Mood Food: News, views, reviews: Restaurant News - Memsaheb on Thames Seafood Festival on the Terrace

Memsaheb on Thames, the popular and well-established Indian restaurant in the Docklands recently ran a Seafood Festival on the Terrace.

Following on from last year's successful Seafood Festival, Memsaheb on Thames aimed to bring the best of Indian-style seafood to its clientele. Utilising Memsaheb's terrace with a theatre kitchen next to the Thames and fresh fish from the nearby Billingsgate Market, the festival was certain to prove even more captivating than before.

With a wide variety of seafood - whole or filleted - and ranging from sea bass, sea bream, black cod, halibut, lemon sole, red snapper and pomfret to lobster, crab, prawns and tiger prawns, customers were given a choice to have their preferred fish grilled, fried or steamed in full view. A choice of sauces was also be available to accompany the seafood, including garlic and butter sauce, medium spiced, or very spicy. The plated dish was served with roasted seasonal vegetables and a choice of rice or bread. All the seafood dishes will be paired with well-chosen wines.

"Our food festivals always prove very popular, but our seafood festival was so busy last year that we had to allocate extra tables in the dining area. This year we ran the festival for even longer so clientele could enjoy our delicious and mouthwatering dishes at leisure," says Memsaheb's co-owner Mridul Kanti Das.

We visited on a night when the weather could scarcely have been worse but the restaurant was welcoming and the outside cooking area was in full flow despite the hammering rain on the canvas.

We started with Lime and chilli prawns which were zesty and wonderful plus salmon with a garlic butter sauce and New Zealand Red Snapper cooked to perfection. It is often difficult to match the right sauces with fish but each main course dish had its own individual sauce and all the fish was cooked perfectly, underlining the passion that Mridul (who did much of the cooking himself) has for food in general and fish in particular. For main course we tried crunchy King Prawns, wonderful Hilsa, fortunately with most of the bones removed, and Sea Bream with a tomato and mustard oil sauce all washed down with a Pinot Grigio (£16.95).

This was a festival produced with love and care - love for the excitement of the fish and care for the discerning clientele.