Little Catch


What: Top quality, chemical-free, safe seafood
Where: 247-6 Wulumuqi Zhong Lu, near Wuyuan Lu. Tel: 6405 6630
Why: Poke bowls, poke bowls and, oh yeah, poke bowls
Little Catch, your friendly, neighbourhood fishmonger, has just launched their first food and drinks menu. Run by Singaporean sisters, Wen and Jia Huang, the store is part of Pacific Andes Group, the Huang’s family business, and adheres to the highest international food safety standards as well as only harvesting from sustainable fishing grounds.
 
Wen and Jia, both accredited fishmongers, have the ocean running through their veins and get involved in every part of the family business from net to store; now even to plate. After four years of working for Pacific Andes Group in Shanghai, they felt that there was a need for safe, traceable seafood in the city. This led them to open their first fishmonger in Hongmei Lu, and now a fishmonger and kitchen in the bustling heart of the French Concession.
 
The store offers both fresh and frozen seafood, which is flown in every week. Along with salmon, sea bass and ahi tuna, there are also gourmet items such as oysters on the shell, mussels, scampi and scallops almost the size of your fist. In the freezer section, there are also easy-tocook products such as oven ready salmon Wellington (RMB 26 per portion) and frozen, vacuum-sealed laksa soup (RMB 20), which is ideal when you want to make a quick, yet impressive, meal at home.
 
In terms of the new food and drinks menu, you can either order to go, or pull up a chair and table on Wulumuqi Lu to enjoy your fresh snack. The menu is simple and concise, consisting of poke bowls (RMB 55), a traditional Hawaiian raw fish salad, STB bagels with crab cream cheese (RMB 35), with the option of added salmon gravlax (add RMB 20), and oysters (market price). Each dish is freshly prepared in the tiny kitchen at the back of the store. Drinks wise, you can either choose the house white, or be daring and take a Bloody Mary shot with a delicious plump oyster floating within.
 
If you are heading over for a poke bowl, make sure you get there before the store closes at 8pm. Poke bowls come in a variety of flavours: classic shoyu ahi poke, dynamite ahi or salmon poke and sambal salmon poke. Each bowl is made using sashimi grade, marinated to order fish and served on a seaweed salad and Japanese round grain rice. 
 
Go for happy hour, everyday after 4pm, for half a dozen jet-fresh oysters with a glass of house white for RMB 168 and we promise that you will also become converts.