Mayfair, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Brilliant pizzas” (alongside “typical trattoria dishes”) are served at this Mount Street Italian: “good for quick business lunches” and offering notably “great value in the heart of Mayfair”. It “could do with some investment in decor and ambience” though.

2021 Review: “Let your friends know you’ve been, and they’ll ask about the clientele before wanting to know about the food…” – Richard Caring’s notorious, LA-style, bling-fest in Mayfair (which reportedly cost £15m to fit out) is most “definitely a place for those eager to see and be seen”. Fans also believe its luxurious menu of Asian-inspired fish and seafood (heavy on funky sushi, tempura, and gyoza) is plain “awesome” too. But to a large proportion of reporters, it’s “awful – just awful” – exacting “extortionate” prices to deliver “some weird-and-not-always-felicitous flavour combinations” to “a horrific stew of Mayfair types”.

On the former site of The Square (RIP), the high-end, international fishmongers of the same name are opening a Mediterranean fish and seafood restaurant in October 2021.

2021 Review: In a prime Mayfair location, this “noisy”, Russian-owned Italian wins acceptable ratings, but divides reporters on the subject of value: fans hail it as “wonderful all-round, with a variety of choice and well-presented dishes” (including “top pizza”), but to sceptics “although the food is decent, it’s majorly overpriced, in particular the wine list”.

2021 Review: Since it closed in 2000 (on the site which became Bellamy’s), this luxury Parisian-based brand (fondée 1927) has lacked a London outlet. Following a successful pop-up last year, this opening on the site of Mayair’s former Chess Club aims to bring it back more permanently. Originally scheduled for April, the actual launch date had yet to be announced in September 2019.

2021 Review: “Pure glamour” attaches to Richard Caring “really classy” and “sophisticated” Mayfair A-lister – 007’s favourite lunch spot – which is “an ideal place to go celeb spotting… if you’re into that kind of thing”. Culinarily speaking, it’s famous for its “spanking fresh” fish and seafood (and vies with its stablemate J Sheekey as the capital’s top venue for such specialities) although it also offers “enough meat choices to keep the carnivores happy”. In terms of style, it’s “smart” and quite “formal”, which – together with its “silky smooth service” and “well-spaced tables” – makes it an “impressive” choice for entertaining and “clients love it” (although, by the same token, “the room can be overrun with business suits”, especially at lunch, robbing it of some of its habitual sparkle). Top Tip – “the terrace tables are great, weather permitting!”

2021 Review: The cut-price surf ’n’ turf at this “fun, relaxed and reliable” operation “never fails” – “have a lobster roll as a starter, then a burger as a main”. Under the same ownership as the Goodman steakhouses, the London-based chain has consolidated to nine domestic branches plus the Smack lobster roll delivery-only spinoff, while expanding internationally in the US, Middle East and southeast Asia.