Stuffed Lobster Rolls and Fritto Misto Will Star at a Top East London Fishmonger’s Seafood Shack

A stellar east London fishmonger will open a new fast food seafood shack in Netil Market — home to some of London’s best street food stalls in Sonora Taqueria, Pockets, and the original Bao bar — as Broadway Market’s Fin and Flounder will open Bar Flounder on Friday 3 September.

“Inner city Londoners make the best Lobster rolls…OPENING FRIDAY 3rd SEPTEMBER,” the fishmonger’s Instagram handle announced alongside a very attention-grabbing photograph on 25 August. “With fresh Scottish Native Lobster arriving with us daily, it would be crazy not to have this classic on the Bar Flounder Menu…”

Shop manager Michael Harrison told Eater that the team were “really excited to give the street food a permanent home.” Referencing the small street food outfit the brand has been operating outside the front of the fishmonger on Saturday’s Broadway Market market for a number of years, Harrison thought the team could now “take [the food] to the next level.”

The I’s Josh Barrie reports that Bar Flounder will serve a prawn burger; salmon tartare with Torres’s truffle crisps; fritto misto with aioli; turbot tenders and buffalo hot sauce; and the lobster roll. There will also be crab or vegetable hash browns, with avocado and fried egg; scallop and bacon butty, with tomato relish; and a lobster ‘BF’ muffin, with fried egg and cheese.

It comes as the owners of Fin and Flounder confirmed to Eater that they would no longer be opening a cafe-restaurant on the site of 100-year-old pie and mash shop F. Cooke. In May 2019, it was reported that the takeover was imminent. It was then delayed and then the pandemic hit. “Actually it went to another buyer but I think it’s coming back on the market,” Harrison told Eater.

Cooke’s closed during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.