Fishers in St Clements, Oxford, has been delighting customers since 1996 with its excellent fish and seafood. CHRISTOPHER GRAY joins three friends for a delicious dinner there…
Giant Platter had me beaten
St Clements has for decades been the ‘up-and-coming’ area of Oxford that obstinately fails to reach the top. Down the years, however, one beacon of fashion – and occasionally of excellence – has been provided by the restaurant which stands at the road’s northern end, with a large council car park conveniently behind it.
It was in about 1978, from memory, that Michel Sadones saw the scope for an up-market catering there when he opened his Clements restaurant. By the early 1980s, he had moved on however, and in the years since there have been various other enterprises on the premises, with different names and offering different styles of cuisine. In the mid 1990s it became Clements again in a very stylish operation which lasted, alas, all too briefly. I still recall the exquisite taste of a spinach soufflé I ate there on a Sunday lunchtime visit and the beauties of Christ Church Meadow as I strolled home afterwards.
But the disappointment of Clements’ closure was soothed when the building was taken over by Martin Agius. He had the bright idea of a restaurant offering fish and seafood to the exclusion of almost everything else. Fishers, as he named it, was tricked out with décor appropriate to the theme. Thus you dined – still do dine – surrounded by wheels and even a couple of funnels, all suggesting life on an ocean wave.
The place was an instant hit and has remained successful – for the past few years under the expert management of Angie Parmenter. A couple of years ago, Martin opened a second branch in Bristol’s Clifton district – now that’s a genuinely swanky purlieu – and this has done very well too.
Both restaurants are supplied with fish from Cornwall. Martin takes an ethical approach to buying and will not touch species as swordfish, cod and monkfish, which are threatened by over-fishing.
Each visit I have paid to the Oxford branch has been delightful. Thus it was again last Thursday when I ate there with Rosemarie, her mother Olive and our friend Jill. The food was super; the service courteous and friendly, and those providing it very well informed about the fare being offered (how rare it is to find this). The staff, incidentally, had no idea of our business. Angie was away and we know no one else there.
The restaurant was already fairly busy when we arrived, by taxi, shortly after 8pm, and were shown to a good-sized table against the far wall, with a gaily painted seaside-style bench on one side of it and two sturdy chairs on the other. I took one of the chairs, After a quick look at the wine list, we decided that the house white – a zestful French vins de pay (Cuveé de Richard Blanc) – would do nicely, at £9.95. We stuck with it throughout the meal.
Though oysters and poached asparagus with smoked salmon both appealed to me as a starter, I settled eventually on deep-fried squid (£4.95). There were large rings of it, with no trace of rubberiness, and a fine dill mayonnaise to dip into.
While Rosemarie enjoyed a big bowl of Scottish mussels (£6.25) cooked marinière style with white wine, shallots and cream, Jill had a no less classic French favourite in bouillabaisse (£5.50) – complete with the Provençal touch of mussels, tangy rouille and herb bread. Olive was delighted with her pan-fried mushrooms with garlic (£4.25).
But if we thought all these dishes were served in generous measure, they were nothing compared with my shellfish platter (£19.50). The restaurant manager, an engaging young Spaniard, explained that there were no scallops that night, so they would make up with other ingredients. And how! The bowl was absurdly large, filled with juicy mussels, langoustines, spider crab claws, prawns, shrimps and cockles. No lobster, that costs another £16.50 for a half. After more than an hour of picking, cracking, munching and sucking – with a little help from my friends – I was still obliged to leave about a quarter.
The shellfish were served hot in a juice of cream, garlic, shallots and cream. It was a pity, I thought, that they could not have been refreshingly cold on a bed of ice. There was one small lapse in the otherwise impeccable service when I had to ask for both fingerbowl and a claw cracking-implement.
I notice, too, studying the bill as I write, that we were charged for a double rocket and Parmesan salad rather than a single one. This irritates me slightly since there had been a bit of a discussion about the size. Our Spanish friend (who incidentally had joking advised against a salad of tomatoes – they weren’t Spanish!) had said a single would be quite large enough, but if it wasn’t, we could always order another one.
But these are minor niggles. My companions were all delighted with their main courses – Olive with a whacking portion of battered haddock with chips and mushy peas (£9.50), Rosemarie on grilled smoked haddock with lemon and olives (£10.50) and Jill with pan-fried Pollack fillet with mussels, garlic and white wine cream (£11.95). Puddings were good, too – a shared banana fritters with ice cream (£3.95) and sticky toffee (£3.75).
In view of all this excellence, it is interesting to note that Fishers is given no mention in the Good Food Guide, not even in the round-up section. What a strange publication this is.