Marylebone, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

Sommelier Xavier Rousset is behind this “wonderful and quiet little restaurant” and wine bar in Marylebone, “serving delicious, serious food” – mostly inspired by Italy – and “an outstanding Rhône-specialist wine list”. Service is notably “friendly, with a relaxed vibe”.

The “super-fresh fish” – “simply prepared” and “never overcooked” – “never disappoints” at this “good value” trio of West End seafood brasseries, in Covent Garden, Marylebone and Swallow Street, off Piccadilly.

2021 Review: “Unbelievably delicious crab” – of the Arctic red king variety, served cold with dipping sauces or baked over charcoal – is presented fast-food-style alongside other seafood and fish at this three-year-old concept in Marylebone. To fans, it’s a “great idea” to offer luxury ingredients at such “good value”, although limited feedback suggests it’s yet fully to win hearts and minds amongst reporters.

“Best dim sum I’ve had in a long time – everything was best-in-class”: reporters are unanimous in their praise for the “always great” Cantonese cooking at the Marylebone flagship of the Royal China group. But there’s some pushback against the prices: “eye-wateringly expensive, compared to the standard competition, if comparable to their Hakkasan/Yauatcha-peers”.

2023 Review: A candle-lit temple to the atavistic delights of consuming quantities of ribeye steak and king crab that’s “in fact very good, if grossly overpriced for what it is” (“£100 for a bit of crab!”). But spending big is arguably central to the ‘Beast Experience’ touted (tongue in cheek), on the website: ‘the place will make an impression on your client or whomever, and everyone will remember the occasion’.

“The lobster roll is just lovely” at this surf’n’turf-meets-burger chain, where you’ll find “plenty of very tasty grub”. “I was expecting to be disappointed, but the food was excellent”. A dozen years on from its launch, the group’s nine London venues tend to be “full of people done up for a big night out, taking lots of selfies for their Insta”.

“The lobster roll is just lovely” at this surf’n’turf-meets-burger chain, where you’ll find “plenty of very tasty grub”. “I was expecting to be disappointed, but the food was excellent”. A dozen years on from its launch, the group’s nine London venues tend to be “full of people done up for a big night out, taking lots of selfies for their Insta”.

Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare moved in September 2023 to this new, 50-cover Fitzrovia location, having closed the SW9 site where she won the Brixton Kitchen competition in 2019 for her original supper club, offering the dishes of her Nigerian childhood but ‘given a London sensibility’. Open-fire cooking will be a feature as well as an extended pastry selection. It has been very highly PR’d though, so let’s hope it lives up to all the coverage – even in the former location there was the odd review along the lines of: “nice people, but disappointing after the hype”.

High-quality Italian seafood (some of it fresh from the tank) and elegant decor help win solid ratings for Andrea Reitano’s Marylebone fixture, which is about to enter its fifth year. But there’s the odd cavil from diners who say it has “excellent food and good service but is more expensive than it should be”.