The Fish Shop

Our group of four had lunch at this restaurant on Saturday 13th January 2007, the service was excellent as was the choice of wines.

The first course was excellent, we enjoyed the chowder, and the seafood platter......except the crab could have been prepared to eat without all the cracking and etc.

The main courses came with a nice selection of excellently cooked vegtables, the Lemon sole and the battered cod was excellent but the baked cod with a vegtable sauce was absolutley awful!!!

The sauce killed the flavour of the fish entirely and spoilt the eating whole experiance for two of us.

We will go again as we think it is worth another try....but will ask for good plain fish
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, January 15, 2007

I had dinner here with a friend last night and was simply amazed at the appalling service, lack of atmosphere and quality of the food. The fact that only three tables were occupied in this rather characterless and IKEA-like establishment should have had our alarm bells ringing, but we ordered food anyway.

The starter of fresh prawns with garlic mayonnaise was pretty tasty. However, the main courses arrived straight after we'd finished the prawns. My friend had ordered a main course of scallops, which arrived cold and nothing like it was described on the menu. For £20 (!) one would expect a bit more than the measely six scallops that were on her plate. Needless to say we had it send back to heat up and they must have put them in the microwave to reheat.

I had the halibut, which came with bearnaise sauce and chips. The chips were the best part of the whole meal. The halibut may have been warm, but it was the most dry and tasteless piece of fish I'd ever had. According to the rude waitress, halibut is a fish that doesn't require any seasoning and the dryness was due to the meatiness.

We didn't get a chance to order any dessert as the staff at this point were extremely annoyed with us and made it very clear they didn't like our constructive criticism. At no stage, did we receive any apologies or were we offered a free coffee for the bad meal and horrible service. The final drop was an error in the bill and we left without paying the optional service charge and vowed never to return to the Fish Shop ever again.
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BL - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Thursday, December 07, 2006

Went there for lunch with my son and daughter-in-law the other week and all three of us absolutely loved the place. The fact that it was nearly empty - only one other table was taken - might have been a help, as the two waitresses had no one else to look after.

All the food was first class. Most memorable were the oysters and the cod. I'm no longer resident in the UK and can't get fresh cod where I live, so I'd actually been fantasising about it for some while before. This serving did not disappoint! It was pearly white and perfectly timed.

The place itself is pleasant and spacious; our table overlooked a pretty back garden. It wasn't cheap but when I come back to London nowadays I don't expect anything to be cheap.
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Paddy
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Sunday, July 30, 2006

Dinner with 5 friends on Saturday 04/03/06.

Starters OK, my potted shrimps pleasant, though having sat in the warm kitchen for a while, the butter had started to melt resulting in a somewhat greasy gravy. 4 of us had halibut, the portion size of which for £19 was pitiful. I had obviously upset the waiter as mine was the very smallest. Have since discovered the proprietors originally owned the Upper St Fish Shop, which, having been the most expensive fish'n'chip shop serving the most miserly portions in Great Britain, explains a lot. We abandoned that place long before it closed for Faulkners, in less precious Dalston where, if Halibut was on, the portion hung over each side of the plate (and for 1/2 the cost).

Depite the adventurous pricing, had it not been for the good (and attentative) citizens of the Czech Republic and fellow Eastern Europeans, we would have had no waiting staff at all.

Bill - £45 each for two courses and 1/2 bottle of wine. Like their previous venture - stupid prices for very small portions of very, very conventional food,

Avoid.
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Trevor Gordon
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Monday, March 06, 2006

My husband and I dined at The Fish Shop yesterday evening and loved the food. Very generous portions of fish and chips, good wine list and the startes were gorgeous. The only thing that let this place down was the service. The staff were very unattentive and we sat at the end of our meal with our dirty plates in front of us for about half an hour- not great! Will definately be going back though as the food was worth it.
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OMG
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Friday, February 24, 2006

Only been here once - the same sort of experience as a Conran-style restaurant, think the Blue Print Cafe as a comparator. I can imagine a threatre-style crowd liking it more than any other type. I personally felt that the food did not quite match up to the perceived formality and tenor of the experience and found it a shade disappointing, but I didnt strongly dislike it.
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Declan James
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Friday, January 20, 2006

Took a party of 8 on a Sunday afternoon prior to a Saddler's Wells performance, age range 8 to 80. Just a perfect Sunday lunch. The fish was fresh and well prepared. I had the Fishcake, as good as I've ever had. Everyone said they loved their food. Even the kids liked it. The service was just excellent. Two hours well spent.
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Rob Laughton - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 9
Monday, December 19, 2005

Both food and service have been consistently good on the three occasions I've eaten here. Unlike the use of English by some of the other reviewers who've criticised the waiting staff for their use of the language!
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Adam Bates
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I had my birthday supper here this year. 20 people downstairs. The welcome was perfect, the service humorous and efficient and the food was universally fabulous. Not one of my guests was disappointed and nor was I !!! I recommend this shrine of fresh fish to anyone
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Clive Robinson
Friday, November 11, 2005

My wife and I had a dinner at the Fish shop last Friday eve, and were not impressed by the whole experience.

Upon arrival, Nobody did great us and told us were to go (someone was waiting for us downstairs). We had to wait between 35 an 40 minutes after we placed our order for the food to come.

My wife had some roasted vegetables as a starter. Those were nicely tossed in olive oil but fade and tasteless. Most importantly, the border of the plate was decorated with a big fingerprint (I am not a professional chef, but it takes a few seconds to wipe the plate with a dishcloth)at £6.50 something, it is embarrassing.

The main course was seafood linguine. If the seafood was nice, the pasta were certainly not fresh pasta, and definitely overcooked. I appreciate that rents and labour cost £15 for a plate of pasta, I find simply unacceptable to serve something that bad. The dessert was good, but by this time, we could not wait to leave as the restaurant was overheated...
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EL
Friday, October 28, 2005