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Full lemon sole guide
How to spot it, where it lives, how it is caught and how to cook it — the complete guide, in one easy read.
Lemon sole is the flatfish nobody shouts about, which is exactly why the chefs love it. It lives out on clean sand and gravel, a tidy little fish with a freckled brown back, a comically small head and a mouth barely big enough for a worm. The flesh is fine and faintly nutty, milder than plaice, and it asks for almost nothing in the pan. Land one and you feel like you have got away with something.
How to spot it
Lemon sole is a tidy right-sided flatfish, both eyes sitting on the right upper side, the body smooth and rounded with no spines to catch your hand. The colour is a warm brown, marbled and freckled with darker blotches over a sleek, unblemished top. What you notice first is the head: strikingly small, finished with a tiny, almost prim mouth. Two quick tells sort it from the crowd. Unlike plaice it carries no bright orange spots, and set next to a dab it looks rounder, sleeker and more heavily mottled, with that distinctly smaller head and mouth.
Where it lives
Related guides and gear
FAQs
Quick fish questions
Short answers for the questions families and coastal readers often ask first.
Is lemon sole actually a sole?
Not really. Despite the name it belongs to the family Pleuronectidae, the right-eyed flatfish, rather than the true soles. The name most likely comes from the French limande, an old word for a flatfish, and has nothing to do with the citrus.
How do you cook lemon sole?
Whole on the bone under the grill is hard to beat. Dot the skin with butter, add a squeeze of lemon and a little seasoning, then baste once or twice as it turns golden. The skin protects the fine flesh and lifts away cleanly once it is cooked.
How do you fillet lemon sole?
Use a thin, flexible knife. Cut down the lateral line, then ease the blade flat over the bones to lift two fillets from each side, four in total. The small frame makes a quick stock. Many cooks skip filleting entirely and grill it whole on the bone.