J SHEEKEYS

[Simon Majumdar]

At Short notice, I took two clients/friends ( it is always nice to combine the two if very rare ) to dinner and overcoming the "never eat in a Fish restaurant on a Sunday" dictum, I booked a table at Sheekey's.

When we arrived bang on 7pm and the place was deserted but for one table of a 'just about breathing" Octogenarian who was busily doing a Mr Grace impression with an astonishingly pretty girl of about 21. By the time we left at 10pm, the place was packed to the gunwhales with a very eclectic mix of people; crusty old suits, couples and one person at the next table to us who announced that his life had never been the same since " I got knocked out in the heats of Popstars" er!?

The three of us took the trad route although I was intrigued to see some of the new-ish additions on this most trad of menus ( calimari, Chilli tiger prawns etc ) We started with Morcambe Potted Shrimp and a Dozen oysters ( looked at longingly by me as I can't eat them any more ) The Oysters were by all accounts "fresh and Delicious" the shrimp were very buttery but lacked sufficient spicing. I always put a good pinch of cayenne in mine, so I am not sure if this spoils it when I try them when eating out.

We all ordered the Deep Fried Haddock & Chips for a main course. I did not have many of the chips as remember

CARBS = DEATH

But the ones I tried were superb. Double fried and crispy on the outside while fluffy in the inside.

The fish was as close to perfect as I have ever had. Superb batter, firm white fish, great taste and texture. This came with an excellent tartare sauce and good malt vinegar

The one weakness was the mushy peas. In an attempt to ponce them up, they had provided a puree of petit pois! What!? If there is one dish on earth that should not be ponced up it is mushy peas. What is wrong with Marrowfat peas?

We were too full to have dessert. A great shame as one of the real beauties of places like Sheekeys and Rules is seeing our colonial cousins faces as the read the words " Spotted Dick" on the menu.

The service was, as ever, spot on, efficient but unobtrusive.

The bill for three including three glasses of Champagne ( served in the most beautiful tulip glasses I have ever seen ) a Bottle of Malbrough Sauvignon Blanc ( £29 ) and well made mint tea came to £161 inc service.

Sheekeys is one of those places that I often recommend to people but alway forget myself when it comes time to book for my own meals. It is just expensive enough to be better on a company nickel, but reliable enough that it will never disappoint

I must get back there more often

8/10

S

[Miss J]

CARBS = DEATH

So I guess this means you avoided the batter too?

[Akiko]

Simon,

Your review comes with good timing for me! I haven't been back to J Sheekeys in three years but Chris and I are going for dinner in a week to see if it is still as great as I remember it.

Now, I'll look forward to it as my next great meal.

Thanks,

Akiko

[Gavin Convery]

Simon,

I have to disagree about the mushy peas - obviously I'm not a true northerner like you - but I loved their version. In all other respects I agree about Sheekeys which is about as enjoyable as English food ever needs to be i.e. not too poncey (mushy peas notwithstanding)

[Wilfrid]

I have to "chip" in ( ) as this is one of my favorites. Since it takes dinner orders late (midnight?) I often eat there after a late arrival on the day flight from New York.

I was last there about four or five weeks ago. Ate razor clams with chorizo, where they hadn't got the timing absolutely right - they were a little tough. Then excellent grilled plaice with the pommes allumettes. I usually order a savoury - roe on toast (easy on the capers) but this time I had something sweet and gooey called an Eton Mess.

One disappointment; they seem to have stopped offering wine by the 50cl "pot". That was a decent supper measure, I thought. But what a very sound place it is.

[Kikujiro]

Forsaking Zaika and its uppity bookings policy, we went to J Sheekey this evening. It was superb. Comfortable, attentive but welcoming service. Champagne in, as Simon says, rather smashing glasses. I had potted shrimp (which seemed very good to me, but it's not a dish I have regularly); others had grilled prawns (didn't try); endive salad (much better than it sounded); and what in the single blip of the evening was listed as a chanterelle risotto but came with ceps (still good). Recommended NZ pinot was lovely. My special of pan-fried brill with mash and kale in, frankly, parsley butter soup, was flawless, as were the other mains -- not only was the fish, chips and mushy peas as good as I've ever tasted, but so was the wild sea bass baked in salt, particularly impressive as I'm comparing it to some excellent renditions in Venice. Lobster was grilled with a daringly light touch -- assuming we're not ill tomorrow, it was great, but I'm sure others would have sent it back in that state. Puds were better tradder -- ubiquitous melting choc pudding just okay, chilled scandinavian berries with white choc sauce rather good but just too sweet for me, panna cotta with blood oranges nearly excellent, but spotted dick and champagne rhubarb pie bang on.

