J. Sheekey belongs to the same group of restaurants as The Ivy so Jenny and I were expecting big things from our meal tonight. Rehana has also raved about the restaurant so my expectations were very high.

J.Sheekey is located just near Leicester Square and, as with The Ivy, is “guarded” by the little man in the top hat. The windows are covered up so once you step into the restaurant the sense of privacy and intimacy is immediate. Something I’m sure the celebrities appreciate. The restaurant is much longer than it appears from the outside but is sectioned off into a number of areas with about 5-7 tables filling any one space. This definitely made it hard to star-gaze! Just last night Kylie and Mick Jagger had dined here apparently but sadly no luck for us tonight. Besides we were so busy gaping at what everyone else was eating to have time to search the restaurant for any celebrities.

If you don’t like your fish than you won’t have too many options to choose from on the J. Sheekey menu – this one is definitely all about the fish and seafood though they do have one or two other dishes for the non-seafood eaters. All around us it seemed the popular starter was the fruits of the sea platter which was filled with all types of cold seafood including oysters, pippies, prawns etc. The platter is maaassssssive! However, not being the biggest fan of cold seafood I went instead with the crab bisque as a starter. It was superbly delicious and creamy but very rich. For mains, at the recommendation of the waiter, Jenny and I shared a grilled fish platter. With it we got bream, salmon, tuna, john dory and cod. A very good selection. We didn’t think we could get full on just fish but surprisingly we did though to be fair there was a lot of it and it was very rich (read oily!) The fish was quite tasty, though I think in future I’d like my platter to have a mix of shellfish rather than all fish because after a while it almost felt too sameish.

We forced (ha ha) ourselves to have some dessert – I tried the raspberry crème brulee (as unfortunately spotted dick was not on the menu). It was nice enough but I must remember in future that tart fruit just does not go with crème brulee! Still finished it however :).

To my surprise the service was a bit hit and miss tonight at a restaurant which supposedly values it quite highly. That’s not to say that it wasn’t unfriendly or unresponsive but I just felt it was … spotty. First of all before we even sat down we were asked if we wanted any drinks without being offered any sort of drinks or wine menu, then we sat for a while without any menus whatsoever and then our drinks that we did eventually end up ordering took very long to get to us. The waitress later apologised for the oversight but still. Finally, we were often left alone for long periods of time. Respect for the customer aside and all but I still expect a restaurant like this to check in with the diners now and again. However, it seems our experience is at odds with everyone else who has dined here in the past if the reviews I’ve read are anything to go by.

So, in the end were my expectations met? I think not to be honest. However that’s probably more from my having such high expectations in the first place. For three courses and a juice and service it was about £52 (which included an outrageous £2 per person cover charge) so for that price you would expect to be dazzled. I wasn’t. Merely satisfied with the experience. I must say however that despite the reputation and seeming poshness of the restaurant you never feel like a, pardon the pun, fish out of water so for that it has to get some marks.