The St Enodoc Hotel in Rock is a perfectly pleasant and comfortable place to spend a few days while in Cornwall, but to drive by it, it is indistinguishable from many others like it along the coast road. But within the hotel, something very special is happening in the kitchens for the St Enodoc is the home of Nathan Outlaw's two restaurants: the more casual Seafood & Grill is open all day while Restaurant Nathan Outlaw is fine dining and has been named the Best Seafood Restaurant in the UK by the Good Food Guide. At the start of this year it was awarded 2 Michelin stars.

Nathan himself is a huge talent and was awarded his first Michelin star aged just 25 for his first restaurant The Black Pig, also in Rock but now closed. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw opened in February 2010, instantly ranked 5th in the Good Food Guide in 2011 and retained that place in the recently published 2012 Guide. With Nathan born in 1978, it also means that he achieved all this including the second star before his 33rd birthday - seriously impressive.

It hasn't gone to his head however and Nathan is still in the kitchen each and every service, and we were super impressed with his commitment to his diners when we heard that during the previous week, he left half way through his meal at The French Laundry at Harrods so he could return to Cornwall and make the evening service at the Restaurant. 

We were lucky enough to meet Nathan on our visit and really enjoyed our opportunity to hear more about his food and his restaurant. The kitchen is tiny and seems filled when occupied by just Nathan, his head chef Thomas Carr and two apprentice chefs. It reminded us of the set up at Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, another unassuming but brilliant two star. 

The dining room is comfortable rather than grand and seats around 20 people. The menu here is a seafood tasting menu only, four fish courses and two desserts. There's an amuse to start of cured mackerel on a smoked mackerel and horseradish roll that is delicious. Running front of house through the night is Stephanie who brought a sparkle to the dining room to give the restaurant a relaxed and lively feel, never hushed and stuffy.

What was also a very nice touch is that Beverage Manager Damon, who paired wines absolutely superbly throughout the meal provided us a drink amuse with a mini glass of Krug champagne which was such a wonderful thing to do.

The first of the menu courses is Scallops with a scallop tartare. As you would imagine from a restaurant based on the Cornish coast and with the reputation it has, all the ingredients are of the finest quality and the cooked perfectly; there was not to our mind a flaw with the cooking at any point during the meal. The scallop delivered real flavours and the tartare with cucumber gave a welcome freshness to the starter. Oyster leaf dresses the scallop.

Next we have John Dory with Girolles, Pine Nuts and Red Wine Dressing. It's a nice progression, taking the flavours up a notch. The John Dory comes both pan fried and in lightly curried batter. Also on the plate are fried tomatoes, rocket and more so that every mouthful is varied and interesting. It's a delight.

It's the next dish though which is the star of the show today for us, a truly brilliant creation which we loved and will be for us ever associated with our trip to Restaurant Nathan Outlaw: Wreck Fish with Bacon, Egg & Ketchup. The description undersells the dish which is of course a highly original take on the English breakfast. Wreckfish as the name explicitly says are deep water marine fish that inhabit caves and shipwrecks. The ketchup here is one third sardine, two thirds tomato and has an incredible kick to it but really binds the plate together well. 

There's hogs pudding on a potato terrine that is boudin blanc like and provides the sausage to the breakfast while the egg was a thing of beauty. The sauce around the outside is made from tamarind pods so providing a HP Sauce addition to the dish to really make it an all round breakfast plate. This is a dish of absolute beauty and a dish that we couldn't stop talking about for days after.

It almost makes us feel sorry for the final fish course that has to follow it. The Brill with Crab & Porthilly Sauce really was excellent however, the crab sauce unbelievably good. Porthilly is a coastal settlement four miles from Rock and the source of the crabs; there's celeriac, courgettes and prawns there also. A roasted garlic brioche with mussel butter is served on the side if you want to mop up the sauce. It's another exquisite dish.

Two desserts follow. First, Blackberry Jelly, Vanilla Cream, Fig & Port Sorbet. Second, Cheese Carrot Cake, Orange Curd & Frozen Yoghurt. The sorbet and vanilla cream is very refreshing and ideal after the deep rich Crab & Porthilly sauce. The cheese carrot cake is wonderfully creamy with good texture. There is a fantastic English cheese course option also but we were too full to try it but the selection looked to be first class.

This was an excellent meal, original, creative and technically brilliant. The setting also seems right, the UK's best fish restaurant should have a view of fishing boats out the window. It's another showcase for British food that highlights both the brilliant talent of Nathan and his team, but also of British ingredients. And for people who might be sceptical about four courses of seafood with no meat options, it also highlights the variety of what can be achieved and how satisfying as a meal it can be. Menu construction is excellent with the dishes working together as a whole, not just at the individual level.

We loved our meal at Restaurant Nathan Outlaw. Nathan has put together a great team both in the kitchen and front of house, and Stephanie and Damon really enhanced our enjoyment of the night through their knowledge, care and personal interaction with us. 

If you want to know how good seafood can be, a trip to restaurant Nathan Outlaw is an absolute must.


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Boisdale Canary Wharf (BCW) is a mega-venue, there's no other word for it. Notice too that we say 'venue' not 'restaurant' for BCW is about so much more than simply food, though for the foodie purist, this might not be welcome news. So what exactly is Boisdale? Here's our quick guide.

