The 17 Best Seafood Restaurants In London

The battle cry of this great little Borough Market seafood stall is “Yyy-oysters, come and get your oyy-sters!”. Banter flies, cash-only deals are offered with old-school charm, and a bed of ice is topped with things that look like deep-sea Pokémon. There are different oysters to choose from—Louët-Feisser, Boudeuse, Gillardeau—and the latter are the perfect creamy counterpart for a liberal pour of the zingy, self-serve mignonette.

As soon as you step into J Sheekey on St Martin’s Court, the hive of tourists buzzing around outside becomes a distant memory. This seafood restaurant feels a bit like a time capsule, transporting you to a glamorous place where crisp white tablecloths are the height of fanciness, and people wear ties to dinner. Pretty much everything on the menu is a safe bet. Whether that’s thick, buttery scallops, or fried haddock and chips, J Sheekey knows what it’s doing. It’s proper without feeling too fancy, and the food is good enough that we’d fight those West End crowds for a table here.

Baltic Sea Food is a moveable feast. Less in a Hemingway way, and more joyous Turkish seafood-slinging canal boat. Whether it’s moored at Tottenham Hale, Enfield, or in Hackney (check their Instagram for details), Captain Ali coats and fries thick, juicy calamari, and loads balik ekmek with still-sizzling mackerel. Although it shines in summer, when it feels borderline obscene that you don’t need a passport to enjoy this level of holiday cheer from a pack-away table, we think it’s still worth visiting to grab and go during chillier months.

Excellent seafood and a disco ball in the dining room—Randall & Aubin is a Soho institution that has big party energy. You can’t go wrong with the native or Irish oysters, but know that if you’re rolling with a group it’s worth getting involved in the plat du fruits de mer, which includes everything from rock oysters to a whole dressed crab. The hospitality is spot on here—they'll swoop in at just the right time to replace your plate when it's becoming too full of shells, but aren't overbearing.

Contrary to its name, The Cow is a pub and dining room near Notting Hill that specialises in seafood, not beef. One of the go-to orders here is oysters and Guinness, but you’ll also find a deluxe seafood platter, fresh crab tagliolini, and The Cow’s fish stew on the menu. This namesake stew is a volcanic orange colour with mussels, prawns, and white fish bobbing about—and comes with a giant crouton with a big dollop of rouille on top. If you’re more of a traditionalist, look no further than the pint of prawns and a bowl of whelks.

Everything at this Ecuadorian restaurant on Essex Road is worth checking out, but the ceviche menu is particularly outstanding. Fresh prawns, sea bass, and scallops are paired with a choice of leche de tigre (a mix of lime, chilli, onion, and fish) marinades. There’s tamarillo, rocoto, or yellow chilli—depending if you’re looking for something more fiery, fruity, or fresh—but whatever you choose is sure to brighten your day.

Brat could easily have started with a Venn diagram made up of three circles containing the words: Shoreditch, simplicity, oak panels. Despite the feeling of contrived cool that comes with some restaurants in the area, there’s nothing showy-offy here and the mantra of “stick it on the grill”, especially when it comes to seafood, provides smoky revelations. There’s grilled, bubbly bread with anchovies draped on top and smoking langoustines, but the standout dishes are the whole fish which are cooked to tender perfection. The turbot in particular is lauded for good reason—it’s flaky, a little smoky, and sitting in its own vinegary juices and marinade.

OK, technically Oyster Shack is in Essex, deep in Epping Forest, but it’s within the M25. The set-up is basic, with a terrace seating area surrounding the hut-cum-kitchen, and caff-like in atmosphere. Groups of bikers drop in, families crowd round tables outside, and those who’ve travelled from central London fuel up on seafood feasts after a walk in their too-clean wellies. There are platters of fat Carlingford oysters, sweet and meaty curried prawns, juicy lobster tails, and polystyrene cups of whelks. If you order one thing, make it the scallop and bacon butty—it hits the sweet, salty spot, and the thickly buttered roll soaks up the juices from the surf and turf.

