North Sea Fish Restaurant, London

During my last visit to London, I was only there for a few days.  While London is full of Michelin stars, and some actually great dining, it is also crazy expensive.  So, instead of spending my limited meals on fine dining, I opted instead to go for the cuisine that is more unique to London.  That boiled down to two things in my mind: indian food and fish and chips.  Now, I know indian food might not be the first thing you think of when you think of London, but, they really do have far superior indian cuisine than San Francisco (much like when I go to Sydney, I go for thai!).

Our first night, we opted for high end Michelin starred indian cuisine at Benares.  It was fine, but, not particularly notable.  Our second night, we went for more casual, mid-range indian at the renowned Dishoon.  It too was fine, but, didn't really leave an impression.  So, for our final night, fish and chips it was.

Of course, I did my research.  Fish and chips shops are a dime a dozen in London, many are takeout only, fish wrapped in newspaper, etc.  If it was just two of us going to eat, I actually would have suggested one of those, but, we had a group of co-workers to bond with, so a sit down restaurant was more in order.

I selected North Sea Fish Restaurant for several reasons.  First, it was located an easy 10 minute walk from our office, so, I knew dragging my group of 9 there would be relatively easy.  Second, while known for their fish and chips, they are also known for a few other things.  Like, uh, dessert.  They also offer fish and chips with two style of batter, classic or matzo, and, like many good fish and chips shops, have a ridiculous selection in the type of fish you can choose from.  Add on a slew of good reviews, and it seemed like a solid choice to me.

They do not take online reservations through a booking tool, but, I was able to e-mail a few days in advance to secure our booking easily.  If you want to go more casual, they do also have a takeout shop adjacent to the restaurant, without seating.

I think the place is family run, and did have a friendly vibe to it.  Service was decent, not particularly notable in any way. 

The food was fine, but not particularly good (not the fish, nor the chips, nor the slew of desserts).  I wouldn't go back, and would opt to try somewhere else instead.

The Restaurant

Curb Appeal.

North Sea is located on a side street, with the takeaway shop on the left, and restaurant on the right.

Interior.

We were the second large party to arrive, so I was able to get a photo of the dining room before it filled up with smaller groups. 

Furniture, and decor in general, felt a bit like being in someone's house.  There were black and white photographs on the walls.  Wooden floors and dark wood wainscoting.  The furniture was also wood, wooden tables, wooden, heavy chairs and benches, all padded, printed with a striped pattern.

We were seated in this back room, which had no windows on the walls.  There were skylights above us, but, once the room filled up (it had our party of 9, another large group of about 10, and then a handful of smaller tables), it got stifling hot.  Uncomfortably hot.  It was unfortunate, because, our group did want to stay chatting, but, we couldn't bear it any longer and left the moment we could.  "I just want some air so I can breath!" was the sentiment of the group by the end.

Fish for Thought.

On the tables at each seat was a laminated fish guide.  Each had 6 assorted fish listed, with photos, information, and a brief description of taste.  We realized that everyone had different fish, which was interesting, and stimulated conversation, as someone would read the menu, and wonder out loud what a particular fish tasted like, and, someone else had the answer in front of them.

However, these were left on the table the entire time, sorta like a placemat.  But, a tacky, laminated place mat, and I'm not sure how clean they were, and the servers kept putting our clean silverware on top of them.  The silverware was stainless steel very flat, non-decorative flatware.

I think the placemat guides were a nice idea, but, did leave me a bit grossed out.

Drinks

The drink menu was large, but, mostly wines by the bottle.  A few people opted to get tea, but most decided to stick with water.  We were provided jugs of tap water at the table, but also ordered sparkling.

Drink Menu.

The wine by the glass menu was quite small, only 4 choices for red wine.  I nearly went for the shiraz, but, at last minute switched to the Côtes du Rhône.

Côtes du Rhône.

The wine glass, as I guess is common in the UK, had a fill line on it, which looked crazy tacky to me, but, others said this isn't too strange there.

I didn't like the wine.  It was harsh and tannic.  It also came with some bonus cork bits floating on top.

