hix Academy at Weymouth College.

The college has teamed up with the celebrated chef and food writer to train the next generation of chefs and restaurant staff .

Mark, a former student of the college, was heavily involved in the planning of the academy, including creating the curriculum for the course and designing the restaurant in the style of his other establishments.

Students selected are trained up in the kitchen, in front of house and on the bar. The Hix Academy is a fully functional restaurant, open to the public from Tuesday-Sunday.