First, Boisdale offers three venues in London: Belgravia, Bishopsgate and Canary Wharf. The fact that Bishopsgate is 'The City' and Canary Wharf is 'the new City' suggests in part a focussed approach to the expansion of this group (as it is rapidly becoming) and might hint too at their target market.

Second, there's a Scottish thematic to the food and the venue with a preponderance of tartan in both decor and staff dress should you forget. There's Scotch whisky too. In fact, BCW has a 12 metre long bar stocking over 1,000 malt whiskies which has been described as the most extensive collection of Scotch whisky in the world (we describe it as heaven).

Third, as already noted, it's a lot more than a restaurant. Is it even principally a restaurant? BCW, like the other two Boisdales, offers live jazz, has a purpose built stage and in its musical offering (from our admittedly limited knowledge of jazz) is really quite serious so appealing to die hard jazz fans and not just the after work crowd who merely want some background music as they discuss the day's market movements. Nor does it stop there, there's a 16 square metre walk in humidor and cigar terrace on which to enjoy them. Oh, and there's a Caviar and Oyster bar too.

Everything up till now will also hint at another aspect of BCW: scale. The outside terrace, looking over Cabot Square, seats 42 guests, and food as well as cigars can be enjoyed there. We're told by a member of staff that the establishment can accommodate in total up to 400 seated guests. It's situated over two floors and clearly a lot of money has been spent here to make it what it is, though we're also told that in the latter half of the week, if you haven't got a booking, you wont be getting a table, that's how popular it has already become. 

Our visit there took place at a time that was guaranteed to offer a challenge to any venue: three pm on a Monday afternoon. On arrival, our 'greeter' at the door looked at best bored and at worst irritated as if we were intruding upon her break time. We then discovered that the principal menus are served only up till three pm, though on their extensive and otherwise quite informative website, this isn't clear (only on the Caviar & Oyster Bar menu click through does it reveal certain dishes not available after 3pm). We decide to stay and select from the bar and seafood menu. Our choices then are hamburgers (a choice of five), sandwiches, shellfish and small plates, enough for us to get by.

We opted for a Platter de fruits de mer as well as a Classic burger to share with a side of chips. After our initial disappointing interaction with service, our waiter started to recover ground and made a decent job looking after us. We have to say though, staff, with the usual myriad of accents found in London's service community, seemed incongruous and almost uncomfortable in their austere tartan outfits, and in our time there, a Scottish accent is perhaps the only one we didn't hear. Anyway, seated at a table for two outside, our waiter suggested the table might not be big enough for our fruits der mer; intriguing.

We moved onto a vacant table for four and when the platter arrived, he wasn't kidding, it was simply enormous. For anything that BCW had got wrong thus far, they instantly redeemed themselves. This was certainly the real deal.

The platter contained everything you would want it to: half a dozen Colchester rock oysters on top, below, a fine sized crab, prawns, clams, langoustine and mussels. Lobster was an additional extra, we decided not to opt for it, while neither of us were sorry that winkles were absent. For two people, this was a lot of food but all of it really very good. There's also that 'seafood on a Monday' concern but everything was as it should be and we devoured it all with enthusiasm and relish. Surprisingly little was left on the plate at the end despite the large quantities involved. 

The burger meanwhile was okay with a nice char but sadly overcooked despite it being offered to us at the time of ordering (and readily accepted) as medium rare. Chips were pretty good, cooked just right, nice crunch and all eaten.

Service never quite got it wholly right through the afternoon resulting in a patchy, but mostly well intentioned offering. When we asked for the dessert menu from one waiter, we received from another the bill, but not a big deal all in all. 

Desserts were traditional old school with a liquor theme when possible so a bread and butter pudding came with 'tipsy Glenfiddich 15 year old sultanas' while a Baked bourbon vanilla cheesecake was also on offer. We opted for sticky toffee pudding which was okay but the sponge pud itself was a little too dense for it to work effectively at the end of a big meal.  

The bill came in a big ol' cigar box, a nod to what Boisdale is about. Sitting on the outside terrace enjoying the fruit de mer even in this currently lousy summer makes for a lovely afternoon and we're sure to return and do it again. The full menu contains much more too, including a wide choice of Scottish beef, which we'll undoubtedly try on future visits. But in a restaurant so big, that is also a whisky bar, that is also a cigar bar, that is also a jazz club, the challenge BCW faces if it wants to be a 'go to' eating place is ensuring i) consistency of food and service, and ii) that food quality is not compromised. It's a mighty challenge; we'll be sure to report back.    


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Rocksalt in Folkestone has been open close on three months now, enough time for it to have got into its stride. It has been reviewed in a couple of national newspapers and by a handful of bloggers but being around one to two hours outside of London, where most bloggers reside, a trip there is always a purposeful event, never a chance find or spontaneous whim. 

As most will know, Rocksalt is the baby of Mark Sargeant, formerly head chef at Claridge's and the opening of his first restaurant is something of a talking point for the food community. That said, not all of these words have been positive, but having read every review I can find, none seem overly harsh, though Mr Sargeant seems less than pleased with the blogger coverage thus far. As I now sit down to write our own post of a meal that we really didn't enjoy, that fact is unlikely to change.

