Fish! Kitchen (Borough Market)

Visited the Fish! Kitchen yesterday (Saturday 20th April 2013) and I have to agreed with the poor reviews.

We ordered olives and anchovies, x11 olives x1 of which was rotten, the anchovies lacked any taste.

My main was sardines x4 and some limp salad leaves, then one of the sardines was off, when I pointed this out to the waiter his response was to shrug his shoulders and offer me a free coffee.

Never again, poor sevice and poor food.
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AlanMac - View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Sunday, April 21, 2013

Chose Fish in Borough Market for brunch before the Shard this morning. The restaurant was fairly quiet, food arrived before my coffee 5 minutes later. Waited for an eternity to pay the bill and the waiter applied the 12.5% 'discretionary' service charge regardless of whether I was happy to pay it....

Disappointing... I won't be returning.
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4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Sunday, March 03, 2013

Terrible restaurant. I ordered smoked salmon, followed by hake with salsa verde. The smoked salmon was nice but it was just a plate of it with NO greenery at all. The bread that accompanied it was thickly sliced and it would have been nicer if they were half the width!

The hake was okay - a little overcooked for my liking. However, the salsa verde was disgusting - it was far too garlicky and lacked in other flavours. Like previous reviewers, I agree that it is overpriced - a tiny bowl of spinach for almost a fiver?? Really?? The food just isn't worth the prices that are being charged.
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- View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Friday, November 23, 2012

Horrible. Over priced and complacent.
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- View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, October 04, 2012

OK let me start just by saying DONT GO THERE! ;)

Ordered their small dressed crab for starters at £15 what was served to me was a very small jar of crab meat like something you would get ketchup in! Silly me for thinking i had ordered a small dressed crab as per the menu.

To wash it down we had ordered what was described as " homemade lemonade" but to my amazement watched the bar staff make it with Tap water, some ice cubes, 4 slices of lemon and lemon syrup or in others words Tap water with Lemon for only £5.95 ;)

At this point we finished the meal and did not dare order mains, I spoke to the mamanger and was Told "Sir we have been doing this for 15 years with no complaints" oh it just must be then that doesnt mind being ripped off
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, September 14, 2012

We can only reflect on the other reviews. Acceptable food but ludicrous prices - £5 for a small side of spinach is ridiculous. Wine list poor and very over-priced. The restaurants in the rest of the market were packed, there were tables free here...
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Charles Spicer
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Thursday, August 23, 2012

Beware - this is a rip off takeaway using some very suspect business practices.

For a start, the prices are ludicrous. £8.95 for cod or haddock and chips and another £1.95 - yes £1.95 for mushy peas that aren't even the real thing. You can get a whole tin from a corner shop for 30p that taste much better. You have to pay up front before ytou are given your food and what they do is have an impressive display of glistening LARGE appetising fish to entice you in, and then serve you something about half the size and not very fresh (that's if you are lucky). And we have seen them re-frying / warming up soggy old pre-cooks that, believe me, are not improved by this process! It's a pity that there are no alternatives we know of in the area, but our advice is DON'T GO - vote with your feet until they get the message. If you do have to go, insist on seeing/choosing your fish before you pay. Choose it from the display and ask if it has been freshly cooked. ..

A sorry experience and a blight on the otherwise high quality of general Borough Market food outlets.
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Richard M
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, November 03, 2011

I took a friend for a lunch to celebrate his 80th birthday.

We had a tasty seafood salad for a starter and both ordered grilled plaice as a main course. We were served the smallest plaice measuring 13cm in length. Hardly worth grilling! It cost £15.95 with some vegetable garnish each.

I bought 2 plaice from my non wholesale fishmonger 2 days later that measured 21cm in length. These cost me £10.

My lunch companion thought the portion was very small but it was difficult to complain at the time as I didn't want to spoil the so called celebration lunch...
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Nova Western
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Monday, October 17, 2011

We went to Fish! as it was the only place with late last orders in the vicinity, having been to a show at the Chocolate Factory last Friday (11th Feb).

It had been recommended, so we decided to go - trusting the steep prices we'd noted would be earned.

The welcome was friendly, but to my dismay the place was nearly empty and we were put on a table as far as could be possible from the kitchens in the great echoing glass cavern that is this particular restaurant , and to add to the air of discomfort found ourselves sitting in a strong cold draught from somewhere - not conducive to cosiness.

The food was definitely average - fair enough if one is at a local gaff, but definitely not up to scratch considering the prices charged.

If you're going to charge 9 quid for calamari it should arrive the way we've now come to expect it (from Jamie, Heston, Gordon et al) beautifully fresh, hot, garlicky and tender on a bed of greenery - not with un-crisp batter and - horror of horrors - a lattice-work of mayonnaise slurped across it (obviously) from a bottle.

The mussels (small bowl -£8)were small but ok. Why am I constantly surprised by tiny barely visible mussels constantly served to me in restaurants? Are they out of season and too baby to be farmed? Is there any establishment that serves a plate of fat delicious mussels that haven't been mucked around with? Answers on a postcard gratefully received...

The "dressed crab" (£13)arrived 'undressed'. ie 'dressed crab should be a mix of white and brown meat+dressing/sherry whatever/ placed back in the empty shell of the crab. Mine arrived on a scallop shell with a teaspoonful of naked white meat next to a teaspoonful of naked brown meat. With a ramekin of mayonnaise on the side. No parsley. No lemon. The accompanying 'brown toast' was dull, cheap - and cold.

The brown bread accompanying crab should be some sort of delicious artisan or soda bread with flavour + some butter on the side. This should not be too expensive or difficult a task to accomplish for an establishment that cares about and makes it name serving 'seafood'. It showed a complete lack of thought, flair or care.

The scallops wrapped in bacon were ok but managed to be somehow unattractively arranged on a plate of undistinguished green salad. For £20 I expect something more thoughtful and pleasing on the eye.

The waitress was charming, but the whole evening lacked style, flair or

gastronomic ability on the part of the chefs. I don't remember what was charged for the wine as by that time it was late and we all just paid up and left.

In this enlightened day and age, we're all educated as to good cooking thanks to a plethora of programmes on the tv and I definitely think this restaurant needs to pull its socks up. It is inexcusable to charge these sort of prices for what we were presented with.
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Geraldine - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Went here for dinner last night - no reservation. For some reason I wasnt expecting it to be much cop. In the event however, my whitebait starter was very good and my haddock, chips and mushy peas were excellent. My friend had mussels which she said were very good. A decent bottle of sauvignon B to go with it and a lovely waitress as well. All in all, a very pleasant surprise!
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LPK
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, February 04, 2011