The John Dory

So this past weekend we went to check out The John Dory. It's the new British fish place from April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman (the folks behind The Spotted Pig). Still haven't been to The Spotted Pig, what with the extra long waits and no reservations, but figured since the new place is taking reservations it's worth making one to see how they do things. The short answer is: remarkably well.

Since we're not really the sort of people to take lots of pictures in restaurants (except when we're on vacation, I guess, as anyone who's seen our vacation pics knows), there's none here. Which makes this just a plain, boring, restaurant review.

But: if you're looking for a great seafood meal, check out The John Dory. I'm usually wary of brand-spanking-new places, just getting things sorted out, lots of hiccups in terms of food and service, etc. No problems here at all.

We sat in the small room off to the side, with a giant fish tank to entertain us. Lots of fun watching the banana eel slither around, the blowfish, and all their aquatic friends. And the whole place is very over-the-top with fish themed stuff everywhere, a little bit gaudy and a little bit tasteful at the same time.

I know, you don't care. What did we eat and how was it? First they bring out some housemade potato chips with smoked arctic char, very tasty, and a slightly larger portion would have been welcome. Then, for starters, some oysters (east and west coast), and the fish soup (not to be confused with the fish stew entree). Oysters good and fresh, fish soup rich, flavorful, plentiful, awesome. It was almost a bisque - thick, just enough texture, lots of fish and shellfish flavor, tomatoey, spices, etc. Very much hit the spot on a cold night.

For entrees, we split the whole grilled sea bass with anchovy-rosemary pesto, and the black pepper crab. Hot damn. The sea bream was perfectly cooked, nice crispy skin, well-seasoned, and the pesto complemented the fish without overwhelming it at all. But the star of the show, which I would order over and over again, was the black pepper crab. Did I feel a bit self-conscious in this hip meatpacking location surrounded by beautiful people, up to my elbow in crabshell and peppercorns and meat and spice? Maybe just a bit. But seriously, there's no excuse for not ordering the crab. It's a 2 lb whole dungeness crab, cut into pieces but still in the shell, in a fire-but-not-too-fiery black pepper sauce, with whole roasted peppercorns, scallions, and who knows what else. Went nicely with the IPA I was drinking.

As for desserts, eh, a pretty good ice cream sundae and a decent eccles cake (look, Brits aren't known for their sweets) with the saving grace, some tasty stichelton (sort of a raw-milk stilton but tweaked a bit).

In a nutshell - well worth it, if it sounds like your sort of place, by all means go check it out.