First though, the restaurant is stunning. With Roger de Haan as a backer (who with his brother Peter is reported to be worth £800mn) it would seem that no expense has been spared in Sargeant bringing his dream to life. Fortunately, the weather was good enough for us to sit outside on the expansive terrace which offers stunning views of the harbour and the Channel outside the harbour walls. It is a nice situation in which to take lunch.

Sadly after that, things became a little more disappointing. Sitting looking out at fishing boats, we felt compelled to choose seafood options throughout though they do have a 'Butcher' section to the menu offering 32 day aged beef, pork belly and salt marsh lamb on the menu.

The whole menu, we have to say, sounds good and, having made the journey down to the coast, were keen to try as much as possible off it. Accordingly, for starters, we went with: Smoked coley brandade, Dressed crab with harissa and toast, Potted crayfish tails, and Tankard of grilled prawns.

The crab came first but the crab was hard to discern: it was so overpowered by the harissa that it could have been anything, or nothing. Interestingly, The Telegraph's review of Rocksalt dated 17 July complained that 'the harissa dressing was underpowering - really more of a pink hue than a flavour'. We wonder if they are now over compensating having taken that on board.  

The coley brandade was salty and fishy but lacked depth of flavour, being somewhat watery. The prawns seemed liked they had been marinated in some kind of oil that detracted from the raw ingredient while the coated crayfish tails looked to us on first appearance unappetising and almost out of place in the Staub cocotte pot. Not one of these plates did we finish.

On the mains, it was catch of the day: Monkfish with peas and bacon, and Grilled squid with lime and chillies from the menu. We also ordered a salad side and beef dripping chips.

The monkfish itself was perhaps the best of the day's offering and was cooked well and ate well. Sadly the marrowfat peas it came with weighed the dish down and I wonder how much better the dish would have been with some sparkling garden peas. Equally, instead of luscious lardons of bacon, it was chopped up rashers that seemed flimsy in comparison.

The squid meanwhile looked good but came whole not sliced and on cutting in to the squid tube, a white creamy like substance oozed from it, leading us to believe that it had not been properly cleaned out (this can be seen in the third picture below). It pretty much ended the dish there. 

We notice the 'duck fat chips' of earlier reviews have now become 'beef dripping chips' but the chips lacked crunch while the larger chips were undercooked in the middle.

Finally, a hardly dressed salad looked just sad on the plate and was barely touched.

Service, a common criticism in early reviews, was friendly but still patchy. A second bottle of Coke when ordered was duly brought to the table with a glass filled with ice (tick) but the first empty Coke bottle and empty glass were simply left on the table (fail). Easy things really. To their credit, some front of house staff did notice and did care that we seemed indifferent to our meal and asked what they could do; sadly very little.
  
We took the bill and left without wanting to explore desserts. We understand that the restaurant is not seeking to do what might be called 'posh London food' or 'Michelin star food' but we never expected that of Rocksalt and it's not what we were looking for. One of the best meals of our lives was at Rafa's in Spain where local fish is cooked on a plancha and served, no sides, no salads, and it's seafood heaven. We loved The Company Shed in its own raw way, selling the daily catch on PVC wipe dry table cloths. But here, sadly, at Rocksalt, the ingredients failed to shine.

With starters, mains and sides, we ordered eight plates in total, and here's the thing: we didn't clear a single one of them. For a restaurant on a road called Fishmarket, that has its structural supports in the very fabric of the harbour, and for a chef with an unquestionable pedigree, it was to say the least a disappointment. Amongst four seafood starters and two seafood mains, not only was there no epiphany, but sadly, for us, it didn't even make the mark. 


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The Sheraton on Knightsbridge is a hard building to love, and for us, it has only ever represented a waypoint on a journey to somewhere else, The Berkeley Hotel, or Mandarin Oriental perhaps. And when a friend suggested meeting for lunch at One-O-One fish restaurant in Knightsbridge, we readily agreed but only later, when we came to look up the address (101 Knightsbridge hence the somewhat dull name) did we discover that the restaurant was in fact located in The Sheraton Hotel; our hearts sank.

Having eaten at one hotel restaurant earlier in the week (Bonds) and been sadly disappointed, we figured it would be more of the same here. Adding to that, we were not aware of One-O-One as a food destination restaurant (most press write ups date back to 2007 and are long since forgotten) and accordingly, our expectations fell further. Finally, on alighting from the taxi outside the restaurant itself, the façade looked so drab that we resigned ourselves to a poor meal (but at least we'd enjoy the company).

How mistaken we were.

In fact, the restaurant's website (as I would later learn) says One-O-One was voted 9th best restaurant in Great Britain by The Sunday Times in October 2010. It doesn't however feature in the more widely accepted National Restaurant Awards 2010 though given that the simply awful Scott's, another seafood restaurant, came in at number 82, this is a real shame. We simply loved the meal at One-O-One today and felt they provided a highly original and inventive take on the seafood proposition and we'll certainly return in due course. A huge surprise, a wonderful surprise, we think One-O-One must be one of the best, if not the best, seafood restaurants in London currently. 

The menu offered a wide variety of temptations and deciding proved relatively difficult. With four around the table, we started off with a dozen oysters presented in three ways: Tempura with soya pipettes, Yuzu sorbet and vodka, and shallot vinegar. The tempura oysters really did arrive at the table with a pipette already standing upright in the oyster to be injected at the table. The batter here was light and crisp though the oyster flavour was a little lost. Not so with the other two presentations where the sea flavours came through much more; everybody delighted in this pre-starter.

