Review: Crab House Cafe, Weymouth

I love going to the coast. One of the main reasons I love it is the explosion of shabby-chic seaside shack restaurants that serve up smashing fresh seafood hauled out of the sea nearby. I don’t know who exactly started it and where, but we’ve found them from Pembrokeshire to Kent, Northumberland to Devon and everywhere in between. There’s some really good ones in Dorset and the Crab House Cafe is another top specimen.

What they all have in common is an utterly laid-back, just-spent-the-day-on-the-beach-now-I’m-hungry air, and a love of local seafood at really good prices. The Crab House Cafe is tucked into an odd little spot on the edge of Chesil Beach, which really does look like it would have just been waste ground and/or a dusty car park if it hadn’t been turned into a nice place for a fish supper. Eating in the shaded pavilion was ace on a day that hit 30+ degrees, but there’s indoors and fully outdoors too.

Because their speciality are the Portland crabs fished within spitting distance of the restaurant, we opted for a bowl of crab bisque to begin. This was gloriously good, distinctly crab and deeply flavoured, but also bright and fragrant with some citrus and a drizzle of fennel oil. Nice saffron aioli too. For a main course Maureen went with huss kebabs, huss being an underused fish that is maybe somewhere between cod and monkfish in texture. It took on the tandoori marinade very well indeed and had been delicately grilled, still soft and translucent to eat. The hummus, giant couscous and bean accompaniment was just a teensy bit much carbs, but all tasty. My main was coley fillet, another underused fish that is perhaps like slightly robust haddock, and mine was cooked perfectly too. I’ve a real bugbear about overcooked fish, so if you like your fish dry and very white inside you shouldn’t take my recommendations. This was the opposite, soft and slightly slippery and just a bit translucent. The pesto and toasted almond flakes accompanied well, as did the mixture of roast Mediterranean veg underneath and the lightly truffle-oiled mushrooms on the side.

Great seafood, maybe about £40 for two courses – so not the cheapest seaside shack, but the quality was great and they’ve got a good drinks list of chilled wines, spritzes and cocktails to swig with it. Worth knowing.