J Sheekey

Visited 22/1/11. Exceptionally warm welcome as was earlier experience. However this time that was the best part of the evening.. We both had dover soles at £34 each. At that price the fish should be superb, but were in fact without flavour and loose flabby flesh.
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D.Wilsdon
3 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Thursday, January 27, 2011

Our experience at J Sheekey was amazing. The food was great, very fresh, cooked to perfection, and and the service was impeccable. The waiter spent 15 min explaining each item on the menu in detail. he even brought us a plate with a selection of the different types of shrimps so that we can see and choose. As main course, we had the Dover sole, which we asked to be cooked differently than on the menu (as meuniere). It came just perfect. We also had an excellent chocolate fondant as desert. The restaurant is for sure expensive, but worth the money.

Don't be discouraged by the street and the looks of the restaurant from outside. You will not be disappointed!
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, September 26, 2010

Having read such positive reviews of the restaurant, I went to J Sheekey on a recent trip to London, and it was by far the most disappointing (and most expensive) meal I had during my week-long stay in the city. I had reserved ahead of time, so we were seated promptly upon arrival. After that, it took quite a while for anyone to pay attention to us. When they finally came to take our food ordre, my mother and I being seafood lovers, we decided to order the seafood platter. The waiter asked if we wanted it as a meal or appetizer, and we said as a meal - so he suggested the platter for two.

Little did we know, and did the waiter fail to mention, the seafood was served cold and with very uninspiring dipping sauces. Half of the things on the platter were practically inedible; things so small that even the most intricate of our utensils couldn't get into. The oysters were tasty, the crab had been cracked open but most of it was inedible and slimy... we hardly ate anything.

Our waiter came several times to change our "waste plates", so the service was attentive in that regard. The food came out quickly once we had ordered, allowing us more than enough time to eat before we went to the theatre. That being said, we felt like the attitude of the waiting staff was a little bit condescending; perhaps because we were visibly tourists.

During our six-day stay in London, we tried nearly 10 restaurants, and this one was the ONLY one we didn't enjoy, and it was ridiculously overpriced. Extremely disappointing.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Friday, September 10, 2010

My husband and I visited J Sheekey for my birthday last weekend. I have an avid interest in food - eating, cooking, reading about food - and I've been wanting to go for a while to see if it lived up to the hype. We've eaten in many fantastic (and not so!) restaurants in London, so I was intrigued to see what this place was really like...

We were seated as soon as we arrived and asked what we'd like to drink straightaway - fine if you know what you're after I suppose, but I like a few minutes to read the wine list thank you. Anyway after deciding what to drink, nobody seemed to return for our order so my husband had to collar a passing waiter instead. Not a great start :-(

Anyway, on to the food: I had the gravalax to start which was sublime - the slices of salmon were generous and tasty and the accompanying dill mustard sauce was lovely. The supposedly pickled cucumber on the side didn't have very much flavour but did add a good crunch to each mouthful. My husband went for the pickled herring with potato salad. It was a very generous portion - perhaps a bit too generous for a starter - with two meaty fillets and had a lot of flavour which got the thumbs up. He also had three oysters (they're on the menu at a minimum order of six but they were happy to oblige with fewer since I don't really like them) which he said were possibly the best he's ever had, and he's had a lot! They were the least expensive of the three varieties available too.

Main courses: for me, it was the trout with surf clams and bacon. The portion of fish was good (much more generous than a recent trip to Bentley's) and surf clams tasty but surprisingly, a distinct lack of any bacon?? Instead the fish was on a bed of fondant potato and accompanied by samphire. Not sure if it usually comes with these (it wasn't included in the menu description) or if it was a distraction from the absence of bacon but it was still good dish, if perhaps a little bland for my taste. My husband said it was lovely though. He had the much tastier (in my opinion!) pollock fillet on a white bean and chorizo stew with mussels. It was a very good dish and the fish was cooked perfectly.

Dessert: I had the iced berries with white chocolate sauce - nothing to write home about but a nice light dessert to end the meal with. He had a cheeseboard which was accompanied by homemade piccalilli which was a nice touch. Disappointingly, the cheeses weren't introduced by the waiter (as they are in most places) and although we can recognise the difference between a blue and a cheddar for example, it would have been nice to know what each one was and perhaps where it was from. I believe they were named on the menu but by this point the menus were long gone. Not a big deal I know but if we're being picky...

Overall the meal came to around £145 which included a bottle of wine (a shade over £30) and service - a pretty good deal for what was an enjoyable meal with good service. When booking they tell you they need the table back after around two hours which is bit offputting but in the end that was longer than we needed anyway and they certainly weren't rushing us out of the door - service was quick (apart from the wine incident!) but not unpleasantly so, I'd much rather someone attentive took away my finished plates rather than just leaving them to fester between us on the table!

As I mentioned earlier, we recently went to another fish restaurant, Bentley's which is generally quite well regarded however, for better food, better service, a better ambience and better value, I would say that J Sheekey is streets ahead!
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SJP
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Friday, August 06, 2010