SHIPSHAPE OR PEAR-SHAPED
Legendary Leith seafood emporium The Ship on the Shore needs to look to its laurels
A pricey piscatorial outing to Leith’s Ship on the Shore
Despite having some of the world’s finest seafood on our doorstep, there has traditionally been a dearth of really good specialist fish restaurants in Scotland, particularly in our urban areas. There are several around the coast, but with the exception of pioneers such as Willie Little in Blairgowrie, if you go more than 20 miles from the coast you can generally forget it.
Even the Big Two are problematic. Glasgow is comfortably the better of the two, with Gamba and Rogano at the top end, and a whole shoal of more relaxed fish specialists – Crabshakk, The Fish People Cafe, The Finnieston, Gandolfi Fish, Old Saltys, Simply Fish and Rock Lobster Bar – making for a vibrant pescatorian scene.
For once, Edinburgh is a culinary laggard. Ondine is comfortably the best top-end seafood restaurant in the country, but beyond that the options are limited. The new low-key C-Shack in Newhaven is good, and Sweet Melindas does a decent job serving the southside, while Mussel Inn, Fishers, The Mussel & Steak Bar and Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill cater for the mainstream market. It says much for the capital, however, that the wonderful Arranbased Creeler’s closed down their Edinburgh restaurant through lack of demand after years on the High Street.
So it’s good to see that the long-established The Ship on the Shore on Leith’s waterfront is still thriving. With its eclectic mix of gallic and
nautical themes, which takes in wood-pannelled walls, maritime charts, impressionist paintings, huge mirrors and stripped wooden floors, this converted pub on Leith’s shoreline is one of the most evocative and atmospheric restaurants in the country. It’s in danger of being a bit kitsch, but somehow pulls it off to make for a classy and cosy interior.
The Ship on the Shore is known for its wine and Champagne list, but is also rightly noted for its seafood and smoked seafood platters, which start at £19.50 and go all the way up to £100 for the Fruits de Mer Royale, which is for two or three diners.
I’ve enjoyed some great specials here, including razor clams thermidor, but on the evening we visited the list of specials was pretty basic so we stuck to the main menu. The stodgy fishcakes with bland home-made tartare sauce wasn’t a good start, but the beautifully-prepared dressed brown crab was as good as any either of us has ever tasted (and that from two people who grew up next to the sea).
Our main courses were of a more consistent but not exactly stellar quality. The whole grilled sea bream was nicely cooked, but the accompanying tomato, black olive and anchovy sauce was far more tame than we expected, while the mascarpone and basil mash had an unpleasantly oleaginous consistency.
We were marginally more convinced by the lobster and squid linguine with wild garlic, parmesan and sunblushed tomato pesto, although it was once again less bold than expected. If I’m honest, I’d ordered it as a sort of quiet nod to the spaghetti with split prawns, which was my dish of choice when the Patio was in central Edinburgh (it’s now reborn as Nonna’s Kitchen and has migrated to Morningside). Sadly, the Ship’s version wasn’t a patch on The Patio’s, and at £28 was twice as expensive.
The savage expense of our meal was a recurring theme at the Ship, whose owners have taken to charging like a wounded rhino. We rounded off with a couple of perfectly competent puddings – a cherry liqueur cheesecake with indeterminately-flavoured ice cream, plus a vanilla pod creme brulee – and by the time we had added one of the cheaper bottles of wine and service (but not coffee) the bill was £115.
We still love The Ship on the Shore, and its ambience means it remains somewhere we’ll eat at from time to time, even if it means saving the pennies for a rainy day. Yet, despite some uncharacteristically cheery service, this meal was one of our more disappointing forays Leithside. With so many new competitors on the block – C-Shack is just a mile away in Newhaven – it’s perhaps time to regroup and refocus on the kitchen once again.