Please note, Sea Cow is now closed. Time Out Food & Drink editors, May 2016.
We remember this place as light and buzzing, but some recent interior decorating in pond-slime green seems to have had an equally depressing effect on the atmosphere. What the Sea Cow sells itself on – good quality fresh fish cooked simply – it does well.
Battered haddock got the thumbs-up from someone who lives in a fishing village, and a generous pile of grilled sardines were crispy and tasty. However, the chips were a bit dry and tasteless (as is so often the way since chippies abandoned lard) and the salads showed no effort whatsoever, being either a seemingly undressed pile of green leaves or some chunks of red onion and fuzzy tomato (billed as a ‘Moroccan salad’).
Top marks, though, for the surprisingly light, vanilla-infused bread and butter pudding. The Sea Cow’s saving grace is its family deals – kids eat free before 4pm at weekends and at other times receive large portions for a snip – an offer that’s hard to ignore.