Floods restaurant in Weymouth harbour (From Dorset Echo)

Floods restaurant in Weymouth harbour

9:53am Thursday 1st July 2010 in

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THERE’S no getting away from the fact I don’t like fish but when a thoroughly nautical friend sails into Weymouth Harbour and wants to sample the local seafood, what can you do?

As my husband has fond but very old memories of the Sea Cow, we tried to find it but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore, so we found ourselves outside Floods by the harbour on a beautiful Wednesday summer evening.

The restaurant looked full and that’s always a good sign, so magnanimously I put my prejudices aside and the waitress obligingly cleared a table in five minutes. Then we were faced with a choice of every conceivable form of fish you could think of.

Although this is obviously a place dedicated to fish lovers, I could have chosen to start with sautéed field mushroom cooked in port, Dorset Blue Vinney and double cream – but as I am on a diet that just seemed too naughty.

So I had the crab and avocado salad with hand-picked dark and white meat and although the white was a much stronger flavour I was pleasantly surprised by the dish – although I could not have identified the swirl of what appeared to be treacle on the side.

It also appeared on my husband’s main course cod but he couldn’t tell anymore than I could and we forgot to ask.

His starter was the king prawns in garlic butter and white wine, which he thought excellent if a bit of a messy experience.

My sailing friend went for the pot of mussels mariniere – wines steamed mussels with shallots, parsley and a pinch of garlic which I noted he finished in record time.

I tried the juice which was lovely, if slightly salty for my taste.

Again I could have chosen steak for a main course but in the spirit of adventure I dipped my toe in the water and had the lemon sole with citrus and parsley butter and the much Masterchef-favoured samphire. And I can definitely see why – it goes so well with fish, much better I might say than the beans, carrots and broccoli, but that’s just picky.

It was a huge fish and I can say with some pride I ate it all and contrary to my above mentioned prejudices it was exquisite – very delicate, firm flesh and above all not too ‘fishy’. My husband had the hand cut cod fillets with a fresh lime and herb crust which he enjoyed, and my friend had the grilled skate wing topped with creamy mussels and herb sauce.

It was a huge fish and the mussels may have been an unnecessary addition but he loved it, particularly the herb butter which complemented the skate perfectly, he said.

Sadly we were too full to taste any of the puddings but we could have tried winter berry pudding, treacle tart, crème brulee, French bread and butter pudding, cheesecake, West country cheeseboard, ice cream or sorbet.

The service was good, even though iced tapwater was not offered without asking and we’d drunk most of the wine before the chiller arrived.

I might not go again but if someone asked for a good seafood restaurant I wouldn’t hesitate to tell them about Floods.

* Floods, 19 Custom House, Quay, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8BG. Telephone 01305 772270.