Londoners are spoilt for choice when it comes to dining out, with the world on their doorstep – or at their fingertips, with delivery now available from even the most luxurious establishments. Where this often fails, however, is when it comes to the very best in high-end shellfish. For that, it’s best to change out of your pyjamas. Even if they are silk Prada.

The luxurious red king crab is another step up and is oddly less common on seafood restaurants than its more widely enjoyed cousin the lobster. This is largely because it is for only three months of the year, from September to December, that the Arctic Ocean’s coldest, deepest, and most formidable waters offer up this rare prize. So, now is the very best time to eat the finest red king crab, and we know where we are heading.

Fancy Crab sets the bar, and does so ethically, without any compromise on flavour. For three days, their crew of crab catchers sail, deep into the harshest swells kicked up by the desolate Far North, to seek out these magnificent creatures. The red king crab is the world’s biggest and most famous crab, but the Fancy Crab team give it the respect it deserves, harvesting only the adult males, to maintain the ocean’s stocks.

Back in the London restaurant, far from the perilous seas, the delicate flesh is preserved. Try the King Crab Burger or the famous Singapore Chili Crab, or for something truly luxurious go for the FC Deluxe Platter, featuring Scottish langoustines, Devonshire lobster, scallop ceviche, Jersey oysters, crevettes, razor clams, St. Austell Bay mussels, clams, whelks, Atlantic prawns and salmon mousse alongside the star of the show, the one and only Red King Crab. Perfect with a glass of bubbly. 

Prices range from the casual (small plates from under a tenner) to the blow out (whole king crab at £99/kg) so nobody should feel unwelcome…but we know what we’ve come for.  

Fancy Crab
92 Wigmore Street, Marylebone, W1U 3RD