Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill Restaurant, Cobham

Post

Subscribe

So, hubby and I finally managed to synchronise our diaries and get some time off together! Quite a feat, that! Being the seafood aficionados that we are, it was not too surprising that we found ourselves checking out a seafood restaurant in Cobham, Surrey.

Loch Fyne is a seafood restaurant chain which sources all its seafood from its own loch or lake in Scotland. As with all these places, it has a story page on its website that says it originally started as a humble roadside oyster shack by two men in the 1970s.

Anyway, to get to the nub of things- sitting at our table on a midweek afternoon, we were struck by how busy the restaurant was at that time of the day- always a good sign for the first time eater!

I finally settled on a seafood platter that cost around £25 but came with an array of the all the usual suspects- grilled salmon, sea bass, mussels, squid, scallop - all sitting on a bed of samphire and accompanied by little pots of lobster butter and hollandaise sauce.

Hubby went straight for the jugular- a whole baked lobster replete with garlic butter, mayo and the ubiquitous French fries! Now, mind you, this does require some degree of throwing dignity out the window. Aided by restaurant given-tools (a claw cruncher) and your own (teeth), you have to try and get at the succulent flesh reposing inside. So, as some seafood restaurants advise- not really the place for a first date!

Of course, in honour of the story, we couldn't taste the oysters. So, that formed our starters. It was also the first time I had properly had oysters from a restaurant. They were served on a bed of ice and lemon with Tabasco sauce. I think its something that someone who likes all things seafood would appreciate, but it may not endear itself straight away to someone who is not a natural seafood fan.

We tried a bit off each other's plates, just because, well... that's what we always do!

Anyway, my verdict: It was definitely one of the best seafood cuisines I have ever had. All of them were cooked to perfection. On reflection however, we both felt that the lobster, whilst not wanting in taste, was a tad pricey. At £33, the size was smaller than what we had sometime back in another restaurant in Central London.

Sufficiently satiated, we were in a good mood and wanted to tip our waitress generously, only to be told rather ruefully by her that since we were paying by card, there wasn't that facility! That certainly felt a bit unfair on the staff....

All in all, Loch Fyne is not your usual go-to weekend place. Its something one might save for a special meal. That said, if you are a lover of all things fishy, well, then, you might decide that you'd go there anyway and make it special ! What's more, our bill says that if one were to return within the next 4 weeks, they get a 25% off their bill !

#food_wine
#restaurants
#seafood_restaurants
%wnlondon