Fancy Crab Restaurant, London Review

One of the best parts of this job is discovering first hand some of the finest restaurants available to man, and this is especially relevant when it comes to fresh seafood.

Fancy Crab can be found the heart of London on Wigmore Street, just behind the famous department store Selfridges, and is one of its kind in our book.

It has a warm, sumptuous yet laid-back feel and prides itself on accommodating every customer’s culinary and beverage desires. A laid back experience is open to all, including passers-by looking for a cosy quiet coffee break through to die-hard seafood lovers ready to take on a whole king crab!

The lighting is low, the mood is subdued and the friendliness from the staff is abundant. The décor reminds us of a 1970’s fishing dock for some reason, with a humungous red king crab awaiting your arrival and commanding pride of place in front of the kitchen area. There is something quite mystical about this place and builds up to the excitement of what wonders will be served up! There is clearly an obsession for a love of seafood from staff and customers alike, which is so charming to see.

The menu is outstanding with lots of unusual mouth-watering dishes to choose from. Their fresh seafood choices range from red king crab served on ice or baked over charcoal, oysters, crustacean stands and a raw bar featuring scallop ceviche, salmon tartare and bass carpaccio. Their appetiser and starter menus are as equally delicious, and we must confess it took a long while to agree on our choices. We settled for the crab tempura (sweet white claw meat coated in a crisp tempura batter, served with saffron aioli) – the crabmeat was absolutely divine, sweeter than sweet and juicilious, and it was definitely a winner for us. For something lighter, the guacamole with king crab was also a fantastic opener, and is freshly made to order with smoked avocado, green tomatoes, coriander, chillies and lime.

When it came to choosing our main courses – countless delightful dishes popped out of the menu leaving us once again with some tricky decisions to make. But, we were not disappointed with our final choices of Singapore chili crab, which was a delicious, sweet and spicy dish incorporating huge chunks of king crab meat cooked with chilli, garlic, lime and spring onions, and served with rice – by far one of the best curries we have ever tasted (truly). In addition, we could not resist 200g of red king crab served on ice and a side of skinny fries to dip – whilst we’ve experienced a few king crabs in our time, this was a stand out for us – the sweet flavours were just unique. The rest is history.

To round up, if you’re looking for somewhere unique to host your Christmas party then Fancy Crab could well be it! Their Christmas party set menu is full of favourite festive dishes with Fancy Crab twist. And for the like-minded brunch lover, like myself, why not indulge in the Bottomless Prosecco offer every Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon until five o’clock where you can enjoy 1.5hrs of unlimited Prosecco for just £15 per person.  Now there’s something to celebrate!

There’s one thing for sure… with lots of dishes still yet to discover we will definitely be back to sample more of the wonderful menu, as this was such a heavenly treat for our taste buds.