I don't do Simon's mint tea test but I do usually ask for a ristretto macchiato because that's what I want at the end of a meal. The Fat Duck last week screwed up on this royally -- I got what they described as a macchiato and was a weak cappuccino made with disappointing coffee. Sheekey produced a real ristretto macchiato; I've had better but this was fine.

The downside is after this I won't feel the same way about the Quality Chop House again.

Edited February 19, 2003 by Kikujiro (log)

[Steve Plotnicki]

Hmmm, I like this place too. But not as much as you guys do. It must be a British thing. I'm going to have to go again next time over. But one thing I loved about the place was the smell when you walk in. It has that classic fish house smell of a mixture of lobster broth and tomatoes, like a lobster bisque is in the air. Simon go to The Ivy next.

[Simon Majumdar]

Simon go to The Ivy next.

Although it is now part of the same stable, I am not fond of The Ivy, Steve. The food is at best comforting, at worst, bland and I loathe their booking policy

This is one of those places that is, quite frankly, not worth the effort to get into

I prefer JS every time

S

[thom]

Chaps,

I think the Ivy still stands up pretty well actually. Booking a week or so in advance can be a pain, but I find it's not too much of a problem to get a same-day table for two mid-week. This ties in nicely with my occasional Wednesday stop-overs in London.

The fish and chips I had there a couple of weeks ago was as good as Sheekeys I thought. Like Simon I am a fanatical mushy-pea traditionalist, and these had been pureed with mint! I grudgingly had to admit that actually it worked better than it had any right to. Batter and 'proper' chips were as good as I have had.

I've also had seabass with chinese veg, and old favourite liver and bacon recently. Both were very good indeed. The wine list always seems interesting, with a couple of decent Chablis. Last time though I had a Pinot Grigio, and it came served in very peculiar glasses - tiny bowl, green glass stem. Am I being a wine idiot, is there some arcane reason for this?

Anyhow, sometimes you just can't beat good, tasty comfort food. On the basis of the reviews above it could be time to put Sheekeys back on my list of impending meals.

Cheers

Thom

[Tonyfinch]

Like Simon I am a fanatical mushy-pea traditionalist, and these had been pureed with mint!

When we used to holiday regularly in the Dales the pubs we lunched in always used to serve up the mushy peas with mint sauce.

Are you now going to tell me that this was the non-gourmet version for suvvern tourists?

[thom]

Tony,

Ahh... don't get me started, there is a whole world of difference between Lancashire folks and the denizens of Yorkshire. Don't forget, although places like the Magpie Cafe in Whitby hog the tourist trade, fish and chips was invented in Stalybridge, Manchester.

Ok, on a slightly more serious/less regionalist note:

Once you're talking fish and chips in 'Pubs' (or restaurants, brasseries etc.) then you have already moved beyond the traditional. Chefs might make fish and chips in traditional ways, but lets face it, fish and chip 'shops' (expressly excluding Chinese chippies, kebab shops, or pizza places) are the home of 'traditional fish and chips, and to get 'minted peas' in such a place would be very, very suprising indeed.

Cheers

Thom

[Tonyfinch]

As I recall they used to serve the minted peas steaming hot in a bowl over a locally made pork pie. With a pint of Theakston's it was bliss after a walk in the Dales.

Who needs foie gras and truffles eh?

[thom]

Ehhh, simpler times. We had nothing back then, but by 'eck we were 'appy.

[Gary Marshall]

after lunch at st john and fortified by several cocktails of varying success (where is majumdar when you need him ) in 'blend' we headed to j sheekey for our 8pm table.

on entering the establishment i just knew it was going to be good, welcoming staff, low lighting, wood panelling, polished glasses, linen, nice cutlery, well dressed staff and just that hum of a well drilled restaurant.

our (quite small) table for 4 was in the first room to the right, we had a bottle of the theophile roederer to start (£39) served in the marie antoinette dishes rather than the usual coupe, which although incorrect, i think is a bit more fun.

the menu is entirely fish (with meat 'on request') but hits all the bases fruits de mers, fish cakes/pies, fish n chips and the classic dishes so plenty to suit most tastes/levels of hunger.

althought i really fancied crab bisque i eventually ordered a lighter dish, seared tuna on a bed of tomato brunoise and sliced fennel which was very good, light, and well exactly as it suggests!

other memebers of the party had potted shrimps (very good) and squid with chorizo (looked good didn't taste).

mains were grilled dover sole and bearnaise sauce for me, grilled john dory, and two prawn and monkfish brochettes. not a lot to add except all enthusiastically consumed, accompanied by ok chips, mushy peas, which although poncy were nice and broccoli.

deserts were spotted dick for me, iced berries, creme brulee and a chocolate souffle that was more a moulleux du chocolate, all good.

coffees, armagnacs and 3 rully premier cru's sorted out the liquid side of things giving a total bill of £312 which i didn't think was bad value for a very enjoyable dinner.

it's certainly 8/10 th's of the ivy without the hassle.

recommended

gary

Edited April 11, 2003 by Gary Marshall (log)

[Scott]

Sheekey is great.