Menu

The menu at North Sea Fish Restaurant is extensive, in every category.

For starters, there were several options that jumped out at me immediately, like, scallops (available with either a creamy shallot sauce or bacon and maple syrup glaze!) or deep fried brie with a redcurrant sauce, but, I knew how large our entrees would be, and wanted room for dessert, so, I urged the group to skip all the starters.  Other options included vegetarian soups, smoked salmon or mackerel, several different fried options like scampi and calamari, grilled sardines, prawn cocktail, and more, nearly all seafood.  Besides the soup, the only non-seafood starters were a ham and melon salad and avocado with dressing.

Mains also centered around fish, and, options were crazy extensive.  For whole fish, you could get Dover sole, scotch salmon, halibut, lemon sole, plaice on the bone, or rainbow trout.  For fillets, the choices were cod, haddock, skate, plaice, and rock salmon.  Fillets are available in two sides, "medium" or "jumbo".  The whole fish and the jumbo fillets could be served fried or grilled.  For fried, you have the choice of the standard crispy batter or egg matzo meal.  Other seafood options were fishcakes of several varieties and scampi.  The seafood dishes all came with your choice of unlimited chips (fries) or boiled new potatoes, and were served with ketchup and homemade tartar sauce.

If you wanted something besides seafood, the menu also has a "Alternatives" section, with four options: burger, hot dog, rotisserie chicken, or a chicken salad.  Oh, and they also offer savory pies: smoked haddock, chicken/leek/mushroom, steak/stilton, wild board/cider, and a vegetarian butternut squash/sweet potato.  These come with peas, chips, mash, and gravy.

Speaking of sides, let's talk sides.  Our dishes already came with unlimited chips or potatoes, but, we could also add some token vegetables (side salad, mushy peas, garden peas, runner beans, steamed broccoli, sautéed spinach, brussels sprouts, pickled cucumber, pickled onion), or carbs (bread and butter, sweet potato mash), or more fried food (onion rings!), or picnic favorites like baked beans and coleslaw.

I appreciated that the menu had all the desserts on it from the start, so people could plan ahead.  We went all in on dessert, but more on that soon.

Savory

We skipped all the starters, but I do sorta wish we had those bacon maple scallops.  We also all got seafood, although the group did have a lot of variety, whole grilled fish, fried fish with different coatings, and only doubled up on one or two types of fish.  We also skipped most of the sides, except I couldn't resist getting one.

The food was all delivered to us piping hot.  The server made no attempt to figure out which dish went to each person, and would show up at the table with one plate in each hand, and just call out the name of the fish.  People had to remember what they ordered, which of course lead to some confusion.  I was impressed that they managed to serve all of us very hot food though.

Haddock Fillet / Fried / Egg Matzo. Jumbo. £15.50.

So, yeah, jumbo means something here.  I didn't get a photo of any of the "medium" portions, but, they honestly seemed nearly as big.  I think most people were a bit surprised by the quantity of fish in front of them, even though I did warn folks that splitting made sense, particularly if you went for jumbo.  No one but myself and one other wanted to split though, so, massive platters of fish in front of each person, with massive bowls of unlimited chips, soon filled our table.

For the fish, my companion and I had a really hard time deciding, but, finally just settled on haddock since it is what we both like on the east coast of the US.  Skate or plaice were close seconds though, and, part of me wanted to be totally strange and get grilled halibut instead of fried.

Anyway, the fish was served with skin on the bottom side.  It was ... fine.  Flaky, not fishy, very mild, but, really, it didn't have much flavor.  I know haddock is mild, but, I thought it usually had a bit more going on than this.

We decided to try out the egg matzo, because I read a lot of reviews from others saying it was really crispy and light, even though deep fried.  This sounded interesting and a bit different.  They were right, it was crispy, but, it was also just kinda dry.  I wish we had opted for the regular batter.

The only other thing on our plate was a chunk of lemon, which definitely helped bring some flavor to the fish.

Overall, I was underwhelmed, and didn't really like it very much.  Maybe it was my fault for picking the matzo.  The portion however, did overwhelm, and we weren't able to finish it, even splitting.

