In the past I’ve been spoiled when it comes to seafood. My career as a hospitality/food journalist so far has seen me treated to a three-Michelin starred seafood feast at Gerald Passedat’s restaurant in Marseilles, eat freshly caught crab and bass at Seymour Tower in Jersey and taste oysters at St Pancras Grand.
Fresh seafood at Seymour Tower
So when it comes to fresh fish and seafood, I’d say I’ve got pretty high expectations. Which is why it was disappointing to find that a small restaurant chain which sells its brand around ‘the finest fish and seafood’ isn’t delivering what it promises.
I went to Livebait in Covent Garden to take advantage of their £15 pounds off offer. Despite the fact that the place was half empty when we got there, it took a good 10-15 minutes for our waitress to take a drink order, which is not just annoying – it’s bad business initiative (I would have drunk twice as much if they hadn’t been so slow on the uptake).
When she eventually did come to take our order she put down a platter of mixed breads with salmon pate and butter. ‘That’s a nice touch,’ I mistakingly thought. Turns out they later tried to charge us a £1.75 ‘cover charge’ for this bread we hadn’t even asked for. Hospitality? I think not.
Aside from that, the food was pretty average – and by no means particularly great. I had a whole crab which was suspiciously watery and lacking that fresh, sweet nuttiness you get with really fresh crab. A side salad of mixed leaves cost a ridiculous £4.36.
It’s pretty obvious that Covent Garden is a tourist-trap and they don’t need to worry abut footfall, but you’d think they’d want to be a bit less blatant about ripping people off. It’s a real shame because I reviewed the Livebait in Leeds a while back and it was very good. Leeds beating London hands-down? Who’d have thought it.
Anyway, a rather better experience came last week at the Stonhouse in Clapham. The pub is owned by the same people who own the Avalon in Clapham South and the Abbeville (both of which also serve good pub grub) and they’ve certainly got it right when it comes to value for money.
I had a kg of moules mariniere (for a bargainous £11.50) and they were finger-licking lovely. Pink, juicy, fresh and swimming in a rich broth of white wine and shallots – though not as flavoursome as they will be in the peak of season. BUT there was one mussel which I couldn’t eat, because… wait for it… it looked like a creepy old man with long eyebrows, sticking his tongue out. Check it out:
mutant mussel - just look at his little face!
