GOWS Fish restaurant and Oyster Bar has been serving up food to hungry Londoners for 125 years, a restaurant that lasts the test of time usually means one of two things; it serves decent grub or it’s a front for money laundering/drug dealing. Luckily for us GOWS is the previous, serving up a menu of fresh fish and oysters in a dining room which feels like it could be from an episode of Poirot.
Located just a stones throw from Liverpool Street it was refreshing to see the dining room mainly full of leisure guests on our Friday night visit. Oysters are the specialty here and we can fully recommend the lightly battered tempura version served with a chilli jam.
To follow the meaty roast monkfish with smoked bacon, port gravy and steamed spring greens was a generous serving, although we weren’t too sure about the gravy. Whilst natural smoked haddock with creamed potatoes, leek puree and soft poached egg was perfectly rich, the smoked fish strong enough to exert it’s authority over the rest of the flavours.
The wine list is long, so we’d recommend getting some help from the Sommelier, we enjoyed a bottle of the Kung Fu Girl Riesling, given we’re a little bit kung fu ourselves. For fresh seafood in the city with an old fashioned decadence GOWS is the place to go…
81 Old Broad Street, London, EC2M 1PR
www.ballsbrothers.co.uk