8 | November 1, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Food Review
This seafood restaurant is good for the sole . . .
Weekend reviews restaurants anonymously and pays for meals
Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill, 37 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QY Telephone: (01223) 362433 Website: lochfyneseafoodandgrill. co.uk/locations/cambridge Restaurant opening hours: Mon-Thu: 11.30am10.30pm Fri: 11.30am-11pm Sat: 9am-11pm Sun: 9am-10pm Cost: Dinner for two people, including drinks, would have come to £62.80 (if we’d been charged for dessert). Food: 刂刂刂 Service: 刂刂刂 Atmosphere: 刂刂刂刂 Value: 刂刂刂
If it’s good enough for George Clooney, then it’s good enough for us. Ella Walker goes starryeyed over a seafood extravaganza at Loch Fyne.
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NE of my greatest ever regrets is not having the foresight to book a table at Loch Fyne during that feted week in 2013 when Matt Damon and George Clooney ate there every evening after filming The Monuments Men. I may never forgive myself. You can see why the Hollywood pair made it their regular for the all too brief time they spent here though. First, it’s opposite the Fitzwilliam which is rather a majestic sight, especially in autumn with the leaves just turning and the wind whipping about, and second, it’s such a lovely, rickety building full of warmth. All shimmery tiles (with fish doodles: we became very fond of a turbot above our heads), worn wood tables and blazing metallic lights, my boyfriend Sam and I found ourselves seated in a cosy nook ordering two exceptional starters. My chilli and garlic king prawns pan-fried in lemon oil came with some of the best granary bread I’ve ever eaten, and managed to
be sharp, citrusy, hot and fragrant simultaneously (£6.75). Sam’s tempura battered squid with chilli jam only just beat it (£6.45). Perfectly cooked chunks of squid were wrapped in light, crisp batter, and, squeezed over with lime juice and dunked in the almost barbecue jam, were unbelievably good. But it’s a constant problem, having such good starters. After that, all the other courses are immediately on the back foot. We flirted quite seriously with the idea of ordering the whole baked lobster (£25.50), but decided it was a bit fancy for a drizzly Thursday night and also, neither of us had any idea quite how to de-shackle the meat from the shell. We’re fairly new to this shellfish lark. Even getting a single prawn out of its rosy armour turned into a two-man job . . . My classic fish and chips vindicated the decision though. I went for the haddock – flaky and crusted in a snappy tempura batter – and French ch fries option.
Some die-hard fish and chip scoffers may, um, scoff at my choosing the spindly, crispy cousin to the twicecooked British chip alternative, but in my opinion, you should only need to cook chips once to get them right. And these fries were oh so right, especially dipped in minty mushy peas and slathered with decadently creamy tartar sauce. They also performed excellently soaking up the tomato-y sauce at the bottom of Sam’s fish stew (£17.95). An elegant array of crackly skinned sea bass and cod, melty salmon, the best mussels Sam’s had in months and that tricky prawn, it was served with some more of that deliciously chewy granary bread (which, he kept pointing out, there could have been a lot more of). It was nicely cooked and nicely presented but lacked a certain wow factor . . . Still, we were stuffed, and who says no to pudding? A treacle tart and a pear and frangipani concoction were swiftly ordered (£5.95), and then we waited.
And we waited. And we waited some more. Then I started doing that leaning round the corner with a puzzled – but polite – look on my face thing, and finally the poor waitress admitted they’d lost our order. To be fair, they were very busy. I considered weeping, and then sulked a little (but Sam told me off), then the tarts finally arrived! Our joy at being remembered (and being told the desserts were on the house as an apology), was tempered by the fact Loch Fyne is yet another restaurant that buys into what I like to call the “pudding on a plate travesty”. If you are serving ice cream or custard with anything then please put it in a bowl. It’s not difficult! We were both faced with the following conundrum: pick the plate up and tip the final syrupy bits into your mouth, or abandon them to an existence unreachable by spoon? We went for the latter choice, but only because we were in public, and I doubt George would have approved.