Food review: Harvey's, High Street, Shrewsbury

Harveys of Fish Street has been a welcome addition to Shrewsbury’s ample collection of independent restaurants. Since its launch a couple of years ago, it’s provided a new option for informal dining with unfussy food and decent service.

The venue is located off the beaten track, not far from the High Street, at Fish Street. It’s worth the short walk to find its light and airy space in one of the town’s most historic quarters. The team behind the restaurant have done a good job with the interior; it’s a light and airy space with simple furnishings and nicely upholstered chairs.

It’s not the sort of place that’s looking to dazzle critics or win awards. The menu comprises a perfectly serviceable collection of bistro classics – from steak and chips to shoulder of Shropshire lamb and from local charcuterie to a soup of the day.

And yet there’s a feeling that Harveys might start to kick on and offer more. It’s decent, but not great; pretty good, but not brilliant; a run-of-the-mill venue that’s at times mediocre and could do better.

My friend and I called in for a midweek supper and the standards were reasonably good, though the word ‘mediocre’ keeps running through my mind and I’m unable to resist its use. For there was nothing remarkable about an evening of pleasant but humdrum food and service that was friendly but lacking sophistication. My friend started with the Scottish scallops, served with sweetcorn, caviar and saffron cream. They were a delight. The scallops were tender and salty-sweet, offering a taste of the sea. Cooked accurately, so that the outer was nicely caramelised and golden brown while the inner was soft, yielding and translucent, the accompanying sweetcorn added ballast while the cream was luxurious.

My starter was a wasted opportunity, in contrast. A Shrewsbury Fretta Cheese dish had all the right ideas but lacked in execution. Fretta is a delicious, relatively-new cheese made by Mr Moyden’s. A spin on Feta, it’s a young, mild variety with a delightful texture. It’s refreshingly light. The fretta was served with orange, beetroot, pickled cucumber, a few leaves of lettuce and unappealing quarters of tomato. The flavours were all decent, though somehow underwhelming. Why chefs use flavourless watery tomatoes when there are beautiful heritage varieties is a question I’ve yet to answer. The dish was undressed and so felt a little flat. More effort and a little more know how would have elevated the simple salad into a dish of note. No matter.

My friend opted for a classic steak, eating a fillet of beef with fondant potato, wild mushroom and a red wine sauce. The steak was meltingly tender and he enjoyed every mouthful. The fondant was okay; it didn’t dazzle, though when it was up against beef that good it perhaps didn’t need to.

My stir-fried mushrooms were a curate’s egg. The sauce was delicious; a chilli and coconut broth was a Thai green curry by any other name – and thoroughly good it was too. Why oh why the delicate early autumn flavours of mushrooms had been drowned by it was another matter. The different mushrooms bobbed to the service sadly, their earthiness all but ruined by a sauce that masked every last ounce of flavour.

The rice was decent but other veg that were hidden in the stir fry – mangetout and beans – were so over-cooked that they were as flaccid as a drunk’s wits. Limp and lacking any sort of texture, the bendy vegetables were unenjoyable.

We skipped dessert; the fillet steak had done for my friend who had enjoyed a thoroughly pleasant evening while I’d given up a little after two flatter-to-deceive courses. Service had been pleasant. Two youthful waitresses were decent; one was quiet, well-mannered, polite and attentive, the other was eager to please, if not a bit of a show-off.

Harveys does a decent job and is evidently here for the long haul. The dining room is fine, with little or no attention required. And the menu does a decent job of appealing to the masses with easy-to-recognise, crowd-pleasing dishes that are favourites of Mr and Mrs Everyman.

Where Harveys falls down is in its attention to detail. Sticking to the basics is all very fine, providing that’s done well.

And there were too many casual errors to give it the sort of reputation that it might reasonably strive for.

The kitchen might do the basics a little better, for better results: improved seasoning on the fondant, vegetables that are a little al dente rather than over-cooked and salads that are properly dressed and show more imagination and skill. Similarly, a better understanding of flavour pairings would improve the customer experience – killing the flavours of expensive and flavour-packed mushrooms by drowning them in an inappropriate sauce is the stuff of schoolboy error. And while the front of house team were pleasant, an older, wiser head would have helped to keep them on track and remember that sometimes less is more.

Shrewsbury has plenty of choice in the mid-market sector. It’s well served by local independents, many of which are fighting for the same dollar, with a number of big name multiples offering bargain eats for those seeking an informal night out. Against such tough competition, simple errors are enough to make alternatives seem desirable.

Harveys does enough right, however, to earn a still-decent score.

It has a good sourcing policy, staff that are trying hard and an environment that’s a pleasure to eat in. With a little more know-how and experience, it ought to become a stand-out destination for mid-priced dinners and lunches. Its owners have created a fine concept and it’s up to the staff to deliver on their ambition.

And while it’s done enough to suggest it’ll be around for a long time to come, becoming a favourite of a particular demograph, it’s still got a way to go. For now, Harvey’s is not quite the finished article.