Ketchup & Housemade Tartare Sauce.

Of course, a large reason I eat fish and chips is for the tartare sauce, who are we kidding?  So, I was quite happy that they brought multiple pots of housemade tartare sauce (and ketchup) to the table.

The ketchup I think was just regular Heinz.  As for the tartare, it was lackluster.  It didn't have much in the way of seasoning, no pickles, no tang, although maybe a little bit of horseradish (which seemed odd).  Very mediocre tartare.

Of course, I slathered my fish in the tartare sauce, even though I didn't really care for it.  The fish was lacking flavor and dry, so, it needed something.  Still, I wasn't satisfied, so, I decided to make up my own "special sauce" by mixing the ketchup and tartare.  That was slightly better, but, still not great.

Also on the table was bottle of malt vinegar, and in the end, I ended up liking that the best, on both the fish and the fries.  It at least had some flavor, but, is just never what I'd normally pick.

Side: Unlimited Chips.

And, those unlimited chips.  If they were going to be unlimited, maybe they'd start with a smaller portion?  The amount of chips we got was a bit ridiculous, and a serious waste.  Normally, each person is given their own basket (!!!), but, since our group was large and our table covered, they brought baskets for each pair of people, and assured us that we could get refills whenever we needed.  Um, we never needed refills, nor did we even make a dent in most of the baskets.

Perhaps we would have if the fries were good, but, like everything else, they were pretty mediocre.  They weren't particularly crispy, definitely not double fried, no advanced fry making here.  They were thick, steakhouse style almost, but not wedges.  Not seasoned.  The inside of each fry was very starchy, and reminded me of the frozen oven-baked Ore-Ida fries my family always had growing up.

I kept nibbling on these because they were there, but, besides a few smaller, crispier ones I found in the basket, I really didn't like them.

The one remarkable thing to say about the chips is that they somehow managed to stay hot for the entire meal.  They were piping hot when delivered, but, somehow, even 20? 30? minutes later, when we were all done and just waiting for the table to get cleared so we could move on to dessert, they were still hot.  Multiple people remarked on this.  I still don't entirely understand how they retained heat so well, portion size and hot room aside.

Side: Homemade Coleslaw. £2.25.

I did decide to order one side dish: coleslaw.  I love coleslaw, and had kinda been on a coleslaw kick on this trip (we got it at Dishoon, yes, the indian restaurant, the night before) and I even had it on my flight the next day.  Plus, creamy slaw goes so well with fried fish!

The slaw was brought out right after we ordered it, not with the other food.  It was a mix of cabbage and shredded carrot, pretty standard, but also, onion.  Lots of onion.  Harsh onion.  The onion totally ruined it for me, and it blew out my palette immediately.

Even onion infraction aside, I really didn't care for this, as it wasn't really that creamy either.  My companion didn't like it at first, but he finished it, saying it kinda grew on him at some point.

Desserts

I'll admit, I somewhat picked North Sea Fish because of the dessert menu.  I obviously was looking for good fish and chips too, but, how many fish and chip shops have real dessert menus?  Plus, reviewers all raved about the desserts.  And you know me, dessert is an essential part of a meal for me.

Choices were extensive, ranging from all the classic crowd pleasers of apple crisp, cheesecake, tiramisu, creme caramel, panna cotta, and chocolate lava cake, plus a few British staples like bread and butter pudding and a trifle.  But then they also have an entire section of fresh fritters, all served with your choice of custard, cream, or ice cream (although, it turns out, all desserts were, but only the fritters are listed this way).  And, um, churros.  Oh, and a big list of "Ices", aka sorbets and ice creams.  Everything is homemade.

Yes, something for everyone here, italian, spanish, american ... fried or creamy ... hot or cold.

Our group of 9 ordered nearly all the desserts, opting to share 8 dishes total.  I also tried to order a decaf coffee to have alongside my sweet dessert, but, the server told me they only have instant, and really recommended against it.  At least she was honest, but, I really wanted coffee!