Wild Norwegian King Crab legs were on the menu and proved popular around the table. What's more, it could be ordered in one of three ways: on ice with mayo and lemon, warm with sweet chilli ginger sauce, and grilled with basil tomato olive oil and sauce Vierge. Opting for the first of these, an extremely generous portion arrived at the table, beautifully done, brushed with a little olive oil too, the king crab proved an utter delight.

We also opted for the Lasagne of organic salmon, tiger prawn and Oscietra caviar, watercress mousse, Champagne beurre blanc. This was also beautifully done: beautifully presented and beautifully tasting. The flavours of the individual components really came through, even the Champagne in the beurre blanc. The pasta too was perfectly thin so the dish didn't give way to chewiness. The Square does a lasagne of Dorset crab with shellfish cappuccino and Champagne foam which came to mind as I was eating this because at The Square, it was difficult to extract the Champagne flavours from the foam, here it was wonderfully present. One-O-One deserves much credit for this dish.

Our main course delivered its own theatre as a Whole wild sea bass baked in a crust of Brittany sea-salt was brought to the table to share between the two of us. This came with a shellfish Champagne butter sauce and sea lettuce mash. Our waiter broke through the crust, peeled back the skin and presented the fillets on the plate running parallel to the tube of mash and a razor clam shell filled with shell fish and more sauce. The fish was simply brilliant: perfectly cooked and so moist, the Champagne butter was entirely unnecessary but was so nice, I couldn't resist going back for more to the pot that was left for us on our table.

This was a clear example of taking a high quality ingredient and rather than just 'letting the ingredient speak for itself', enhancing the enjoyment through great cooking, great additions to the plate and presenting well to the table. This was first class sea food.  

The other two mains around the table were Seared native lobster, and Slow cooked wild Arctic cod; both were very well received. 

Come dessert time we felt spoiled for choice and eventually opted for a caramelised apple with sorbet and popcorn, a rum baba and cheese plates. These were original plates with the caramelised apples surprisingly refreshing and the popcorn adding a final playful, crunchy and sweet toffee touch. 

We hadn't expected much and were totally surprised: One-O-One delivered a great meal with no disappointments on any course for anyone around the table. And they hadn't only relied on quality ingredients, rather, the meal was significantly enhanced by the variety of cooking techniques, great sauces, interesting combinations and attractive plating. Service too was genuinely friendly and we very much felt looked after.

Worth mentioning too is that while the outside might appear drab, the interior is modern and comfortable. It's also very spacious for such an exclusive postcode with our table for four allowing everyone ample space to relax, with our table broadly representative of the room. And on a very warm day outside, the room temperature was similarly very comfortable.

One-O-One seemed to us another restaurant that is deserving of a star and as seafood goes, delivered a significantly higher standard than the depressing Cod with Parsley sauce dish that we were served the day before at Michelin starred The Sportsman. In the future, when we pass along Knighsbridge and see the dull concrete cylinder of The Sheraton approaching, rather than think of it as an eyesore, it will now serve as a reminder of the great seafood available here and prompt our return visit. One-O-One delivered brilliant contemporary seafood today and we have no hesitation in recommending this restaurant as a food destination.   


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This was our second visit to Wright brothers in Borough Market so, putting knowledge gained to use, we opted for a late lunch on a day when the market itself is not fully open hoping that we'd have the run of this famous 'Oyster & Porter House'. Our motive lay in the fact that inside of Wright's there is an unparalleled compactness to your personal dining space where mostly you line up on communal tables or the long bar facing the kitchen such that if you enter without feeling a gregarious embrace for your fellow man, by the time you leave you may well have become irretrievably misanthropic. Personally, when we're slurping oysters, we prefer a little space. Such a density of people in such a small space (and pity the poor waitress too having to carry dishes to land locked customers) does mean there is always an atmosphere though and clearly their reputation for oysters is second to none.

We were partially wrong in our assessment of its activity level with the venue still half full of suits and ties even as three o'clock approached, and given what we've said above about the interior density, you'll be little surprised to learn that even when half full, it still seems fuller than a many a full restaurant ever does. Exposed brick work, blackboard menus and when seated at the kitchen bar counter, the heat of the burners brushing your cheek, it does without a doubt though have its own authentic charm.  

While personal space is a personal preference, service was simply bad with a waitress for whom apathy would have marked a considerable improvement in attitude. When the bill came at the end noting 'service not included' it seemed like a summary of the meal rather than an invitation to tip and this was one of the very few occasions where we decided that a tip simply wasn't warranted. To be fair and in contrast, on our previous occasion there, we found staff, including the cooks behind the counter to be of a much happier demeanour and perhaps it was just one of those days.

Our two starters to share were New Orleans Oysters - deep fried oysters with tartare, and dressed crab. The deep fried oysters were excellent, a light crisp breadcrumb coating fried to just the right degree, perfect with either a squeeze of lemon or a drop of Tabasco. The dressed crab was attractively dressed with chives and egg though we had to ask for some bread to eat it with and a lacklustre basket was then provided that looked a little sad, as if it it was the leftover basket from a departing table which quite likely it was. The crab itself was well done and fresh and gave no cause for complaint.  

