Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 13 and Version 12 of Fish In A Tie, SW11 2PF

A reasonably sized and distinctively named restaurant just around the corner from Clapham Junction Station. It's spread over two and a half levels.

The decor is very 'bistro', with dribbly candles in bottles, except that they're JD and Bailey's bottles instead of the usual basketed Chianti. It's rather cosy as they don't half pack the customers in, and when Robbie visited on a Tuesday night in late-2006 it was absolutely packed.

There are two menus, one of which is the regular menu and the other a 'specials' menu. Mains are almost all around £7-8 with a couple in the £10 range. Appetisers are between £2 and £5 though mostly at the £4 mark.

The restaurant doesn't seem to bill itself as Italian, but looks and feels like an Italian restaurant, with a very strong leaning toward seafood. Starters include asparagus wrapped in salmon, potato wedges, pasta, crab in choux pastry and a risotto marinara. There are many more I can't remember. Mains include roast knuckle of lamb, fillet of sea bass, ostrich steak and the 'Fish in a Tie plate'. There's a selection of desserts too, all reasonably priced, including the 'Black Tulip' - a crispy pancake with various fruit and things inside.

Robbie had the Wild Risotto Marinara to start, and it was almost too big for an appetiser. It included mussels, clams, squid, a very large prawn and octopus in a tasty tomato and chilli sauce with perfectly cooked rice. Highly recommended, though it is about the most expensive thing on the starters menu. My main was the Fish in a Tie plate, which was another seafood medley, similar to the above but with larger bits of everything, plus salmon and another fish and more prawn, all in a white wine, cream and ginger sauce. My dessert was profiteroles, which were very large and sadly slightly over-baked, but very generously filled with cream. I think the chocolate was sauce from a bottle sadly. It was the only minor disappointment of an otherwise tasty evening.

The service was perfect and prompt, so we didn't resent them adding on the 10% service charge for us. We even left more because we were so impressed.

Overall, three courses with a couple of glasses of the house wine came out at about £20-£25 per head including service and a bit extra on the tip. Highly recommended, especially if you like fish.

See also:

• London Eating comments
• Time Out review
• Yelp comments
• Provender review

Powered by OpenGuides 0.83mod.
Site design adapted from the Creative Commons Licensed “Naturalist” by Darren Hester.

The textual content of this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence.