Superb Sustainable Seafood In Notting Hill

We're massive fans of seafood, but there's a nagging fear in the back of our heads about the effects of overfishing on the seas. Swim forth Bucket — a sustainable seafood restaurant designed to keep our stomach full and our conscience clear.

The simple decor in this Notting Hill restaurant has a welcoming feel, that's hard not to admire. The food kicks off with some superb taramasalata that is exactly the right level of saltiness, accompanied by bread lightly toasted and crunchy. Speaking of crunch, seaweed crisps are the firm foil that complements our soft tuna tartare.

The restaurant's name comes from its habit of serving dishes in buckets and so we follow up with an assortment of fried seafood and a bucket of mussels. Mussels should always be served by the bucketful and here there is no scrimping on portion size — this thing weighs in at a hefty 75o grams and only brave (or crazy) diners should tackle the large 1.5kg bucket solo. We went with the smaller portion and struggled to get more than halfway through it.

We opted for the rather exotic mix of mussels with coconut and chilli. While this mix of flavours may not quite gel at first, it grew on us as we worked our way through the bucket. The fried seafood lacked a bit of flavour and it was the only dish that didn't meet the high standards of everything else we ordered.

A special mention must be reserved for our side of lobster mac 'n' cheese, by mixing up a simple dish with hefty chunks of lobster the results are wonderful — our stomach now demands that all restaurants to serve lobster in their mac 'n' cheese offerings.

We round off with a soft chocolate fondant with a beautifully gooey centre. It's the perfect end to our dinner and left us with buckets of love for this new Notting Hill restaurant.  

Bucket, 107 Westbourne Grove. The meal in this review would cost circa £65 for two, excluding drinks.