REGGIE Ryan will be best known to folk in the north west as the owner of the ever reliable Restaurant St John, in Falyan, Co Donegal, but he is a man who has always dabbled a bit in fish as well as restaurants, and his newest venture, Reggie's in Derry, is not merely a fish restaurant but also sports a fine fish shop out front.
It's a simple space, in a new building on the Strand Road heading out of town, with just some booths along one wall and a counter opposite, behind which the chefs work.
While some things on the menu look, initially, almost Harry Ramsdenish battered fish with chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce, for example this is an ambitiously modern place, where turbot is baked with a citrus and coriander crust; monkfish is braised in red wine with smoked bacon and pan fried cod is accompanied by pesto tagliatelle. A simple lunch dish of smoked haddock with a dill butter sauce was paired with poundies and carrots and was deliciously right. With some funkier music and a good weekend crowd hell bent on a good time, I could see Reggie's becoming as fashionable as the London restaurant Livebait, currently one of the hot tickets in the big smoke. In the meantime, Reggie's will do just nicely.