Hackney seafood superstar The Sea The Sea will cease trading in its current form at the end of March, pivoting to a new role hosting pop-ups and residencies with the departure of launch chef Leandro Carreira.
Launched in summer 2021, the 14-seater chef’s table inside a Haggerston railway arch attracted rave reviews for its 11-course fish and seafood tasting menus. It has a 5/5 food rating in the 2024 Harden’s guide, with reporters eulogising Leandro’s “amazing and inventive” cooking and “incredible seafood in the most unique of settings“.
Founder Alex Hunter says the change will enable the business to expand its wholesale activities; it currently supplies over 150 restaurants with fresh fish and seafood from England’s southwest and the Scottish Highlands & Islands. Leandro has yet to announce his next move, but the parting is said to be very amicable.
Alex says: “I’m enormously proud of what Leandro and the team created in Hackney and will miss it greatly, but as the business evolves we look forward to the next chapter in Hackney, which will host new concepts, test kitchens and both rising and established stars, all with unique approaches to seafood cooking.”
The chef residencies – the first in London to offer the chef’s table format – follow the success of the Untapped series of one-night guest chef appearances at The Sea The Sea, inaugurated in November. The series continues every Sunday through to the end of March.
Alex will then offer the space for longer periods to both emerging and established chefs and restaurants looking to showcase new experiences. Each residency will have full access to The Sea, The Sea’s facilities including state-of-the-art kitchen, walk-in dry-aging fridge, shellfish tanks and the best of the daily catch coming direct from Cornwall and Scotland every night.
The venue will continue to trade as The Sea The Sea Chef’s Table, while its sister seafood bar and fishmonger on Pavilion Road in Chelsea will continue to operate normally.
Bookings are open for Leandro’s final services up to March 30, at £95 a head.
