Marylebone, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

This “cosy and welcoming Marylebone” wine-bar/restaurant from sommelier Xavier Rousset is “perfect for an unrushed evening”, combining “charming service” and a menu of “excellent Mediterranean (mostly Italian) dishes done really well” with a “specialist Rhone wine list that’s a real treat”.

“You know that you’ll get a decent meal” at these “unpretentious” ‘Fishmongers & Restaurants’ in Covent Garden, Marylebone and off Piccadilly, where you can buy retail from the wet counter or proceed to eat in at the adjoining dining room. “A wide variety of fish and seafood can be cooked to your specification” and “it’s the perfect place for some nice, simple cooking”. Any drawbacks? The food is “good but rather unimaginative”; “ambience is a little lacking; and the service level is not as good as could be”.

2021 Review: “Unbelievably delicious crab” – of the Arctic red king variety, served cold with dipping sauces or baked over charcoal – is presented fast-food-style alongside other seafood and fish at this three-year-old concept in Marylebone. To fans, it’s a “great idea” to offer luxury ingredients at such “good value”, although limited feedback suggests it’s yet fully to win hearts and minds amongst reporters.

“The food is always good” at the Marylebone flagship of the Royal China group, while the “well-spaced tables, attractive presentation and attentive service” contribute to a somewhat more stately atmosphere than at other branches. It is, though, “pricey”: “it feels like the same food as Royal China but costing 30% more”.

2023 Review: A candle-lit temple to the atavistic delights of consuming quantities of ribeye steak and king crab that’s “in fact very good, if grossly overpriced for what it is” (“£100 for a bit of crab!”). But spending big is arguably central to the ‘Beast Experience’ touted (tongue in cheek), on the website: ‘the place will make an impression on your client or whomever, and everyone will remember the occasion’.

A “great concept, expertly delivered” – the two headline dishes are served up in posh, comfortable diner style at this nine-strong London group (with another dozen branches around the world). As a gimmick it doesn’t generate the buzz it once did, but both of the main dishes receive a good rep in feedback, in particular the “excellent and good-sized lobster” (and “for lobster it’s not that expensive”).

A “great concept, expertly delivered” – the two headline dishes are served up in posh, comfortable diner style at this nine-strong London group (with another dozen branches around the world). As a gimmick it doesn’t generate the buzz it once did, but both of the main dishes receive a good rep in feedback, in particular the “excellent and good-sized lobster” (and “for lobster it’s not that expensive”).

“A fascinating culinary experience” – Adejoké Bakare’s 50-seat Chishuru vn2.0 opened in Fitzrovia in September 2023 and is a follow-up to the Brixton venture where she first made her name by channelling tastes she encountered in her Nigerian childhood into a culinary mashup suited to the capital. The result is “distinctive food that’s boldly spiced and flavoured” and “soooooo tasty” – to the extent it won many reporters’ nominations as their best meal of this year. But while nearly all feedback says it’s “deserving of its good reviews and its Michelin star”, ratings here are not quite off-the-charts; and the slightly left-field award by the tyre men may unhelpfully distort some people’s expectations, especially as the interior itself is no great shakes (“having been to the original, it was lovely to see the ‘grown-up’ version, but the room still has that ‘pop-up’ feeling… and not in a good way. Still, I hope it does well as there aren’t many places like this. I’m sure the Michelin star will help its longevity”).

Fish is shipped directly from Italy to fill the plates of Andrea Reitano’s upscale Marylebone six-year-old, north of Portman Square. The odd gripe that it’s “extremely expensive” recurs this year, but no report rates it as anything less than “very good all-round”.