The new restaurant opens next week and will have 46 covers, with an aim to serve fish sourced from local suppliers at affordable prices. Wright has been planning to expand for a while.
He said: “It’s always been the plan for us to branch out, whether it was with a new steak restaurant or something else. But I wanted Steak to have its own identity and to be a standalone restaurant so it was a natural progression to specialise in something else with the new restaurant.
“My background is in a range of different foods so it was a case of choosing which one I wanted to do. I decided to focus on fish, as I enjoy it and I have a general enjoyment of cooking it, it’s such a versatile ingredient.”
Fish Eatery’s location next to Steak is below Twelve Picardy Place boutique Hotel, in a Georgian townhouse building.
Wright said: “The restaurant’s décor reflects the fact it’s in a Georgian building, so it’s very much like Steak with a lot of ornate finishing and cornicing. But we’ve tried to bring it into a modern time too, while still keeping its traditional roots and giving it little quirks. The ambience is very nice, it’ll be busy but cosy as well.”
Affordable, local fish dishes
The restaurant’s menu will include dishes such as citrus lemon sole, fish stew, halibut kiev and chicken and lobster macaroni for mains, alongside a wide selection of starters and desserts too. Wright will source his fish locally from Scottish fishmonger Gary Welch, an old family friend.
“I want the focus to be on the flavour,” explained Wright. “I believe the fish should be the centre of the dish and everything else should complement the flavour of that, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve with the menu.
“Fish Eatery is going to be an affordable fish restaurant. I haven’t taken it along the line of shellfish and lobster thermidor because we don’t want it to be too expensive. We want people to come along and enjoy the fish, at the end of the day it’s a staple in everyone’s diet. It’s the common man’s food and I’d like to keep it like that.”