Oysters are clearly what Wright Brothers does best and there's no shortage of variety, or ways of having them prepared for you (Spainsh with chorizo, Japanese with Wasabi or Kilpatrick with smoked bacon). Just as we were thinking that there may not be much space and service isn't so good but none of that matters because the food is good enough to carry it, they fumbled the mains.

One main was a beef, Guinness and oyster pie which looked promising, arriving with an an impressive pastry dome sitting on a hot pot of beef and Guinness with two oysters on the side. Remove the pastry and pop the oysters into the pie to complete. Sadly, the pie was at best bland, certainly underseasoned, the meat and sauce almost flavour free and bitter, possibly the result of overcooking. The salt encrusted pastry overcompensated for the lack of seasoning in the pie and on eating the pie contents together with a fork of crust, the salt became over powering.

The bowl of Moules Mariniere saw the mussels cooked just fine but the cooking sauce itself seemed little more than white wine with an excess of melted butter. It rendered the whole dish simply bad. Our waitress was of course uninterested on the food left on both plates if she had indeed even noticed.

Overall then, a disappointing meal. Our first time there was infinitely better and on that occasion we had the fruits de mer. The compactness of the venue, well, you just have to take that as part of the Wright Brothers experience, the service meanwhile is of course specific to the moment, but for such a staple as Moules Mariniere to be a let down, that was the real shame. They do do lots of things well and it's a perennially popular venue, but on this occasion sadly, they fell well short of the mark. 


Related post: J Sheekey Oyster Bar

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The Grapes in Limehouse is a landmark pub with the current establishment built around 1720; a public house however has occupied the same site since 1583. As well as being an historic pub, The Grapes also offers an award winning seafood restaurant upstairs. Passing by the bar and forsaking the pleasures of a liquid lunch, the fish restaurant was today's food venue. 

While many might still think of Limehouse as a ’down and dirty’ area (it’s not really), it does enjoy a notorious past with The Grapes prominently featured: stories of drunks leaving the pub to be assaulted and drowned by local watermen after which the corpses were sold to teaching hospitals were common. Fortunately for drinkers today, following recent budget cuts, our teaching hospitals can no longer afford them.

Indeed, viewing the area through the prism of history, Limehouse was central to London’s dock trade through the 19th century and home to the lime kilns (or more accurately lime oast, hence the name Limehouse) as well as the original Chinatown. Unsurprisingly, these attributes placed Limehouse prominently in London based literature with for example Sax Rohmer making Limehouse the headquarters of underworld criminal genius Fu Manchu. Sherlock Homes meanwhile would spend his leisure hours in the Limehouse opium dens (The Man with the Twisted Lip, 1887); these same iniquitous opium dens further featured in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).

But for the purposes of our story and The Grapes connection, it is Charles Dickens that holds centre stage because The Grapes itself features in his book Our Mutual Friend though with the name changed to The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters. Here, the Six Jolly Fellowship is described as ‘a tavern of dropsical appearance... long settled down into a state of hale infirmity’ but Dickens shrewdly noted that ‘it had outlasted and clearly would yet outlast many a better trimmed building’ (dropsical is Middle English, short for ydropesie from hydropisis from hydro = water).

The pub itself is full of ‘old London pub’ charm and the Dickens connection is present throughout (sketches of Dickens’ characters populate the walls upstairs and down) but it doesn’t feel obtrusive or cheesy. And with a pub so closely tied in with the river that passes its southern wall, there’s other dock related knick-knacks scattered around the place to keeping you visually entertained. 

But it’s not the decor that will immediately catch your eye on entering, rather, ‘narrow’ is the first thing you’ll think of when stepping through the front door as the pub can be no more than 15 feet wide throughout; appropriately, the pub is on Narrow Street and it feels right that it is; the pub feels like it belongs in the space. As you’d expect, there’s lots of exposed timber and an already small pub is made yet smaller by the staircase that connects the upstairs dining room, in effect dividing the pub in two. The Narrow Street front end holds the bar and a handful of raggedy tables while through the very narrow corridor the river end is small with just four tables, a real fireplace and great views over the Thames. In summer, this small outside balcony area that only has space enough for one group of drinkers provides perhaps the best 'table' in London for fresh air, Thames views and watching the sun set over the capital.

With the upstairs containing not only the restaurant but the kitchen and WCs also, it is unsurprising that the dining room too has no more than eight tables. Situated above the back of the pub, the restaurant similarly affords great views over the Thames but now with more elevation. 

With the maritime heritage, it seems only right that The Grapes operates a fish restaurant (with fish sourced from Billingsgate market each day) leading to both recurring menu choices and sometimes a catch of the day special. Given the restaurant's size, you’re advised to book in advance though on the occasions we’ve been, there’s usually a table or so free if you are a walk in. The downstairs pub area does serve food but it is a much more limited bar menu. Returning to the upstairs menu, on the starters list are all the dishes you might expect from an East London seafood pub (except eels which are absent), but old favourites like potted brown shrimp, whitebait, smoked salmon roulade and dressed crab are all there. 

Main course choices include plaice, swordfish, scallops, sea bass, haddock, scampi and salmon. Most fish come with a choice of cooking options, with grilling for the healthy but plenty of deep frying also. All the main course fish dishes are offered at £15.95 with sides priced as an extra. The choice here is a mix of potatoes and vegetables all at around the three pounds mark.

