Smoking Lobster is a seafood restaurant in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, situated right on Cowes Harbour. It’s the bigger sibling to the extremely popular Drunken Lobster, serving an array of pan-Asian snacks and cocktails.
Being right next to the harbour comes with other advantages too. Smoking Lobster actually owns its own fishing boat. The restaurant’s fishermen use fishing rods, as well as lobster and crab pots, to catch everything that goes onto the menu. Much of this goes onto the main menu, but there’s also a daily fish board in the restaurant that shows off any daily specials and seasonal fish that have come in.
Interiors are clean and minimal, with generously spaced tables sitting underneath sea grass lampshades. It’s a setting that lets the food do the talking, and there’s lots to shout about on the menu. Get started with puffy Japanese milk bread with miso butter, tempura prawns, and bao bun specials, before getting stuck into pan seared scallops with truffle butter, Szechuan lobster katsu maki with mango and kaffir lime, and the popular Smoking Lobster sashimi platter for two, which includes Yellowfin Tuna, Chalk Stream Trout, Hamachi, and more.
There are options for the fish-averse too, including Wagyu beef sirloin, char siu Iberico pork pluma, and barbecue glazed tofu with stir fried vegetables. Even better, Smoking Lobster takes the choice out of your hands completely with omakase selection for the whole table, or a seafood platter for two, which features all of the very best seafood dishes on the menu.
Drinks are equally impressive, with exotic cocktails like the Umeshu Plum Negroni (Campari, Umeshu plum sake, gin) sitting alongside Japanese whiskies, beer, cider, spirits, soft drinks and wines.