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The hake brought tears to my eyes. Buttery, creamy, and crunchy, I smothered the batter in tartare sauce and doused it in malt vinegar and lemon juice. It was by far the best fish I have ever eaten.
“We have to come back,” I repeatedly told my partner as we devoured hake, sole, crab, cod, oysters and chips, sitting in front of a view of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Eating the battered hake was bittersweet, as soon as I had finished it I wanted to order three more. We will go back.
Noah’s is hidden away under a flyover on the western end of the harbour. The restaurant has barely been open in Bristol a year, but has already been voted the third best fish and chip restaurant in the United Kingdom.
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The building itself is beautiful, like a boat with porthole windows on one side, giant floor-to-ceiling windows on another, with gorgeous views of the Cumberland Basin and the bridge. All the tables have a bottle of malt vinegar, and we were also given some Tabasco.
We began with two oysters, a cod croquette and crab on toast. I wanted to enjoy oysters and appear cultured, but at £3.60 each they just seem an expensive faff. Maybe I’m too basic. The crab on toast was delicious, but tasted of lemon juice, herbs and mayo, and not really of crab.
The crunchy salt cod croquette however, we should have ordered several more of. The tangy sauce it came with was the standout in our first course, a tomato vinaigrette and aioli. We asked for extra bread to mop up the sauce with; I was tempted to ask for even more sauce to mop up.
Then for our mains, my partner ordered a whole sole caught off the coast of Cornwall, grilled and smothered in butter with chopped chervil, parsley and wild garlic. The two bites she gave me were divine, and tasted like a sun-kissed holiday on a warm Mediterranean beach.
Did I mention the hake? The day boat hake fillet was from Brixham, a picturesque fishing town on the south coast of Devon. “Day boat” means the fish is caught the very same day that it’s sold, rather than several days old as is too often the norm, and it makes all the difference.
I once spent a horrible Halloween trudging around the steep hills of Brixham, on my first day at work at the worst job I have ever had, knocking on doors in the rain with holes in my old shoes. Expecting trick-or-treaters, the poor people of Brixham instead saw me, asking them to sign up for a monthly donation to charity. I wanted to tell my 19-year-old self that things will get better.
And eating that fillet of hake caught off the coast of that same town, would be the proof I would show my younger self. Drinking a bottle of white wine, in excellent company and with beautiful views, and the taste of that hake alone would be plenty to help me trudge on through the rain.
I was nervous heading to the restaurant, mostly about the chips. I read one review elsewhere of Noah’s that criticised them, but they didn’t disappoint. Crunchy, fluffy and golden. Malt vinegar and chips is one of the main reasons I could never move abroad. Maybe I am indeed too basic.
When we go back, I am keen to try a whole monkfish tail, large enough to split between two, or perhaps a ray wing. They have cod, haddock, sardines, mussels and scallops on the menu too. Although the menu changes each day, depending on what fish has been caught and ordered.
I finished the meal with an affogato while my partner had mango sorbet. We then strolled off for a pint at the Merchants Arms in Hotwells, and plotted when we would return, and who we would take with us. One option is the set lunch, costing £12.95 for cod, haddock or a fishcake and chips, and a cup of tea. But I’ll probably end up just ordering three more battered hake fillets.
