J Sheekey
I must have passed J Sheekey countless times, situated as it is between Soho and Covent Garden in London. It lives on a busy street which can cause issue when you are trying to create an upmarket restaurant.
Such staring and dawdling around the vicinity is discouraged by an impressively large doorman. He looked like he could easily rip apart crustaceans with his bare hands. I could easily picture him cracking his knuckles to sounds like gun shots, pulling the cork out of a bottle with his bare hands and battling a grizzly bear to a standstill with nothing but a toothpick. A small puny human like me would not even cause him to break out in a sweat.
Summoning my courage to walk up to him, he rather politely let me in (good afternoon sir), I was shown to a delightful table outside with a white tablecloth with live jazz playing gently in the background.
I felt a bit out of place in such refined surroundings given my plebian roots. My initial awe was soon overcome by hunger, so I tucked in.
Starters
Wholemeal and white baguette. Fresh, crusty and bouncy. An easy and gentle introduction into the meal, nothing special but just bread done fairly competently.
Salt & pepper squid with Korean spiced mayo. Delicately deep fried. Reminded me of tempura days. These were expertly rather oil-free and robustly crunchy. With the smoothness of the mayo to go with squid and lime, an excellent starter.
Galician octopus, roasted chorizo, smoked paprika and piquillo aioli. Great, although I had seen that sauce somewhere before! This took me back to memories of the best octopus I have had in recent memory in a small town in Portugal. This was almost as good as it was bouncy but not like a trampoline and meaty chorizo but not overpowering like a shotgun. This almost made the mayo redundant, it didn’t need that extra to get there.
Mains
Grilled salmon with spicy miso dressing and pickled Asian slaw. I seem to always be pleasantly surprised when others cook a fillet of salmon just right. Although this is probably more a reflection of my own ineptitude than anything else. Juicy salmon set off with nuts, miso and a delicately seasoned salad. An example of what a careful kitchen could turn out.
Shrimp & soft shell crab burger, Korean spiced mayo. A familiar sauce. Yet it was the patty which was stand out. Crab and shrimp patty which wasn’t built out with excessive flour but instead juicy pieces of seafood. On every mouthful I was taken back to the sea. I could almost hear the crashing of the waves, the cries of the seagulls and the crunch of the sand beneath my feet as I took bite after bite of this burger. Like the peace of the seaside, it was gone too soon.
Managed to ignore the mayonnaise in this case though. Let’s leave that to one side.
Dessert
Cookie.
Cream. And ice cream and brownie and crumble. Thankfully, no mayo here. Although a fairly simple dessert, this showed that simple could be good as well. Although I would have preferred something more elaborate, so giving the pastry chef a chance to shine, this was ok but just not as special as the rest of the meal.
J Sheekey. I wonder where they got their name. This stalwart of Covent Garden (aged literature refer to them too as the place to be) has been around for a reason. Not only does it deliver food that seems to be consistently good, this is delivered in a serene atmosphere in bustling Covent Garden. Now that I am in my older days, when people deign to not kick me out after a glance as they think I might be able to afford things, life is good as I usually can get in. At the end of the meal, as I left past the mountain of muscle at the door, it struck me how they made the sauce. They probably had the burly bouncer paste the crustaceans by hand. With such activities to keep him in shape, no wonder he was able to keep the peace here.
Score
A quieteating 8.5/10.
Lunch (3 courses) was about GBP50 excluding drinks and service.
28-32 St Martin’s Court
LondonWC2N4AL