Soft-shell crab is a short window. The crabs moult their hard outer shell once or twice a year, and for a few days afterwards the new shell is soft enough to eat whole. Catch them in that gap and you have one of the most flavoursome things to come out of British waters. Miss it and you wait six months.

Our supplier in West Bay lands them from the Lyme Bay day boats — usually four or five mornings a week through April and May, occasionally into June if the water stays warm. We take what arrives. Some weeks it's two dozen. Some weeks it's eighty.

We're plating them three ways through the season:

Battered, with seaweed salt.

A light tempura, dredged in rice flour, finished with a salt we make from foraged dulse off Exmouth beach. Served with brown crab mayonnaise and a wedge of lemon. The version most people order on a first visit, and the one most likely to make it on to the printed menu.

Salt-and-pepper, with green chilli.

Wok-fried with garlic, spring onion and Sichuan pepper — Han's nod to the way soft-shell crab is more often eaten in Cantonese kitchens. Plated on a paper-lined tile and eaten with your hands. The most fun dish on the menu right now.

Raw, with sea purslane.

For people who already know they like soft-shell crab. The body sliced thin, dressed with smoked olive oil, sea purslane from Dawlish Warren, and a little of the brown crab from the body cavity stirred through. Five minutes from sea to plate.

How to order it: one each between two as a starter, or all three to share for the table. The season usually finishes around the second week of June. After that, it's another long wait.