The Seafood Bar

Already hot stuff in native Amsterdam, The Seafood Bar has become a recognisable Soho staple in just a few years. Whenever we walk up and down Dean Street, there’s always life coming from the restaurant’s huge open windows, warm light glowing outwards and huge seafood platters flying out to tables.

Step inside and The Seafood Bar does indeed have plenty of atmosphere. There’s upbeat music, the hum of conversation and the occasional cracking of shells as tables tackle lobsters, crabs, langoustines and more. The dining room is big, bright and spacious, tables are comfortably spaced, and there are counter dining seats up on the bar should you so wish. Is it going to win design awards? No, but it’s a very cosy, pleasant place to spend a few hours.

Oyster fans are well served by a menu that includes five different species of oyster, as well as dinky deep-fried tempura oysters that come in threes. That’s the perfect place to start, followed by one of The Seafood Bar’s hefty fruits de mer platters, which come loaded with a wide array of fresh or grilled seafood. If you fancy a bit of everything, the Combination platter is the way to go - easily enough for two people and loaded with quality stuff. There’s something joyful about slowly picking your way through a bounty of chilled seafood and the cooking here is very good, from excellent grilled plaice to juicy prawns, whelks and crevettes. You get all the dips you could possibly want, including a very good Marie Rose. We smear rich, fatty mackerel rillette over heavily buttered French baguette, before tackling the bigger items - a half lobster, and half a Devon brown crab. The lobster could have been a little more tender, but the cooking is bang on with everything else.

The wine list ought to write itself with this sort of food, and the drinks menu is compact but excellent (a bottle of Rene Lequin-Colin Bourgogne Chardonnay was the perfect accompaniment). Solid cooking, crowd-pleasing portions and a bit of atmosphere - The Seafood Bar is clearly getting a lot of things right.

Since opening its first site in Amsterdam and now with four established sites in The Netherlands, aptly-named The Seafood Bar in Soho is the restaurant group’s first London venture. Set within a 1730 Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse on Dean Street, the family-run restaurant is known for serving super fresh seafood with a focus on shellfish. 

The space has been designed by the team behind Sushisamba, albeit a toned-down version of the famous fusion restaurant, offering a clean, crisp, and comfortable style with large mirrors, slightly-dimmed, cosy lighting and a giant crab mural on the wall. With 190-covers and its doors staying open until midnight seven days a week, customers can feast on plates of seafood into the late hours of the night. 

The Seafood Bar is probably most famed for its loaded seafood platters which come towering with various fruits of the sea: mussels, cockles, razor clams, brown shrimps, vongole, periwinkles, seaweed salad, oysters and more. Elsewhere, the menu is awash with a glorious selection of fish and seafood: sustainably-bred oysters, crustaceans and mixed grills, catch of the day and mussels cooked ‘French style’. It’s not too high brow for good old fish and chips either which comes with fries, tartare sauce and salad, and the restaurant consistently choose the best available fish and seafood from sustainable and innovative fisheries.

The drinks menu is dominated by sparkling and white wines, naturally, as well as a list of fresh-sounding cocktails - Ocean Bloody Mary and three types of G&T to name a few. And if a drink at the bar is all you’re in town for, guests can nibble on a selection of fresh, fishy finger food such as sea bass ceviche, calamari and crab cakes.  

These guys care about their environmental impact, too, partnering with Nordic Blu to source their sustainably farmed salmon and with the majority of its seafood being MSC or ASC certified.