Review: Sensational Seafood at Mussel Men

By Tom Gatehouse
@tragatehouse
tomgatehouse.com

Looking up, Penny and I saw a lone seagull glide over the Calais-esque apartment block and down onto a roof just above us. We were in Dalston in North East London, aeons from a sandy beach, but there he was, all white feathers and orange beak. It was hot and three Cumbrae oysters had just been delivered to our table outside.

“Do you think they bring them in?” Penny joked, pointing to the gull, knowing that it was the vast amount of amazing seafood found at Mussel Men that had surely brought the seagull so far from home.

Mussel Men is part of the new wave of restaurants to hit London, namely the popup successes. These days, the majority of people would rather put themselves in the hands of the quirky and inspired rather than the fancy and the fine. To say that lavish fine dining is dead would be wrong, but boy, it sure is a good time to be an independent eatery with a product done to perfection.

Be it pastry, kebabs, burgers or seafood; London just can’t get enough of the fun and flamboyance offered by those brave enough to traverse the stormy seas of going solo. And that’s exactly what Captain Bob and his crew at Mussel Men are doing, brilliantly.

Just a few steps from Dalston Junction station, Mussel Men is all brick-work and rigging, crab traps and rough wood. Its small but so it should be, with an outside area of windswept white and barrel-brown. Its a seafood restaurant on the coast found in the middle of one of the coolest spots in London right now – and they deserve to be there.

Penny and I arrived on the first Tuesday of the month, the day when they unleash their lobster menu which includes a cocktail, a starter and a whole baked lobster with Maitre D’Hotel butter. All for just £35. Naturally, Penny’s mind was quickly made up, with the menu slung in my direction, her hooped earrings glinting in the mid-afternoon sun.

Mussel Men have a very small menu with changes coming in the way of regular specials. This way they can put all their focus on the dishes they do best, doing away with the hassle of having to whip up an impromptu spag bol for a fussy diner. Indeed, on my visit they had whittled it down to simply a choice of mussels, three different types of oyster starters and a handful of tempting sides.

I’m not a fussy diner and, go figure, my favourite food is mussels. Still, it was hard to pick between their Mediterranean bisque, chervil beurre blanc, saffron and turmeric (all £14) and the Mariniere (£13), which all come with skinny fries. I’d recently returned from a short trip to Lille, one of the best places to pick up a pot of moules frites, so I thought I’d put the Men to the test with a helping of the classic Mariniere.

Oysters arrived first, three of the aforementioned Cumbrae variety (£7.5) with an accompanying mignonette (£0.50). That’s when we saw the seagull start to do an impression of a peckish vulture. We weren’t in the mood for sharing and the two of us had a time of it fighting over the last oyster amid plenty of vacuum noises, with Penny’s first course then arriving with her cocktail.

A long island ice tea was the choice, with a starter of cured salmon, pickle candy beets and homemade horseradish ricotta. Nothing was amiss here and I’d go as far as to say that this was one of the best seafood starters I’ve had/stolen this year. Subtle salmon, sweet and juicy beetroot and beautifully balanced ricotta; it showed that the chefs here are much more than one trick ponies.

The tide then brought with it my moules and her lobster. An all-round messy endeavour, exactly how it should be when tackling shellfish, with both dishes standing up superbly. My mussels were plentiful and the sauce soft, while the lobster was so impressive that Penny actually had herself a moment, gazing up at the deep blue sky and then down again to her overflowing plate with a lump in her throat.

It was London but not as we have known it, Jim. We may as well have been on the continent.

Sadly, the infamous Captain Bob wasn’t around to challenge me to a thumb-war when the last of my mussels had been sucked away. The Mussel Men ritual is well-known around Dalston, with those emerging successfully earning themselves a t-shirt and a peculiar Jagerbomb-esque shot of Buckfast and Iron Bru. I told you it was quirky.

With kids eating for free on Fridays, Monday meal deals, surf-and-turf Wednesdays, their new Captain’s Quarters private dining area and an incredible seafood Sunday roast all afforded by the generous captain; I’m not sure that I’ll find a better seafood restaurant in the capital this year.

And if Dalston is too far out of the way, their travelling food truck ‘Salty’ is available to hire. The spirit of a popup never dies.

Mussel Men
Address: 584 Kingsland Rd, London E8 4AH
Phone: 020 3490 9040
Website: musselmen.com
Twitter: @Mussel_Men