Sexy Fish opened with a bang last October. Owned by Caprice Holdings and with the perfect location in Berkeley Square, a glamorous interior designed Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, and killer cocktail list; all the ingredients were there for the restaurant to be the next big thing. Perhaps it would steal the crown from Chiltern Firehouse as the up and coming A-List hang out?
Being a huge fan of seafood, it was the ideal location for a special birthday dinner date for myself and Mr S shortly after the opening. We arrived and immediately loved the electric atmosphere, cool artwork by legends such as Damien Hirst and Frank Gehry, and the incredible cocktails. With very high expectations for the food we found that it fell slightly short, not quite living up to the promise of sexiness, and not worth the high prices.
However, the menu had changed and having revisited for a press dinner, I already noticed that there had been a vast improvement in the food.
Mr S and I were back this time for a lunch date and after a quick toast with a glass of champagne we settled in to try the food. The menu is mostly made up of small sharing plates so you can go raw, choose some sexy salads and also hot dishes from the Asian seafood menu.
Sashimi of pink snapper wouldn’t be something that I would usually order but I really enjoyed the slightly bitter taste of the endive combined with a punchy green chilli and ginger dressing. It was the perfect compliment to the raw seafood.
Last time we went to the restaurant I was disappointed by the lack of sushi on the menu, but they’ve since rectified that and added a selection of maki rolls. We opted for our absolute favourite, spicy tuna which was as sexy as we hoped for. Perfectly succulent tuna enhanced with a dash of spice!
Our choice of the duck salad was mainly to please Mr S and I wasn’t expecting to like it; duck served with watermelon, cashew nuts and pomegranate ticked all the wrong boxes for me as I don’t like nutty sauces or fruit in savoury dishes. But the salad surprised me by being my absolute favourite dish of the day with juicy chunks of delicious duck and a slightly sweet sauce, perfectly combined with the refreshing watermelon.
Having been impressed by the cocktails last time we ordered a round to try. My ‘Skinny’ was basically a bellini but with less sugar, Mr S chose a ‘It Wasabi Tricky’ an innovative combination of shochu, Olmeca Altos Plata, sake, lychee and wasabi.
Prawn gyoza in soy and chilli dressing was our only disappointment. I found the dumplings lacking in flavour and too floury in texture.
Much better was the Alaskan crab salad with punchy green chillis, fat silky udon noodles and a ginger dressing.
Miso glazed Chilean sea bream was absolutely melt-in-the mouth delicious, the flesh flaking apart just beautifully with a fantastic accompaniment of artichoke three ways. Crispy, pureéd and marinated, I love artichoke in all forms. I also think that the cutlery is a great touch, with scales on the knives and forks to go along with the fishy theme.
The chocolate tofu had been given a Wimbledon makeover and was surrounded by tasty chocolate soil and fresh strawberries.
A snowball of mango mochi with mandarin and jasmine sorbet was sweet and refreshing; I’m obsessed with mango so this was a no brainer dessert option for me!
Before we left, I wanted to show Mr S the Coral Reef Room downstairs, where I attended the press dinner. It’s a really cool private events space and is unique in the fact that it houses two of the largest coral reef fish tanks in the world!
After the disappointment on my birthday, I’m well and truly delighted that Sexy Fish has got sexier; serving a menu of great food which really lives up to the fab location and cool decor.
PIN FOR LATER:
Sexy Fish
Berkeley Square
London
W1J 6BR
Our lunch at Sexy Fish was complimentary