'Innovation meets classic fish cooking': Oystercatcher, Sale, reviewed

Neighbourhood restaurants of top quality are as rare as a rational sentence from Laurence Fox or George Galloway. 

Oystercatcher is the exception that proves the rule. The company runs the best restaurant in Chorlton by some distance (although I have a soft spot for Water Lily as noted here). Their operation in Sale is another gem. 

It was showtime with the Seafood platter for two at £60. This is my dish of the month

The restautant sits in that salvation of Sale, the Stanley Square development, with other good restaurants, Petisco, Greens, Blanchflower and Roti. Oystercatcher edges the others by virtue of its creativity with fish. Across the region we don’t have enough fish specialists, this lot are one, Easy Fish in Heaton Moor and Street Urchin on Great Ancoats Street are others.

I’m talking about the British tradition here, despite, the world influences in these restaurants. There are other Manchester outlets who treat fish excellently from other culinary traditions such as San Carlo and Only Yu, with its memorable ginger and spring onion turbot, but that’s a different approach.

Oystercatcher doesn’t look hugely diverting from the outside. 

That’s not a problem because the lack of pow-wow, and this applies to the other restaurants, is made up for by the neat and dignified consistency of the facades in Stanley Square. In other words, the development is enhanced by design discipline, this is not the crazy riot of tat that is the Trafford Centre food halls. 

Inside, the place has a tranquil air, brick walls, cute little bar, hanging plants, festoons of lights and simple tables and chairs. It's attractively efficient and that's all it needs to be because all the colour is provided by the food on a menu which should make a pescatarian’s mouth water. 

One thing is for sure if oysters are on the menu I’m having them. 

I had a recent conversation with a fellow writer about how she won’t eat oysters after having been tremendously ill following an encounter with these lovable bivalves, one of my son’s reiterated this sentiment a couple of days later.

Once bitten, twice shy. 

I’ve never had a bad experience so to me oysters remain one of life’s edible glories, uncooked and singing of the sea. This was the case with the perfectly shucked half dozen Cape Wrath oysters (£18) at Oystercatcher. A shallot mignonette was a good accompaniment but I ate most of them au naturel to get more of the ocean blast. 

There was another oyster option as well. It was insane. 

This was a Bloody Mary Oyster shot (£4). I've mentioned this in our Safari piece. You get a classic Bloody Mary with all the usual ingredients, vodka, tomato juice, tabasco, lemon, pepper and so on. Oh and a fresh oyster. All in a shot glass. Was it tasty, was it nice? I'm not sure. 

The liquid with the shellfish was peculiar in the extreme. You can see the oyster flesh winking through the glass here. It felt almost like an intrusion, perhaps like finding an eyeball in a drink and chewing on it. Really weird. Maybe I didn’t like it. But I’m glad I tried it. 

Another starter of three roasted scallops (£15) with a gremolata sauce, giving a kick of lemon and garlic, and a cauliflower puree, was clever not strange. The execution and timing here was excellent, the flesh succulent and sweet, not overdone and frazzled, the additions, particularly the gremolata, cunning, bringing the best out of the shellfish. 

Then it was showtime with the seafood platter for two at £60. This is my dish of the month and hardly needs describing given the beguiling image below. On this platter there were red tiger prawns, mussels, salt and pepper squid all perfectly cooked and prepared. But, hidden away as a very welcome guest under those goodies, was a whole sea bream. 

The flesh of the bream was so rich and pure it would put a smile on the face of an Olympian who’d missed out on gold by a 1000th of a second. There was chilli mayo and salsa verde too, which when the seafood was this good, were more of a distraction than an asset. 

The other main feature of the platter is the hispi. Hispi presently appears on too many menus as a grim, forbidding inedible slab, fortunately here it was chargrilled with great skill so the soft almost flesh-like interior came roaring into its own. 

The only dish which was a bit of a disappointment was the halibut (£26). The flesh was a little tough and while the asparagus was excellent the potatoes became soggy in a species of salsa verde which was under seasoned and lacked definition. 

The two desserts both did the job though, both paradigms of their species. 

Which was better, the raspberry crème brulee (£7.50) or the Eton Mess (£8)? This could come down to whether a person prefers raspberries or strawberries. Usually it’s raspberries for me, but because of memories of my mum’s trifles, then I’m going with the Eton Mess and its moreish blast of cream, meringue and strawberries. The white Rioja, the Larchago Blanco, was a good friend to the fish and the desserts. 

In July I’d popped into Oystercatcher in Sale on a Saturday lunchtime and enjoyed the seafood stew which was nigh perfect. It was this visit which tempted me back to review. Again, almost everything was exceptional. Well done also to the hard-working member of staff who was solely in charge of the dining room.

What was especially appreciated on the review visit was this was a Sunday and a) the restaurant wasn’t closed, b) it was serving its regular a la carte menu. Of course, this is a fish restaurant so it would be hard-pressed to do a Sunday roast (although there’s a rump of beef, just in case) but there is a recent industry practice for restaurants to ditch the a la carte and just do a roast. I understand this makes prep easier but it can lack variety.

Oystercatcher is all about variety, Oystercatcher is all about innovation, Oystercatcher is a winner. If you’re a fish fan then this is a must visit, along with its sister restaurant in Chorlton, and heartily recommended. 

Oystercatcher, Stanley Square, Sale, M33 7ZZ