A first-floor dining room and an evening raw bar give the Chelsea fishmonger the restaurant it never had room for, five times the size of its old shop on the other side of the street.
Alex Hunter puts the move at eight metres. At the end of May his fishmonger, The Sea, The Sea, left 174 Pavilion Road in Chelsea for 243, on the other side of the street. The new unit is five times the size, and the fish counter now has a dining room above it.
A fishmonger with a bistro upstairs
Hunter founded the business in 2019. At 174, a room of 500 square feet, the counter came down every afternoon so the shop could reopen as a restaurant in the evening. The new site spreads over three floors, with the kitchen and storage in the basement.
The ground floor is now a fishmonger all day. Fish reaches the shop in under 24 hours from the sea, and the fishmongers hand-cut dry-aged sashimi in store. Upstairs is a light first-floor dining room with tan leather banquettes under a pitched white ceiling, and a covered terrace takes walk-ins.
Nick Marsden’s daily menu
The head chef, Nick Marsden, joined in 2024 and writes a menu that changes every day around British day-boat fish. The old site could not grill, fry or roast, and the new kitchen can. Whole fish are barbecued, and the larger ones are sold by weight: Cornish plaice with wild garlic caper and pickled dulse, and a tranche of Scottish turbot with beurre blanc.
The raw plates include Hiddenfjord salmon sashimi with pickled kohlrabi and aged soy, and an Isle of Skye scallop with raspberry and blackcurrant leaf oil. Looe gurnard comes with whey and smoked herring roe, and cuttlefish ragù with salsify and green almond. For pudding there is potato ice cream with pine and smoked eel, which Hunter credits to Marsden.
Oysters and caviar at the raw bar
In the evening the display table on the ground floor becomes a raw bar. It serves rock oysters from Maldon, Louët-Feisser and Boudeuse with a cucumber and apple vinaigrette, and Baerii, Imperial and Oscietra caviar with blinis. Among the snacks are a fried seaweed and lobster dumpling, and grilled Coombeshead Farm sourdough with cultured butter. Hunter wants to do far more with seaweed than the old shop allowed, which makes the dumpling the snack to start with.
The wine list keeps to European and English bottles from small vineyards. From Tuesday to Thursday an express menu suggests a glass with each dish, among them a Danbury Ridge Chardonnay from Essex and Salt Éire from Sugrue South Downs in Sussex.
For private hire, the dining room upstairs seats 37 at dinner, and larger standing parties spread across the terrace and the raw bar.
Bistro and terrace: Tuesday to Saturday, lunch 12:00 to 15:00 and dinner from 18:00; Sunday 12:00 to 15:30. Raw bar: Tuesday to Saturday 18:00 to 21:30; Sunday 12:00 to 15:30. Six rock oysters £30 to £42; caviar £80 to £375; express menu £35 for two courses, £40 for three. A 15 per cent discretionary service charge applies.
The Sea, The Sea, 243 Pavilion Road, Chelsea, London SW1X 0AW.
Discover more at theseathesea.net