Caterham, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: Helping make Tooting’s Broadway Market a foodie destination, this “very affordable” three-year-old seafood specialist wins praise for its “fabulous food, great service and big smiles”. The “really inventive” approach extends to drinks, which include an “amazing gin cocktail” flavoured with oysters. Antiques trade veteran Jimmy Luttman is an “excellent” host.

Diminishing feedback in recent years makes it hard to recommend this “noisy and fun”, family-run Sardinian on Brockley Rise quite as resoundingly as we used to. Fans, though, still say it’s “a super, local Italian trattoria, with a great menu: especially the quirky ice cream and sorbet flavours”.

2021 Review: An “incredible selection of fresh fish” from its in-house fishmonger, Jarvis, next door is the draw to this offshoot of a Borough Market stalwart of two decades standing. “Everything can be grilled for you to order” – and there are “very good specials”.

“Crowded… slightly crazy-busy… top oysters supported by a changing menu of fish and crustacea” – that’s the package at this trio of “busy” bistros in Borough Market, Battersea Power Station and South Kensington. “You come here for the seafood, not to be fawned over. The decor’s a little rough and ready but the food’s so fresh and delicious”.

2023 Review: One of the bright sparks near Elephant & Castle – this attractive haunt (with cocktail bar) majors in breakfast and brunch options, but also offers a small, eclectic selection of impactful bites (the Bobo Burger, truffle pasta, Thai curry, steak, fish ’n’ chips…). We’ve rated it on limited feedback.

“BBQ, live music, decent cocktails and craft beer” channel the spirit of the American South at this “buzzy”, long-running spot in Chelsea and its more recent spin-offs in Covent Garden and Canary Wharf. The food is “more about quantity than quality”, although the “great-value lunch deals” are popular: “£10 meat taster is unbeatable”.

This Chelsea four-year-old (by Chelsea Green) with an Alpine-themed interior is from a duo involved in Beast and Burger & Lobster; and offers a raw bar along with prime cuts of steak and fish from the grill, sold per 100g – all of which attracts little commentary from reporters beyond the consistent complaint that it’s “way over-priced”. In September 2023, a new offshoot – Wild Notting Hill – will open on the site that was formerly 202 (RIP).

2023 Review: A South African-based affordable seafood brand has opened its first UK branch in a former Café Rouge on the market square; Peter ‘Fats’ Lazarides and his brother George opened their first restaurant in Pretoria – more than 300 miles from the nearest coast – in 1995, and there are now more than 215 Ocean Baskets in 19 countries – many of them in sub-Saharan Africa. We expect a roll-out to commence any day.