Fancy Crab
Fancy Crab reminds me an awful lot of Beast. Hawksmoor for shellfish if you will, with a Burger and Lobster bistro vibe. I was invited along with my fabulous fellow blogger friend Rianna for lunch to sample a selection of the restaurant’s Red King Crab concoctions.
Fancy Crab is an all-day “one dish concept” restaurant with one star ingredient, the Red King Crab; all wild and sourced from the Barents Sea. For a one-dish restaurant, the menu is extensive. Yes, there is an awful lot of Red King Crab, but you’ll also find crustacean cousins, raw fish and shellfish, oysters and indulgent platters bringing it all together.
We tried a bit of each of the specialties recommended by the kitchen; tempura crab claws; sea bass carpaccio and Singaporean chilli crab. What Fancy Crab do well is showcase their headliner. Tempura crab pieces, though thick with batter, were meatier than your average battered fish. The Singaporean chili crab, while deliciously moreish, did not remotely resemble the delicious spicy crab of Singapore’s Hawker Markets. Instead think a Korma with a hefty portion of shredded white and brown crab meat and legs.
The highlight, of course, was the King Crab legs and claws, grilled over charcoal. This crab was delicious. Remarkably, priced at the exact same point as the crab legs at Beast, at £18 per 100g. Here however, you can commit to only 200g per portion as opposed to the 400g buy in at Beast.
Crab may be well grilled and delicious, but I guess the only question I can’t quite answer is whether London really needs a Fancy Crab when the title for expensive crab legs in a masculine bistro setting is held by someone else.