But I would still never go on a sunday, unless I was in the mood for fish pie.

If the fisherman don't fish on a sunday - it ain't fresh.

[Jon Tseng]

If the fisherman don't fish on a sunday - it ain't fresh.

... on Monday? ;-)

[thevoiceofreasonanddissent]

By "fresh" do you mean the fish that is caught by the deep sea trawlers and put "on ice" in the hold whilst they take 3-5 days to sail back to shore before the fish is transferred to temperature controlled vans and the following day transferred to Billingsgate where they are then sold to the restaurants and supermarkets, arriving on our plates almost a week after being caught????!

[tonkichi]

When we were in London last October we had lunch with a friend at J Sheekeys. My friend was early, and while waiting, the service staff made her comfortable with a copy of the paper and a nice G&T. We had a great time, the food was unassuming yet very well executed and tasty. I enjoyed my salmon cakes and quince tarts very much. Nice booth seating, could just about spy Salman Rushdie in another room.

[Matthew Grant]

By "fresh" do you mean the fish that is caught by the deep sea trawlers and put "on ice" in the hold whilst they take 3-5 days to sail back to shore before the fish is transferred to temperature controlled vans and the following day transferred to Billingsgate where they are then sold to the restaurants and supermarkets, arriving on our plates almost a week after being caught????!

I always thought that Mondays was the worst day to buy fish, hence most fish and chip shops are shut on a Monday.

As an aside, in the Marche Forville in Cannes last week, I saw fish that was quite literally flapping on the ice it was so fresh. On a down note I saw them selling Monkfish no bigger than 4 inches amongst other very small specimens.

[thevoiceofreasonanddissent]

I am not entirely sure but I think the dont eat fish on Monday rule no longer applies. I believe that fishing is now done every day of the week (much like shopping) and that refridgeration being so computerized and technological, fish is still "fresh" even after a few days old. Otherwise, wouldnt all the major chefs for whom quality of ingredients is paramount, just simply not serve fish on their menus on Mondays? Do all the Michelin restaurants remove the fish dishes from their menus on Mondays?

Interestingly, on TV a few years ago, some survey was carried out comparing fresh to frozen fish and analyzing how the fish was preserved and transported from the moment it was caught to the point of consumption. The fish destined to be sold fresh was put on ice, whereas fish destined to be frozen was frozen immediately. The "panel" tasting fresh and frozen fish blinf voted the frozen fish as tasting fresher and more flavourful!! Would we then conclude that if you freeze fish as soon as you catch it, the freshness of the fish is actual preserved better this way?

[Matthew Grant]

I think most top end restaurants deal direct rather than with a market , sometimes they even use a specific fisherman and ensure that they get deliveries daily. The Waterside Inn certainly does this, I know that the Fat Duck deals specifically with a family that only deals Scallops though I can't be certain that they get them delivered daily.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

I know that the Fat Duck deals specifically with a family that only deals Scallops though I can't be certain that they get them delivered daily.

They don't need to get them daily as they are alive, and will continue living for several days if kept in suitable conditions. Most shellfish is sold live, the difficulties come with fish, as they generally die when they're caught.

Strangely enough, there is such a thing as overly fresh fish. Soon after being caught, rigor mortis sets in. This must pass before the fish is eaten, otherwise the flesh has a texture similar to raw cauliflower.

[Basildog]

Very true LML, we have had skate delivered just a couple of hours after being caught, and it cooked up weird

[MobyP]

Would someone remind me why Sheekys is so popular? I had a very expensive, completely forgettable meal there last night - although the service was good.

Razor clamb sauteed with a little chorizo - mostly tasteless and rubbery. Whole roast turbot - absent of any discernible seasoning. Not much flavour. And 54 quid for 2! Sides of oversweet mushy peas and adequate spinach. Microwaved spotted dick - tasting suspiciously of microwaved spotted dick.

The fish pie - had by a friend - was tasty, but unforgivingly heavy. She managed about a third of it.

It's a nice place, and good service, but I couldn't recommend it for serious food.

[Adrian York]

I haven't been to Sheekey's but for top-notch classic French fish cooking I can recommend Pascal Proyart's Restaurant One-0-One in Knightsbridge where I went for lunch last week. There were only 3 tables in and although the room decor is a bit weird and the service perfunctory, this is made up for by the quality of the cooking.