It's Tuesday night at 6.30pm - not what you'd think of as a hugely busy time to eat out in London. But here at Sexy Fish the room is packed to capacity. We're back, six months after Test Driving Richard Caring's hot new Mayfair spot out, to look at the restaurant from a new perspective.
This time, we're dining in the bar. (It's handy to know you can reserve a table here and eat, if you can't get into the main restaurant.) We're here to put the restaurant's new selection of 'sexy salads' through their paces as well as try some of the bar's extensive Japanese whisky selection.
We'd recommend, particularly if you're at one of the bar's tables and not up at the bar itself, to get one of the head barmen to come and talk you through that whisky selection. It's 200 strong and currently the largest in Europe. On the basis of their enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, descriptions we tried two fantastic whiskies including a wonderfully smooth 3-year-old from the Chichuru distillery just outside Tokyo, beautifully served with a hand-carved ice ball.
As for the salads, the new dishes hit the menu this month - they've put on eight new salads for the spring and summer. We tried four of those:
- Crisp duck and watermelon, with pomegranate, cashews and Sakura herbs (£15.50)
- Alaskan king crab, with cucumber, udon noodles, green chilli and ginger dressing (£16.50)
- Charred and mixed tomatoes, with tofu mayonnaise, basil and jalapeño (£12.75)
- Fragrant chicken, with roasted peanuts, coconut and chilli dressing (£12)
The standout winner was the Alaskan king crab - bursting with flavour and zingy spices, generous with the crab and beautifully presented. We were also fans of the duck and watermelon too, although the fragrant chicken was a bit on the sweet side for our taste. While we were here, we also had a few dishes off the main menu, including two of the nicest things we've eaten all year - beef and foie gras gyoza and a plate of seared yellowfin tuna with wood sorrel and pickled cucumber.
Sexy Fish is at Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BR. Keep up with their news on Twitter @sexyfishlondon. Find out more about Sexy Fish.
Hot Dinners were invited to Sexy Fish. Prices were correct at the time of writing.
