Did you read that stuff I wrote the other week about Newbury being the new Ludlow? Sorry. Absolute tosh, wasn't it? It's just that back then, in benighted July, I'd never been to Lewes. Goodness, for a small market town it sure packs in the food stores, doesn't it? From the moment you pull in to the station in the shadow of the Harveys brewery depot (founded in 1790), you can barely move for small independent shops pushing their raised pies, handmade fishcakes or home-cured bacon. It's all organic this and local that: a fantasy for the gastronomically correct.

Bill's has consistently been touted as the jewel in this East Sussex town's crown. Part deli, part café, part greengrocer, at lunchtimes its tables are rammed with people enjoying dazzling salads, quiches and steak sandwiches. Its shelves are piled high with Belazu oils, Ortiz tuna and ornately bottled French cordials. Baskets are proudly marked "Graham Love's Discovery apples, grown in Herstmonceux", or "Wild Mirabelle plums from the Sussex Downs. You can even buy greengages from Bill's own garden. How nice it is that Bill really exists; that he's not just the product of a marketeer's mind, like a green-fingered Ted Baker. I instantly warmed to him.

Which is why I'm sorry to say that the unmissable foodie treat of Lewes is to be found not at Bill's, but on the opposite side of Cliffe High Street, at The Real Eating Company, an outpost of the ever-popular food store founded by Helena Hudson in Hove. In a clearly retaliatory move (Bill's opened in Brighton a few years back), she has now brought her restaurant/deli model to Lewes and installed the head chef of two-starred Pétrus in the kitchen. No, not Marcus Wareing — that really would have been a coup — but Darren Velvick. He spent seven years working up through the ranks of Wareing's kitchen and ended up as his right-hand man before deciding to downsize from a brigade of 14 to a team of two.

"I had a great time at Pétrus, but you can lose your touch a little bit if all you are doing is tasting and dressing plates all day. I wanted to get back into actually cooking again," Velvick says.

He's also enjoying the freedom of a smaller operation (as well as cooking at Lewes, he oversees the Hove outlet). "It's the flexibility I love. The fish supplier will ring up and say, 'Darren, I've got a small turbot, do you want it?' That would never happen in London, but here I can put it on the specials menu knowing I'll only get maybe four portions out of it. The other day a lovely old lady brought me a puffball from Ashdown Forest. I've never cooked one before — never even seen one, to be honest — but I put it on the lunch menu, 12 portions, and it sold out. Now she's keeping her eye on a couple more for me."

The main menu changes every month or so, and includes a friendly mix of classics such as plaice with brown shrimps and capers or sea bass with asparagus and poached egg, plus what Velvick calls the "banker dishes" from Hove — eggs Benedict, fishcakes, that sort of thing. But the daily specials are the real treats. I had honey-glazed pig's cheeks instantly recognisable from Pétrus in all but price (£7), the aforementioned turbot with crab risotto (the most expensive dish at £16) and finished with red gooseberry clafoutis, the sweetness undercut by a clever elderflower custard. It's ridiculously good cooking for these prices. People of Lewes, I hope you realise how lucky you are.

The Real Eating Company, 18 Cliffe High Street, Lewes (01273 402650)

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