Sadly, none were actually as good as they sounded, and none were worth getting again.

Bread & Butter Pudding / Double Cream. £4.95.

The dessert I was most excited for was the bread and butter pudding.  I really adore bread pudding, and hadn't ever had a real British bread and butter pudding.  As with all the desserts, we could choose to have it with custard, ice cream, or double cream.  I picked double cream, as it seemed the most fitting.

Now, I adore bread pudding, but, there are so many styles of bread pudding.  The kind I really like is made from chunks of bread, in a custard, set overnight, baked with a crispy top, yet super moist interior.  But I knew this wouldn't be that style.

It reminded me almost of a very thick french toast, except, not seared.  It had raisins and lots of cinnamon.  It was crazy moist ... as in, soggy.  This might be how it is supposed to be, I'm not sure, but, it turns out, that soggy seasoned bread isn't actually that awesome.

However, it was served warm, ok, hot, which I liked.  The double cream was super rich, delicious cream, but, had been put on top and totally melted into the hot pudding, making it fairly non-existent.  I guess ice cream may have been a better choice, but really, I just wished they had left it on the side.

Anyway, I don't know if my not loving this was just due to the style, and it was authentic, and I just don't like english bread and butter pudding, or, if it wasn't that great.  So many reviews mention how amazing the bread and butter pudding is, so, I kinda think I might be the oddball here, although, no one else in our group liked it either.

Pineapple Fritters / Custard. £3.95.

The other dessert that reviewers rave about is the fritters, available with apple, pineapple, or banana, and of course, your choice of custard/double cream/ice cream.

Now, I tried really hard to find a photo of the fritters before dining, but wasn't able to.  Lots of mentions, "save room for the amazing fresh fritters!", but, no photos.  So, uh, this isn't what I was expecting.  I was expecting fritters as in deep fried doughnuts, and was really interested to have a non-apple fritter.  Doh.

I was very surprised when what arrived was two rings of battered, deep fried pineapple.  The batter was ok I guess, the fruit sweet, but, it was just soft, sweet pineapple in oily batter.  I wanted something else entirely.  It too was ridiculous hot though, clearly freshly fried to order.

For this, I selected custard, thinking that I was going to have a big doughnut, or perhaps mini doughnuts, to dunk into it.  The custard was strange to just have all over the plate like this, but, it was actually the highlight of the meal for me.  It was warm, it was kinda thick, kinda vanilla flavored, custard.  I wish we had more custard in the US.  I lapped up all the custard, as hard as that was.

Banana Fritters / Ice Cream. £3.95.

Others went for the banana fritters, again, a bit of a shock to me, as it was just a sliced banana, battered and fried.  They picked ice cream, which seemed like a far better choice given what the dish ended up being.

Tiramisu. £4.45.

One person really wanted tiramisu, but, she needed others to split it, since I warned that it would be huge.  No one else wanted it, but, she decided to still go for it.  This was the one item that didn't come with extra custard/cream/ice cream on the side.

I do like tiramisu, but, I avoid caffeine in the evenings, and tiramisu is made with espresso.  One other person also likes tiramisu, but can't have the caffeine nor alcohol usually found in tiramisu, so, he was trying not to have it as well.

But, once there was a big tiramisu in front of us, how could we not try it?

I think you can likely guess where this review is going.  I found it ... unremarkable.  The ladyfingers were dry, and didn't soak up much coffee or booze.  In fact, I'm really not sure it had any booze in it, I certainly didn't taste any.  I also didn't taste any coffee, but, you could see a little brown on the bottom of the ladyfingers.

The cream seemed to just be cream, not mascarpone.

So, uh, dry, lacking flavor, and quite boring to me, but, the person who ordered it did enjoy it.

Chocolate Lava Cake / Ice Cream. £4.95.

And finally, one person really wanted chocolate lava cake, another dish that two of us had to avoid for the caffeine.  Since I'm really not a chocolate cake fan anyway, I didn't bother try it.

One other diner also ordered the churros, served with a couple dipping sauces (caramel and berry compote I think), but, I didn't get a photo.