The Shed
Porthgain is a tiny harbour village tucked into a little rocky cove on the north Pembrokeshire coast. It feels like the middle of nowhere on a wet weekday evening in March (Pembrokeshire is like the forgotten version of Cornwall) and so it’s odd to walk into through the battered little door of
The Shed down on the quayside and find a bustling crowd in this little fish bistro, many of them seemingly locals.
I had local seabass fillets on a richly tomato-y stew of butterbeans and chorizo, with a handful of battered cockles scattered around. The fish was cooked a little more thoroughly than I prefer, the stew was very satisfying, rich and herby, and the cockles were kinda okay with the batter more fluffy than scrunchy.
Sea bass
Maureen sensibly went with the fish and chips, for which The Shed is renowned. This was a purely splendid piece of cod, cloud-like soft and flakey, in nicely brown scrunchy batter. The chips were splendid, the mushy peas absolutely traditional, while the curry sauce was a big step up from typical chip-shop curry sauce, very much its own thing, warmly spicy and brilliant with both chips and fish. Though to be fair, that cod needed absolutely nothing but a little salt and vinegar.
Their fish and chips was £19, the seabass more like £27, and I’d say the mark-up on a more basic fish-and-chip restaurant was well worth it for the quality and lovely location.
Fish n chips
