WRIGHT BROTHERS OYSTER & PORTER HOUSE
11 Stoney Street
Borough Market
London
SE1 9AD
The dishes
Naked on the half shell -six fresh oysters
Fried whitebait with spicy mayo
Salt cod and brown crab croquettes
Mussels, white wines, shallots, parsley and fries
Skate wing with beurre noisette, capers and lemon
Located in London’s busy Borough Market, one of the city’s landmark tourist destinations with roughly 1000 years of history, there are so many eateries crammed into its confines that you literally don’t know where to start eating. At the Market, which is run by a charitable trust for the benefit of our community, the Wright Brothers Oyster & Porter House is one of the better dining destinations that line up all around the centrally-positioned stands and purveyors of just about anything you’d like to eat and drink.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, I was in London about six months of the year, and so I got to know the eating scene there well. One place my somm friends always liked to go to was Wright Brothers Oyster & Porter House, and I was quick to join in on the fun. We’d sit at the counter and down glasses of good Champagne while doing the same with oysters, and life was good. I keep returning to Wright Brothers every time I am in London, and let me tell you, life at Wright’s is still pretty good. In fairness, maybe not quite as good as it was back then: and though memories of halcyon days of youth gone by might have something to do with tempering my enthusiasm for the activities of today, I imagine post-Covid and difficult economic times-induced changes in the quality of the bottles on the wine list also contributes a little to dampening my enthusiasm just a tad for the modern day iteration of what remains a very good bistro and wine bar. But the place is always packed to the rafters, the food remains quite good, the wines more than acceptable, so let’s not quibble.
