Loch Fyne (Restaurant)

Best for: seafood; and casual dining with clients and colleagues in The City of London.

Great: fishy on a little dishy.

Tucked away in the cobbles of Leadenhall Market in The City, we find the plaice we are looking for. Impressively full for a midweek evening, we perch at a candlelit table to warm our cockles and mullet-over the menu.

I’m reeled in by the catch of the day and devour salmon pate that is dense, rich and creamy. A trio of herring is the other starter that hooks us in; it’s salty and meaty, and the waitress – breaming ear to ear – deserves a round of applause for remembering which flavour is which.

A small fight nearly breaks out between us when we’re deciding on our main courses. There is a stalemate and I’m told to stop being so shellfish, for cod’s sake. Today’s special of sea bass in chilli and coriander is no red herring, the head’s still attached and freaks me out a little, but its taste quickly puts paid to that.

Bream with scallops and clams is so good it’s surr-eel, and a salty accompaniment of samphire is dolphin-ately a great match.

Desserts are rich and creamy (we snapper up a cheesecake and a lemon and raspberry posset) and leave us feeling full, content and unwilling to exit starboard out into the rain.

OK, I’m stopping with the awful puns now. I just couldn’t resist the oppor-tuna-ty. Definitely stopping now.

Loch Fyne, with an array of branches across the country, can be described as a chain restaurant, but it’s not a chain experience. Having dined in other branches, I can vouch for the fact that they are not all carbon copies of each other, in appearance.

More importantly, the food doesn’t have a chain feel about it. It is flavoursome, well-presented and fresh; you can even go and look at your fish in the cold counter before it’s cooked, if so inclined.

The waiting staff are friendly and knowledgeable about the food; they were happy to make recommendations on wine and keen to point us in the direction of their favourite desserts, which is always a way to win my vote.

The restaurant was quite large, and I was concerned before arriving that this might impact on our evening – no one likes sitting in an empty restaurant – but it was surprisingly busy and buzzy. In fact this ended up having a slightly negative effect because the place felt a bit noisy, but I guess an box in the middle of the City is always going to suffer from echoey acoustics to some extent.

The soundtrack was a bit incongruous too, and not as discreet as you’d perhaps like in this sort of setting. I’d also point out that the toilets, although clean, were what felt like a mile and a half walk from the restaurant.

All nitpicking aside though, the seafood is great, reasonably priced, and for the more frugal clientele, there is a truly bargainous set menu option before a certain time. We took the bait and fell for this plaice, hook, line and sinker (sorry!)....read more