The wine list has plenty of wines at or around £20 though being a pub, you can have drinks brought upstairs from the bar, so if you fancy a pint, it’s easily accommodated. Beers on tap include Pedigree and Tim Taylor’s and it’s usually a pretty good pint.

For starters, we ordered the ‘lobster bisque with caviar foam’ because we’re intrigued and tiger prawns with garlic butter. The foam was not really a foam, more like a cream, and the bisque should have been more thickly viscous; flavour too was somewhat lacking. The prawns were fresh but didn’t pack heaps of flavour either and would have benefitted perhaps from a marinade first. We’ve always found the starters here to be a little bit on the disappointing side.

Our main dishes consisted of one plaice meuniere and one deep fried scampi, sides of hand cut chips and spinach. The scampi was excellent, fried in a light crisp batter, the scampi being of good quality and totally fresh. The plaice, which like the scampi came in a generous portion was similarly fresh, well cooked, but the meuniere was more just melted butter than a proper brown nutty meuniere sauce.

The chips did have flavour and were adequately cooked but lacked a big crunch. 

The mains were better than the starters, with the meal overall being okay in an undemanding way. The Grapes has won awards for its food over the years but when we’ve eaten there, it hasn’t really been award winning standard.

But we do go back to The Grapes and have done so over a period of many years. We don’t go there as our go-to food place, rather, the combination of a brilliant little pub, so much character and history, staff themselves with character and humour, and an environment where you simply feel happy makes us want to return. Sometimes we’ll just have a drink and enjoy the downstairs, but if it happens to be around lunchtime, the food and prices are good enough to see us move upstairs for a bite. On Sundays, the pub does a decent enough Sunday roast in both the bar and restaurant and it's a nice environment in which to sit back and read the Sunday papers, drink in hand. 

This is not a place that we’d recommend people travel too far to eat at for surely there are better eats closer for most, but for those who enjoy pubs that have hundreds of years of history rather than the increasing uniformity of the large pub chains, The Grapes is certainly a destination and as a package, it works wonderfully.  


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In the first book, a boy after the sea: an untold story, Kevin Snook presented us with a book that satisfies on every level, so much so that it won the 'Best in the World' for the fish and seafood category at the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. But behind the recipes and the stunning photography, the book has a more serious and soul wrenchingly sad origin, Kevin Snook lost his 19 year old son Dan as a consequence of sexual abuse and drug addiction. Determined to honour his memory while at the same time helping others experiencing pain and suffering, Kevin set up The Dan Snook Trust Foundation which aims to help troubled people between the age of 15 - 25 years who have been subject to sexual or substance abuse. The full proceeds of both the first and the second book go to support the foundation.

The book itself reads like a Who's Who of cooking with the foreward written by Heston Blumenthal who is the Honary Vice Chairman of the charity. Later in the book, Heston shares his recipe for his famous Sounds of the Sea dish that is served daily at The Fat Duck restaurant in Bray. Meanwhile, Bray neighbour Alain Roux of The Waterside Inn details a recipe for quenelles of pike. In total, twenty six chefs share recipes across over 200 pages of the first book making it a very special cookbook indeed. Separating each of the 'chef sections', there is an array of beautiful black and white pictures celebrating our oceans, rivers and life contained therein and short discussion pieces on the role and ambition of The Foundation.

a boy after the sea 2 continues in the same fashion with more of the world's most famous contributing recipes. Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud are just two of the famous names you'll find here. The photography of both the food and the environment is world class and both books have a strong emphasis on the issues raised by over fishing. All recipes in the book focus on sustainable choices.

With Christmas just round the corner and many people wondering what to buy for friends and family, this book is an ideal choice. A beautiful coffee table book for those who like browsing amazing food and waterway pictures, and a world class cook book for those who prefer to spend their time in the kitchen. And while having this award winning book to enjoy in whatever way you see fit, every time you pick it up, you'll know that others too are benefiting from your purchase or gift.

Reading Kevin Snook's brief introduction in the book and his story at greater length on the Foundation website, one can't help but be moved to sympathy and compassion for a parent to lose a son in such a fashion. It leaves us to count our blessings and hope that we should never have to experience the same. We're also moved by Kevin's courage to pursue this project despite the fact it must constantly evoke memories of his own family's suffering. It leaves us more than happy to support his efforts; we hope you will too.

a boy after the sea 2 is now available in bookshops priced at £35. It can also be ordered through The Foundation website by clicking here. 

Amazon as always carry everything and more (click here). And if you don't own the original a boy after the sea, that of course is still available through all the above links.

At the end of the introduction to the first book, Kevin says that, 'if we can help and support just one troubled youngster through the difficult times that my son could not cope with, then we have succeeded'. We're sure they'll be able to do that and more. A stunning book, a great Christmas present and a truly worthy cause.

Beyond the book, http://www.dansnooktrustfoundation.com also carries details of how you can become more involved with The Foundation if you would like to do more.

Recently, while downing Colchester oysters in London, why not we thought visit Colchester itself and eat oysters at the source. A quick look on Google maps told us that while Colchester was not that far away from London, it was in fact quite far away from the sea which seemed a little strange. During our visit there we asked a local where the harbour was and we got a quizical look and were told they have a quay but no harbour. So much for Colchester's marine industry, but with a little more research in prep for our day out, a name came up again and again - The Company Shed in West Mersea. By all accounts, this was the real thing and so became our chosen lunch destination. As a final piece of prep, I checked the tides for it is well known that at high tide, the road connecting Mersea to the mainland becomes flooded and impassable so best to know when that might be.

