Trend Watch – Seafood Bar Snacks

No longer considered food for the brave, seafood is often seen by customers as a chance to experiment with taste and aesthetics - meaning pub caterers have the chance to get creative with their menus.

An increasing number of pub chefs are using seafood on their bar snack menus, with dishes featuring on sharing platters or as part of tapas style smaller plates.

The newly opened Vintage at Drygate in Glasgow offers octopus pastrami (£4) and a hopped sea trout gravadlax (£4) as small plates on their grazing menu.

Young’s pub the Castle in Tooting, South London features salmon crackling as part of their fisherman’s sharing board (£16).

Operators are also looking at different ways of presenting seafood snacks with Drake & Morgan pubs offer prawn lollipops with a sweet chilli and soy dip (£5.95) while Russell Norman’s Ape and Bird on Shaftsbury Avenue central London, serves smoked mackerel toast (£5) on their bar menu.

At New Moon Pub company's Beef & Pudding in Manchester, tempura monkfish cheeks (£8.95) are on offer as a starter.

At Tom Kitchin's Scran & Scallie in Edinburgh, a mackerel ceviche (£6.75) with lemon and dill dressing is served as a starter alongside a buckwheat blini and smoked salmon mousse (£7.50).