The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureFood & DrinksRestaurant & bar reviews

The Melusine in St Katherine Docks: Fresh, sustainably sourced seafood with an innovative twist

The Melusine in St Katherine Docks: Fresh, sustainably sourced seafood with an innovative twist | Restaurant review
21 January 2020
Ezelle Alblas
Avatar
Shot by Matthew Pull
Avatar
Ezelle Alblas Shot by Matthew Pull
21 January 2020

Food

Ezelle Alblas4

The Melusine

BarQuick & easyCasual foodFine dining
QUICKCASUALFINE DINING

Concept

Casual dining

Cuisine

British-Mediterranean - Casual dining

Highlights

Beetroot and Burrata, Scallops, Chocolate and Tahini Tart

Rating

★★★★★

Food ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Drinks ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Service ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Links

InstagramFacebookTwitterWebsiteMap

Overlooking the watery enclave of St Katherine Docks and housed in the arches of the 19th-century grade two-listed Ivory House, intimate new restaurant The Melusine – named after a mermaid-like spirit – is a welcome addition offering freshly caught seafood delicacies from across the British coastline, carefully curated wine pairings and atrociously strong cocktails.

This passion project from executive chef Theodore Kyriakau (The Greek Larder) and operations manager Wade Mundford comes straight from the heart and has a strong community feel, with environmental sustainability at its core. The 40-seater restaurant, which opens out onto the boardwalk to seat 20 more, showcases an open-style kitchen, with handcrafted, Instagram-worthy artwork on the walls and a simple boat-like interior that takes a backseat to flaunt the exquisite ceramic earthenware and mouthwatering fare.

The menu changes daily depending on the catch and could be anything from Dover Sole to Cornish skate wing. There’s a raw bar serving up clams, oysters and cockles along with experimental shallot vinaigrette, lemon mayonnaise and a spicy devilled sauce, with rumours that there’ll be a forthcoming icy window display for all these aqueous beauties. We opted for a selection of freshly prepared small plates which were perfect for sharing.

Starting with a vibrant dish of freshly roasted beetroot and buttery Puglian burrata, we then moved on to tender scallops with full-bodied nutty fava bean purée and tasty chargrilled spring onions.

We tried the popular “surf and turf”, pairing fleshy coils of squid with grilled cold-smoked rump that was robust enough in its flavour against the blander ribbons of courgette carpaccio and the woody perfume from the drizzles of aromatic cep oil. A hearty stew of orzo pasta with slow-cooked vanilla beans, cavolo nero and earthy curd cheese made a tasty vegetarian accompanying dish, and we found four of these small plates was definitely enough for two people.

For dessert, we had an intriguing Cornish Cashel blue ice-cream doused in streaks of blackened cherry coulis. The rich and close-textured cheese worked well with the sweetness of the sauce (although we felt it was definitely something of an acquired taste). We also shared a delicious chocolate and tahini tart, handmade on-site, with salted caramel cream that lifted the floury and slightly bitter essence of the sesame seed paste. We finished up with a house special martini, The Juliette – named after Mundford’s own mother – a potent yet delectable concoction of smoked Reyka vodka, salted caramel, Tia Maria and espresso.

Trendy and Instagram friendly, The Melusine manages to blend traditional fish dish fare with headline-grabbing recipe innovations. With plans afoot to open a little onsite shop, this may just be the start of something new to rival Rick Stein’s seafood empire.

★★★★★

Food ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Drinks ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Service ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Ezelle Alblas
Photos: Matthew Pull

To book a table at The Melusine, Unit K Ivory House St Katharine Docks E Smithfield London E1W 1AT, call 020 7702 2976 or visit their website here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Food & Drinks

Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar

Food Desk
Read More

Three-Michelin-star restaurants L’Effervescence and SingleThread announce first post-Covid collaboration in Tokyo

Food Desk
Read More

World’s 50 Best to announce 50 Next list of young people shaping the future of gastronomy on 24th June in Bilbao

Food Desk
Read More

Cinco de Mayo 2022: Where to celebrate in London

The editorial unit
Read More

Fiend restaurant to host guest chef supper clubs with Ollie Dabbous and Gareth Ward

Food Desk
Read More

World’s 50 Best announce 2022 Champions of Change

Food Desk
Read More

Colette and Manon Lagrève team up for limited-edition chocolate cake in support of Save the Children in Ukraine

Food Desk
Read More

Alberto Landgraf brings a taste of Brazil to London: A feat of culinary chemistry

Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Carlo Scotto to open two-floor fine-dining restaurant Amethyst in Mayfair

Food Desk
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Food

Ezelle Alblas4

The Melusine

BarQuick & easyCasual foodFine dining
QUICKCASUALFINE DINING

Concept

Casual dining

Cuisine

British-Mediterranean - Casual dining

Highlights

Beetroot and Burrata, Scallops, Chocolate and Tahini Tart

Rating

★★★★★

Food ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Drinks ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Service ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮

Links

InstagramFacebookTwitterWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • The Father and the Assassin at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Ruben is wonderful at picking holes in our behaviour and our egos”: Woody Harrelson, Ruben Östlundand and cast at the Triangle of Sadness press conference
    Cannes Film Festival 2022
  • Summer Scars (Nos Cérémonies)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Holy Spider (Les Nuits de Mashad)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Emergency
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Emergency
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Triangle of Sadness
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Aftersun
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Paris Memories (Revoir Paris)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Jamie Lee takes over Ekte to celebrate Kødbyens Fiskebar’s beautiful Nordic cuisine
Introducing Lume, the avant-garde restaurant from Luigi Taglienti