With the road not due to be flooded till 3:30 we aimed to arrive at The Shed around 2pm thinking that the lunch time rush might be over by then and fortunately it was. It also helped that it was November and 7 degrees outside, well off peak season. That said, it was still quite busy and most surprising was a table of half a dozen young Japanese tourists; as Jay Rayner said in his 2007 review for The Guardian, this may be a gem but it's hardly hidden. But international stature? The answer it seems is yes. How's that for a restaurant worth a detour (Michelin take note).

Jay Rayner had to queue for 45 mins to get a seat (you put your name on the board and wait till it's called out apparently) while others have talked about a one and a half hour wait around midday. Fortunately, off lunch off peak means we can walk in and sit right down. Oh, and as other reviews suggest, this is indeed a shed like building so is aptly named - it's not irony.

Also, as well noted elsewhere, the inside is basic, though plastic tablecloths seem to be an upgrade from no tablecloths of a year or two ago but it's still a bring your own bottle affair (with zero corkage) if you fancy a drink. What they do provide are: knives, forks, crackers, plates, glasses, garlic mayo, tabasco, vinegar, a mignonette (on request), lemon wedges and paper towels. Water is available to buy by the bottle. And, our value add since we've read it nowhere else, they do have a WC, something which we were both pleased about after the drive. When a place is deservedly called the shed, you can't assume.

The thing that everybody says you have to have here is the cold seafood platter that now costs a still very reasonable £10.50 and comes with smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, prawns (peeled and shell on), cockles, a green lip muscle, a crevette and a half crab. We order one of these but with two eaters, supplemented it with another whole crab, six langoustine and a hot dish of tiger prawns with a salt and herb crust. We also order of course a plate of oysters for Colchester has been famous since Roman times for this and it is one of the reasons we are here.The hot dish strangely arrives first and it is fabulous. The prawns, shell on, are visibly coated in salt and herbs (parsley, thyme, garlic and lemon we think) and have a huge depth of flavour, a salty rush, great texture and a lingering thyme finish. We would later order another two rounds of these as they are one of the stars of the show. They are also served piping hot.    

The oysters are the other star of the show, as they should be given their fame and the fact that the oyster farm itself is literally 30 yards away so they're going to be as fresh as can be. It was I think the French poet Leon-Paul Fargue who said that eating an oyster was 'like kissing the sea on the lips' and so it was here. Briney juice to start and a sweet body follow through. Unsurprising then that the oysters were great but the expectation itself risks disappointment; fortunately there was none.

The crevette was fantastic, a firmly textured body but also so fresh and clean while the cockles had only the tiniest grit and were a delight with a splash of vinegar. The prawns likewise with a splash of lemon as the palate clears on the acidity before the essence of prawn hits. We found the smoked fish the 'odd fish out' on the plate as everything else here benefited from being so fresh but some of the real gain of eating quayside fish is surely lost in smoking which of course has its origins as a preservative.

We loved our meal at the Shed. The oysters were awesome as were many of the shelled items (though much of these are imported, the lobster for example is from Canada we understand). In the restaurant there are nevertheless wet trays at the back of the dining area where the crab and lobster reside so it is still very fresh indeed. The basic nature of the venue lends it a playful aspect and it feels right to get down and dirty with your fingers to tackle the food in a way that it might not if the table cloths were pristine linen and waiters were hovering by you. The kitchen roll on the table was used in abundance. We were grateful that we didn't have to queue though the setting is beautiful as the Shed resides on the waterfront so there's some solace to the soul in just looking out to sea if you do have an hour to kill. Our advice would still be though to get there early in peak season or to go off peak, then sit back, relax and enjoy some great seafood.  

Related links: Billingsgate fish market

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Finding myself in Marylebone with about an hour to kill around dinner time, I decided to stop by Fishworks for a quick bit of dinner. Accordingly, this is a slightly different post than usual because i) only one half of thecriticalcouple was present, ii) Fishworks is sort of a chain, and iii) this was more of a functional stop for food than a planned (or lengthy) set piece dinner with fine wines etc. That said, this was a nice enough restaurant and a good enough dinner to warrant a blog; simply put, I enjoyed it.

What enticed me to go in and eat at Fishworks in the first place is that it's a fishmongers at the front and a restaurant at the back. And, with a sign outside that says 'daily landing from the South coast markets' together with the fish on display in the window, you can make an instant judgement about quality. With the fish on display looking good, I thought I'd give it a try.

Passing through the fishmonger to the restaurant, the interior is quite nice with the decor feeling reasonably fresh, the walls draped with the daily special boards and pictures of the sea (and related fishy things), and the serving staff looking smart in their white shirt and ties, black waistcoats and aprons. The interior photo posted below doesn't do the venue proper justice as I was somewhat trapped between my table in front of me, the wall behind me and a fellow diner to the side of me giving me a single angle on the restaurant; oh well, it's quite nice really.

