Soho Seafood Restaurant Scuttles Into Covent Garden’s New Food Market

Claw, the “sustainable” seafood restaurant, has closed its site on Kingly Street in Soho in favour of a move to Seven Dials Market, the new off-street street food market led by Kerb. Claw opened the Soho restaurant in December 2017, having originally traded at markets and residencies around the city — it now moves back into that space as a former bricks-and-mortar operator, a London restaurant life cycle that is getting more common by the day.

Writing on Instagram this morning, 12 August, the restaurant said:

Unfortunately we’ve decided to close Kingly st! Thank you to all our loyal crab fans, we loved every minute of Carnaby. But it’s not all sad! We’re moving to a new smaller spot over in Covent Garden and hope to see you all down there. Details to come soon. Big love.

That smaller spot is at Seven Dials Market, where the seafood brand — specialising in lobster rolls and crab claws — will add a shrimp roll and a lobster mac and cheese to what will almost certainly be a more stripped back offer. Claw closed its original takeaway site on Finsbury Avenue Square, which was similarly pared-back, in February 2018. Its sustainability credentials, which focus on U.K. fishermen by “cutting out middle-men,” are not quite as striking as they were in 2015.

It will join Strozzapreti, a pasta brand from pizza pioneers Franco Manca, and Masterchef winner Tim Anderson’s Nanban, as well as Club Mexicana, Yum Bun, INK, Square Root, Rice Guys and the “world’s first cheese conveyer belt,” Pick & Cheese.