City, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

For “old school cooking in a traditional setting” few London restaurants can genuinely live up to this “unfailingly beguiling” Victorian time warp, which has served “expensive but gorgeous” fish and seafood, English puds, tankards of beer and exclusively French wines to pinstriped City gents for more than a century. “I take all my most important clients here – it’s a treat!”

For an informal business bite (including a “top quality breakfast”) it’s worth remembering the café in the “very handsome” covered courtyard of this Victorian pile, right at the heart of the City of London.

2014 Review: “Staid” it may be, but this long-established cellar operation, near Liverpool Street is, “still a good City option if you like fish”.

“Reasonably priced fresh fish cooked perfectly” is the promise of this lesser-known D&D London warehouse conversion, near Bishopsgate. Even those who feel “the room itself is nothing special” say “the fish is excellent”.

“For a straightforward, relaxed meal with a bit of pizzazz”, these “buzzy” joints maintain their massive popularity with a “simple” formula executed “with style”: “awesome lobster rolls” are “excellent value” – the burgers “are rather expensive, albeit well-executed”.

2016 Review: “It looks awful, but that’s a good thing – I don’t want anyone else to know about it!”; this “throwback” in a railway arch near Tower Hill is little known, but its fish dishes are “unusually good”, featuring “simple yet elegant saucing”.

2017 Review: The “lovely fish” at this seafood specialist in Leadenhall Market comes at very City prices – “I almost choked on the bill!” But it has its fans, who praise the “great location, happy staff and interesting food” (if from an “essentially static” menu).

“Ultra fresh seafood and superb views” are undisputed attractions of this rooftop venture near Moorgate. But while the terrace (heated in winter) is undoubtedly “lovely”, the overall impression of the venue as a whole can be “pretty soulless”, and fans concede that it’s “so expensive” too (“the bill’s only fine if you’re a banker”).