There's a lot of choice on the fish as you'd expect with a front of house fishmonger and prices are reasonable - it's easy to forget how expensive fish has become even at the retail level. I chose to start with the Fishworks cocktail with Crevettes, Brown Shrimps and Prawns, and for my main, Grilled Dover Sole with lemon and parsley butter. Some of the fish, my sole included, are sold by weight and the waiter went to the fishmonger at the front of the house, returned with the fish for me to inspect, and informed me of the price for my approval or otherwise. I liked this idea and I liked seeing my fish come out of the shop window that had enticed me to enter the restaurant in the first place. It does give a reassuring sense of fresh fish, cooked to order for you.

The Fishworks cocktail was attractively presented with nicely fresh greens and well cooked and well textured shrimp. The seafood sauce was balanced, not overpowering and the taste of the underlying seafood was able to come through. For some, there might be a bit too much of the sauce on the plate but liking it saucy so as to speak, it was just right for me. Not a bad little beginning.

The Dover sole arrived in a rich lemon and parsley sauce and while the fish itself could have had a deeper golden brown finish, it nevertheless looked a fine piece of meaty fish and tasted as such. The white meat separated nicely from the bone and I made one of my better attempts at removing big fork fulls of fresh tasty white sole without big fork fulls of crunchy bones. Great texture, great flavour, easily separated, it was a very enjoyable fish dish. With the top dispensed, the central skeleton was simply pulled out giving easy access to the underside fillets. The quantity of sauce was also about right with just enough to go with the whole fish without drowning it.

Overall, I enjoyed the meal very much and for a walk in one hour dinner, it was what you'd hope it to be. Admittedly, my bill came to a little more than I thought I'd be spending but that is really my fault for chosing Dover Sole which, having been so extensively fished, is now one of the most expensive fish out there. Other potentially tasty main course options such as Devon Ray with capers & black butter (£14) or Whole Plaice and caper butter also at £14 on the daily specials would have allowed for a much lower cost meal if you're on a tighter budget. With the standard surely the same, it would repreent considerable value.

And while Fishworks is a chain, it doesn't really matter because the product is good enough and fresh enough to carry it and the variation in menu reflecting changes to the daily catch means that you don't feel institutionalised as you do even at other quality chain outlets like the increasingly ubiquitous Jamie's. I left the restaurant a happy punter and will certainly return when I'm in the mood for something fishy.

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My recent trip to J Sheekey restaurant saw me enjoy the food but come away not wanting to return any time soon. The food for the most part is great, a wide variety of seafood done in the way you want it and cooked pretty much how it should be cooked. I had dressed crab to start which was good (though not mind blowing exceptional) and ray wing for the main. The ray wing was cooked perfectly, there was plenty of it and even the side of chips were deliciously cooked. My friend meanwhile had the squid to start and monkfish curry for the main, both of which she enjoyed.

The problem though became apparent when I started to take a picture of the food for the blog. After I had snapped off one picture, the manager came running over and told me that photography was forbidden. Now, at restaurants like The Fat Duck, they don’t like the perpetual lighting of flash photography (fair enough) but they’re happy for you to take pictures with the flash off. Here though in J Sheekey, even that wasn’t the case.

The clue to their photography angst comes ironically in the guise of framed photographs on the walls. A Sir Patrick Stewart here, a Laurence Olivier there and a John Gielgud staring over your shoulder at your starter. This is a restaurant in the heart of theatre land and they pride themselves on attracting the acting famous. Accordingly, at the first sign of a camera flashbulb the staff dive on you like the President’s Secret Service detail on seeing a brandished pistol, with management here protecting the celebs from the dreaded paps. When did I wake up in Hollywood? The message is clear, this is their restaurant, not yours, you’re merely a walk on extra, a face in the crowd, you don’t have any lines (and never will) so just sit down and be happy that you’re allowed in. Ps, I didn’t see any famous people that day and the squid whose picture I took didn’t seem to mind.

Despite the scaffolding over the front door making the restaurant look even more closed than normal, the restaurant was in fact thriving and at three o’clock on a Friday afternoon, it seemed at full capacity with tables showing no signs of being in a hurry to leave, and these were certainly not business lunches. Perhaps therefore they do have a recipe for success and a strong loyal following and so I guess good luck to them. 

But it struck me more as the meal went on, it wasn’t just the photography thing that bothered me, there was no attempt to engage me as a customer, waiter comes, takes order, waiter goes, a few minutes later food arrives, we eat, waiter clears plates. No smile, no warmth, no personality. I can’t remember that at any time they enquired whether the food was alright or if we enjoyed the meal. Perhaps because the restaurant was so busy the waiters were having a tough day, maybe several had called in sick and they were short staffed. On a previous visit on a decidedly less busy day, I do remember them being much more charming.

Dessert came, a lemon meringue, but was a total disappointment with an excessive sweetness but by now I was losing interest anyhow.

Apart from the hiccup of bringing me the wrong starter (which when pointed out disappeared as efficiently as it had arrived to be replaced by my actual starter), the impression from Friday's meal was that this is an efficiently run machine that caters to the theatre crowd providing two tiers of service, genuine affection for the insiders versus ‘efficient distance’ for those outside. For the first time, I could see the shared DNA with its sister restaurant The Ivy. This is a shame because next door at the J Sheekey Oyster Bar, every time we’ve had a great experience (I guess celebs don’t go to the Oyster Bar) and even at Le Caprice, another group restaurant, things are quite different.

The seafood was good, always is, and on previous occasions, such impersonality has not been a feature of my experience, so maybe this is a one off, but with so many other establishments delivering great food and great service every time, I really don’t feel a need to rush back.