Lyon's Seafood

Seafood Bliss with Stellar Monkfish Delights

Ah, Lyon’s in Crouch End—a seafood sanctuary that seems effortlessly to have wedged itself into my list of London haunts. Once inside, it greets you with the warm buzz typical of a neighbourhood bistro rather than a pretentious big city seafood haunt. As someone with an adoration for creatures from the sea, I found their monkfish tail with harissa to be quite the aquatic coup. It sang with flavor combatting perfectly alongside little choux buns stuffed with crab and parmesan—clearly Hogwarts-worthy in all their magical charm. With wine that dances past your normal plonk into more orchestral territory, it's the kind of place that makes you—with bewilderment—enjoy Tuesdays even before they've turned into Thursdays.

Teleporting myself there on a breezy late-week evening found me enthralled by the set menu offering, which though not exactly acumen for being easy on the wallet, was more than fair for tantalizing diner's taste buds. Each dish, much like each artwork in a gallery, seemed curated with care, such as wild garlic culturing those mussels like they'd known nothing but the tenderest of sunshine and meadow magics. Never fear though, plant-based fellows, for Lyon’s offers first-rate vegetarian options too—a veritable garnish atop the piscatorial palace. Consonant parallels to a sturdy-old ship reveal themselves occasionally through what one might call 'hullabaloo'—a bit boisterous, a tad rushed, but not enough to stop me planning a return voyage to this underwater symphony. — Milo Tastemaker