Richard's Reviews

Two of us visited Gow's for lunch (12:30) a couple of days ago.
Good to see a pretty short menu BUT how on earth in the middle of December can 2 items from that menu not be available – to whit, native oysters and fresh crab. There was a lame excuse that the delivery had not yet arrived – inexcusable.

In the end, we shared 15 rock and Colchester oysters – the size is as you are given, so no choice there.
For main, my companion had fillet of seabass – it looked overcooked to me, but was apparently OK (that word again) – while I had a dover sole. Lazy prep had stripped off only the dark skin.

With my sole, I had boiled new potatoes with parsley butter. These had clearly been pre-cooked and reheated, as witnessed by their general dryness and hard outer shell.

Pud was a neutrally tasteless treacle tart and coffee (no refills offered) was either low quality and/or had been stewing too long and was not very nice.

The wine list is predictable and dull – we chose from one of their more expensive wines – a white CDP @ £50.00. Again, this was adequate but unmemorable.

The final bill, including service, was about £95.00 a head, which is comparable in price but not a patch on quality to Galvin's on Baker Street.

It never ceases to amaze me how badly served with fish restaurants is London and the rest of the UK, with a few notable exceptions.