Latest opening: Goddard & Gibbs
What: A seafood restaurant located next door to 258-room hotel One Hundred Shoreditch, which was previously the UK outpost of American hotel company Ace Hotel. Inspired by English fishing villages and seaside towns, Goddard & Gibbs (G&G) is an all-day restaurant that specialises in British seafood.
Who: The restaurant is headed up chef Tom Moore, who has spent the past seven years at private members' club The Lansdowne Club in Mayfair. The restaurant is part of the hotel One Hundred Shoreditch, the latest venture from hotel operator Lore Group, whose other London property is Sea Containers on the South Bank.
The food: If you look hard enough you will find a burger, chicken and rib-eye steak tucked away at the end of the menu but everything else on G&G’s remarkably extensive menu is of a fishy persuasion. Dishes range from the classic - smoked salmon with rye bread; seafood platter; oysters; prawn cocktail – to the less so, not least a Dorset shellfish lasagne; and a sardine sausage roll. Despite the restaurant citing English fishing villages as its main inspiration there are touches of Asian influences throughout, evidenced in dishes such as steamed mussels with chilli and lemongrass; roasted skate wing with XO butter; a fish burger that comes with kimichi and sriracha mayo; and, most incongruous of all, baked aubergine with miso, tofu and blushed tomatoes. A hake kiev also makes an appearance on the menu, and has since been given a name change (not yet online) as it has in other restaurants to show support for Ukraine. There’s also a wine bar at the front of the restaurant serving small plates such as potted shrimp; fried fish tacos; fish pate; and clam pizza alongside a list of wines from ‘modern, forward-thinking producers’. G&G will also soon open a seafood 'hatch' offering items such as lobster rolls and calamari for takeout.
The vibe: G&G is channeling early Coldplay with its all yellow colour scheme in the dining room, which is dominated by a large, round lacquered table on which sits a huge, ceiling-reaching sculpture of the same colour (see above). That said, the room has kept much of the features and layout of its Hoi Polloi days, including the low backed banquette seating and light wood wall and pillar cladding and tiled floor, retaining with it the clang and bustle that comes with such a large room. There’s a change of pace downstairs in the hotel, which is home to the 1970s-inspired Seed Library, the latest cocktail bar from drinks maestro Mr Lyan.
And another thing: Chef Tom Moore is also founder of Moore’ish Crumpets (see what he’s done there?), with Moore baking sourdough crumpets from his home in Dulwich and delivering them across London during lockdown. One of his bakery wares appears on G&G’s menu in the form of a sourdough crumpet topped with cured Cornish mackerel, mussel emulsion, and sweet and sour dill.
100 Shoreditch High St, London, E1 6JN
www.goddardandgibbs.com
