From the people who run The 10 Cases wine bar just across the road, this seafood joint is a jolly little spot, with green-and-white fishmonger-style tiles, tiny tables along one wall and a couple of eating counters poking out of the other – the sort of place that’s cosy in winter and breezy in summer, thanks to big windows opening on to Endell Street.
It’s also an appealingly individual set-up boasting friendly staff, decent prices and a brilliant location for pre- and post-theatre meals – although tables are now booked up months in advance; instead, try your luck with a walk-in.
To eat, we loved the Belgian-style potted shrimp croquettes filled with a creamy shellfish goo, the salt-cod fritters encased in crisp, light batter, and a whopper of an octopus tentacle cooked to melting sweetness and accompanied by fabulously flavoured pork-fat potatoes.
However, some other items were less successful: chargrilled treviso with pomegranate and Pecorino was overwhelmingly bitter, sea trout tartare was ill-served by an assertive Bloody Mary jelly, and brown crab pissaladière tasted acrid, as if the onions had caught in the pan – although (like everything else) it looked absolutely lovely. Larger plates of “perfectly cooked” fish are available whole (plaice, sea bass) and by the fillet (turbot, gurnard), while the “interesting” off-piste list includes around a dozen offerings by the glass and carafe.