Wright Brothers
Our visit to Wright Brothers was to prove quite entertaining. It sounds a bit weird that a non-oyster lover would visit an oyster shack like Wright Brothers. I do enjoy the fried variety but raw modes are a little less to my liking. It just feels a little as if my body is being invaded by some slippery, slimy alien. Good thing I left such molluscs to my dining companion then.
We were seated right in front of the kitchen. Reminds me of my days in Japan where the best seats in the house were overlooking the kitchen where you could chat and distract the chefs. With a particularly gregarious chef in front, we debated the finer points of the London restaurant market between bouts of chopping fish, shucking oysters and creaming sauce. We also traded comments on great chefs gone bad. Chains of eateries seem to be the herald of a chef going downhill. But let’s not go into celebrity chef bashing here. Although one of the joys of being a critic is just to complain, complain, complain and make fun of other peoples’ life work. Sometimes that is unwarranted. But sometimes it is justified.
Beef, Guinness and oyster pie.
All opened up. I found the beef here to be ok. The oysters were the more exceptional item here. The procedure for eating the oysters was rather complicated and I could have never thought of it myself. Shuck the oysters and dump them into the pie. Ground-breaking, thinking outside the box and innovative. It was all of these things but unfortunately the beef inside was a tad dry and seemed a bit overcooked. As my parents use to say when I scribbled my master piece in crayon, not bad but expected better.
Roast troncon of turbot, cherry tomatoes, olives, artichokes and beurre blanc. With such bright colours (I did wonder if these were mutant GM tomatoes) this looked particularly appetizing. The menu also taught me a new word this fine day. Troncon. Of turbot. Wright Brothers do not know what they have done. For weeks my friends will suffer me trying to work this word into everyday speech. That is if they still decide to remain my friends after my attempts. This dish was lightly cooked just right, with delicate flavours peeling off the bone. This was an Amazing piece of fish. The potatoes, artichokes and tomatoes providing contrast with sweet tart notes to provide a counter point to the buttery smoothness of the turbot, a definite dish to try.
We had to stop there as we had eaten too much. We wouldn’t want a good meal to end up elsewhere but our stomachs. As we were finishing up, the cook kindly reminded us, there is a reason why Wright Brothers is always full. Because of him. Jokes aside, with this caliber of seafood and the entertainment of the kitchen staff, you would be hard pressed to find somewhere better to enjoy a Saturday lunch. You could of course end up at a celebrity chain but that’s a story for another day.
A quiet eating 7.5/10.
Lunch (1 course) was GBP25 excluding drinks and service.
11 Stoney Street
Borough Market
London SE1 9AD