Parsons

Parsons | New seafood restaurant opening soon in Covent Garden on Endell Street.

Parsons Seafood Restaurant | Covent Garden

https://www.parsonslondon.co.uk

Cheese and Biscuits: Parsons, Covent Garden

A very good seafood restaurant.

In fact, probably the best seafood restaurant I've had the pleasure of visiting for a very long time, somewhere that approaches the business of serving fish and shellfish alongside an intelligent wine list with such confidence and clarity you wonder why on earth it's taken until 2017 for someone to come up with it.

I appreciate that three dishes isn't a whole lot of evidence to hang an entire restaurant review, but experience tells me that if a place can cook this well once, they can cook it well many more times.

I notice that an entire crab is available for a measly £12 (cutely, hand-painted illustrations of seafood above the kitchen have prices marked next to them if they're in stock), meaning that at £16 the Parsons crab and chips combo (a control variable dish I've used to test many a seafood restaurant) comes in a whole lot cheaper than most other places in town, if not all of them.

So who knows what 2018 will hold, but whether we end the year on a high, or bartering jewellery for potatoes in Brexit-fueled armageddon, at least we had, for however brief a period, a seafood restaurant in Covent Garden so close to perfect as makes no odds.

Parsons | A Seafood-Centric, Wine-Heavy Covent Garden ...

The seafood-focussed Parsons is set right across the street, in a thoroughly old-fashioned spot with a maroon-tiled facade, a white-tiled interior, antique mirrors and soft retro pendant lighting.

THE MENU It’s on these tiles and mirrors that you’ll find their daily changing selection of fresh whole fish, which they rustle up into the mains.

The permanent menu, meanwhile, details the starters and sides to your meal; you’ll find dishes like sea trout tartare with Bloody Mary jelly; lobster mash; and octopus with pork fat potatoes and parsley oil.

In fact, After all, if it isn’t broken…   NOTE: Parsons is now open – you can find out more and book a table on their website HERE.

Parsons | 39 Endell St, WC2H 9BA Like the sound of this place?

Parsons seafood restaurant London | Culture Whisper

What's extra appealing here is that the brilliant seafood menu is matched with a drinks list representing coastal wine growing regions like Galicia, Sicily, and Atlantic Coast France so expect plenty of good Verdejo, Albvarinho and Albarino.

It is a thoroughly old-fashioned spot – formerly Diana's Diner – with a maroon-tiled facade, a white tiled interior and antique mirrors on which are written their daily changing selection of fresh whole fish which make up most of the mains.

It's small with only 30 seats: a combination of small tables and counters to perch at in front of the kitchen and at the side of the restaurant – immediately it feels cosy and inviting.

Crisp on the outside, rich and molten within – undoubtably they will be much imitated, making an excellent bar snack with a glass of wine pre-theatre.

£30.00+ for a couple of bar snacks and a glass of wine Click here for more information and to book

Parsons, London: a very English fish restaurant

Fay Maschler reviews Parsons: Nearly all the dishes are irresistible ...

The chaps behind Drop, soon to have retail premises in Drury Lane, are friends Ian Campbell and Will Palmer, owners of the wine bar and restaurant 10 Cases — a statement of buying and stocking intent as well as a name — and as of late last year Parsons, also in Covent Garden’s Endell Street, more or less opposite.

Shellfish of the day and fish of the day are written on the white tiled surrounds of the small — seats 32 — room, in the middle of which is a chilled trough full of open wines.

Running along the top of the page in tickertape tiny print are various temptations, ideal aperitif accompanying food, that include bread with seaweed butter, marinated anchovies, brown crab pissaladière and potted shrimp croquettes.

The croquettes, tanned, fat and rubble-rough with panko crumbs, must not be missed and the brown soda bread made with sweetish stout is the perfect foil for briny butter.

Quite reasonably, the whole list is strongest on whites but Zeren Wilson, to whom I regularly turn for wine tips, says the reds are perfect, light and delicate, with supple tannins and bright acidity.

Parsons, London: 'Food you can't forget' – restaurant review | Life ...

Parsons is a small fish restaurant, recently opened by the team behind the wine-based bistro 10 Cases.

Other side dishes sound like dinner all by themselves: there are coarse-cut pork chipolatas, made on site and seasoned with handfuls of seaweed, to give them a ripe kick of umami.

By now I am making mental notes of those quick, casual lunches I could sneak off for here: perhaps the clam chowder with some potted shrimp croquettes on the side for less than £15; the pork and seaweed chipolatas with lobster mash for £17.50; a steak sandwich and Welsh rarebit for a tenner.

Westerns Laundry, the second venture from the team behind Primeur nearby in north London, is not solely a fish restaurant, but does lean more to sea than land.

Meanwhile, pasta restaurant Burro e Salvia in London’s East Dulwich has also gone.