The Little Fish Market — Restaurant in Great Britain

Hugely Disappointing

It’s difficult to describe how deeply disappointing our visit to The Little Fish Market was. Primarily because all the ingredients were in place for an excellent dining experience: Limited covers, no turning of tables, fixed tasting menu focused on local produce, talented chef and plaudits for days… A seemingly perfect stage. And secondly I have to admit I really wanted it to be good. I wanted to have found a little gem, and I adore the journey of a tasting menu.

The menu on our visit could be misread at a glance as 12 courses, but is essentially: 3 amuse bouche, bread, 2 starters ,3 savoury courses, desert and 3 petit fours. And this is precisely how it is served.

I take some issue with this as its not usual to list amuse bouche on the menu and if there are petit fours, just write “petit fours” don’t grandly list them individually. It all smacks a bit of padding, especially given the increase in price from £69 to £85 for the current menu. By the end of the experience it feels like you have paid £85 for 6 tasting courses (each of 2 bites) presented to look like more in writing than they are in real life.

The second problem with this is the tempo, stretching 6 tasting courses over 3 hours leaves chasms between bites so wide that any narrative of the menu is lost entirely. Its like reciting one line of a limerick every 30 minutes, I doubt anyone would laugh (I didn’t) and in fact I thought my wife might actually cry!

I wont dissect every course but there were some highlights and its clear Duncan Ray is an accomplished chef. The Orkney Scallop was a delight, accompanied by a slice of confit pork belly in a lovely sweet soft and savoury marriage with bright cubes of tart apple. And of the 3 petit fours “lemon” which was a tiny doughnut with a lemon filling was excellent, crisp yielding to a pillowy softness. I would like to think it was intended to evoke memories of the pier and hot mini doughnuts.

But there were some very strange mis-steps. “Nigiri” was an Ika Nigiri packing enough wasabi to cure a cold and can only be described as unpleasant to eat.

“A homage to Michel Bras” one may assume Duncan doesn’t like Michel very much as he has named a tiny dish of limp veg slivers almost devoid of all taste in his honour.

“Langoustine in 2 serves” was bizarrely devoid of langoustine save for a few legs in a sort of prawn cracker.. a morsel of cold lobster setting on the plate in place of the langoustine tail that I gather should have been there.. the accompanying broth was good though.

And the crescendo of the menu “King of the Sea” was a 2 inch square piece of entirely bland white fish sprinkled with chopped runner beans .. accompanied by some pan roasted enoki mushrooms, which were by far the more interesting component. There are photos of this dish already posted here, and with the beauty of hindsight I can now at least look at them and chuckle at its absurdity. The King upstaged by the Jester, but there was no chuckling on the night It felt like someone woke up with a hangover and forgot they were supposed to be cooking.

We left, bored, hungry and light of pocket, taking the last of our wine, which we shared sat on a bench looking out to the black sea whilst we tried to make light what felt like a mugging.

I hope things here improve, I really do because I feel like there is a great restaurant waiting to happen. It’s just currently somewhat trapped inside the Emperors new clothes. But people bizarrely seem to love it the way it is so will things change? Probably not. Would I be willing to go back and find out?.. For now,....

The restaurant is nicely lit spacious which is good for dining with social distancing. The waitresses are pleasant and menu briefly written on the mirror for information.

The starters are eclairs, wild prawns, a slice of cold bread with salted butter and egg& soldiers. It was ok although I expect the bread should be served warm.

The first dish is oyster emulsion with crumbs and caviar which is ok nothing to shout after long wait between each serving. Next is mackerel, 3 pieces of lightly smoked mackerel fish with a slice of cucumber and 3 different drops of sauces. Slicing of the fish is in block hence not delicate in presentation as well as tasting of the fish which is not evenly smoked. A little bit disappointed with that. Next is Krabi- a dish to bring the taste of famous island in Thailand. It’s made of minced crab meat, curry, mango purée and topped with sweet nutty crumbs in combination brings very strong flavors to this dish. Again another 30 minutes wait before we get to the main or last dish called monk fish - served in emulsion, grilled artichokes, little gems as bed for mussels and potato shoe string fries? The dish is very bland for monk fish texture, emulsion again and doesn’t go in flavor with artichokes and mussels. To be honest, I don’t know what is the flavor x seafood the chef is trying to deliver here?

It’s utterly disappointing for £85 steeply priced tasting menu. The waiting time between dishes is ridiculously long especially if the food is not delicately prepared with confusing flavors. The sequence to present the flavor is not being carefully considered such as Krabi is strong in flavor followed by a significant drop to bland monk fish. I wouldn’t recommend to come here hungry as you will easily turned hangry and not wowed...

When I lived just around the corner from this venue, I never once saw: a menu in the window, dining customers eating a meal, any customers at all, actually open for business. Things did change so someone was doing something on occasion. Apparently, there's no menus because you're not offered a choice. Of anything it seems. Customers all receive the same multi course tasting menu. There is only one dining time slot, 6.30pm. All customers must arrive on time, as all tables are served each freshly prepared course at the same time. I understand the concept, because you're being offered (subjected to) an experience likely to take a couple of hours whether you like it or not. I appreciate the amount of work, knowledge, passion, experience and skill that goes on in higher end kitchens, but any competent kitchen can serve twenty identical plates of food at the same time, it's less of an a la carte menu skillset needed and more a workflow efficient banqueting style of pre-prep, finish, plate, dress, and serve. Enough floor staff for swift service roll outs across the room like a wave - and if the first punter served finishes before the last plate is placed, you've misunderstood the concept of bulk prep, speedy plating and competent hands front and back. Dining as a customer, banqueting is my least favourite style of sevice. I resent being a prisoner to a kitchen's staggered timetable. That course of three bites of smoked salmon three ways with a foam, an emulsion and a spritz fizz was nice and fine but I'm not waiting 25 minutes between esch plate in a six course meal. Not for a hundred pounds a...