Like that friend who reads your long rambling drafted texts in the midst of a break-up or every golden retriever ever, Wright Brothers is a restaurant that will always be there for you. It’s a mini-chain of reliable seafood spots, and while we love their Borough Market restaurant for its classic London charm, you can’t beat the riverside views at their Battersea spot. Book a table on the terrace, get a round of oysters in, then take a deep breath and order the whole Devon lobster with new potatoes and mayonnaise.

On a sunny day, a table at this Richmond spot overlooking the water is the best way to spend an afternoon in London, which makes it a tad bit better than the original Mayfair location. Huge pillars divide the space and arched windows with heavy curtains are drawn back to show off the view. The menu is a love letter to the big blue sea. You’ll find oysters, caviar with blinis and crème fraîche, and a whole dover sole that’ll make you consider turning pescatarian. Not because you no longer want to eat meat, but because you want to make things exclusive with this buttery piece of fish.

Seabird is the restaurant that convinced us we like oysters. Actually, Seabird is the restaurant that convinced us we love oysters, especially when combined with panoramic views of London and an atmosphere that encourages alfresco cocktail sipping, day or night. Grab the love of your life and head to the Southwark spot for a truly memorable dinner, or book a table for a group of out-of-towners who want to get all doe-eyed about eating in the shadow of the Shard. Or just bring yourself here for a romantic moment with a mollusc, soundtracked by the internal monologue of “I am living my very best life”.

Sweetings is a seafood, lunch-only restaurant, because that’s the way it’s always been. It’s in the heart of the City, and it’s been serving whitebait, potted shrimp, pie, and crumble to business types for much of its 100-year-plus tenure. There’s a very British atmosphere about the place. One that’s almost farcical. You’ve got someone shovelling the excellent fish pie beside you. Waistcoated waiters slapping down glass bowls of prawn cocktail left, right, and centre. This is a place full of walking, talking, sentient signet rings, and the sound of the same anecdote, from different generations, about that moustached dinner lady in the school canteen.

Wiltons in St James’s is a class act. This place has been open since 1742 and it’s one of those classic London establishments where you feel like all recent Prime Ministers have conducted saucy meetings in their velvet green back booths, and that at least 20 notable affairs have started or ended at the glossy bar. It’s home to one of the best oyster experiences in London and the steak tartare is also entirely fabulous. But when a restaurant chooses a fancy little lobster dressed in a top hat as their mascot, you know you need to get involved in some lobster action.

Sometimes you need somewhere small and straightforward to escape to, which is where Parsons comes in. It’s a seafood restaurant in Covent Garden, away from the stress of Covent Garden. At the corridor of a restaurant, fresh catches are written on the walls and people happily tuck into oysters, chips, and other nice things. It’s a restaurant that really suits two people but can stretch to four—we’d recommend you book ahead if going for the latter. The seafood is lovely and simple, and the fish pie in particular is something you’ll regret agreeing to share.

Sometimes you just need to get down and dirty with a couple of lobster tails. Trap Kitchen understands this. That’s why their seafood bucket comes with a pair of throwaway gloves. The restaurant serves excellent New Orleans-inspired classics, but the star of the show is their XXL lobster tails that are so meaty and so perfectly juicy that we think about them at least four times a day, every single day. This Camden spot is one of the best places for an affordable yet deeply satisfying seafood fix.

Referring to your oyster boys as ‘more chilled than a dozen of Loch Ryan’s finest’ could raise eyebrows in some circles. But as people who refer to themselves as athletes every time they manage more than 80 steps per day, we salute Bentley’s description of its oyster shuckers. A classic West End seafood restaurant with a big heated terrace, it’s a great place to sip champagne over a dozen oysters. Some of the mains can be a little hit or miss, but the rockefeller dressed oysters are always a good call.

Nothing we say can prepare you for how filling the seafood sharing platter is at this New Orleans-inspired spot in Kingston. You’ll question whether it’s enough for the three of you. Then 10 minutes, countless bayou-blackened prawns, fried calamari, and half a soft shell crab later, you’ll realise you’ve hardly made a dent in it. The tray comes filled with three different types of shrimp, a fried crab, chewy calamari, and garlicky grilled oysters—it’s comfort food at its finest. If you’re not in the sharing mood, you can always get their buttermilk fried shrimp sub which is a beast of a sandwich that we’d cross London for.