The dinner menu comprised a mixture of starters and appetisers, including favourites like mackerel pate, deep fried squid, and scallops. The seafood platter to share was as pretty as a picture. Two enormous and perfectly seared scallops nestled amongst gravadlax, a handful of squid rings and a bucket-load of crayfish. The waiting staff seemed a little surprised by our request for some bread, but after its delayed arrival we set to work. The gravadlax was plentiful but plain, the squid a little on the soggy side, and the crayfish needed livening up with the marie rose style sauce.
We remained loyal to the ocean with the main courses, and a generous fillet of ling was served riding a cylinder of green quinoa, accompanied by a tartar style sauce. Ling is a meaty white fish akin to monkfish and needs a firm slice with the knife rather than a gentle tease of flakes like haddock or cod. It was cooked with respect, moist but perhaps a little underseasoned. Unfortunately the quinoa was bland and the accompanying sauce a touch overpowering, although the idea was right, with this particular fish needing a kick of acidity to cut through the creamy meat texture. The sea bass fillets were simply pan fried, and accompanied by a generous portion of risotto and sliced fennel.
The overall experience was not overwhelming, but the Thursday night ambience gently ticked over with enough customers to keep it feeling busy. The service was somewhere between relaxed and a touch disinterested, but not enough to get upset about. In this sense the Wet Fish Cafe presents somewhat of a dilemma. West Hampstead offers the solidly performing generics at about two thirds the price, but whether the Wet Fish Cafe has the punch to pull the punters back for second helpings only they can tell you.
