Sea Shanty      Address : Upstairs at Conway’s, 3 Main St, Blackrock, Co Dublin, A94 NA06. Telephone : N/A Cuisine : Spanish Website : https://www.instagram.com/seashantyblackrock/ Opens in new window Cost : €€€ Some 20 years ago, I went to Barcelona for the first time. It was peak Celtic Tiger – and if you cared remotely about food, it was the place to be. The city was mid-revolution: foams, spheres, deconstructions – but also the old guard, holding firm. Chief among them: Quimet i Quimet, a tapas bar in El Poble Sec, where suited businessmen crushed in shoulder to shoulder for vermouth and conservas – tins of zamburiñas and navajas, the canned seafood delicacies beloved by the Spanish, stacked like library books behind the bar. I think of that room as I flick through the “tinned fish” section of the menu at Sea Shanty. There are snails, mussels, sardines, octopus and pâtés, served straight in the tin with focaccia, gildas, olives and crisps. On the broader menu there are no starters, mains or desserts in the traditional sense – just a tight run of small plates, raw and cooked oysters and a short dessert list. It’s built for grazing, sharing, and drinking alongside, rather than trudging through a three-act structure. Sea Shanty tinned fish menu The interior of Sea Shanty Sea Shanty, run by Sebastian Sainz from Uruguay and Elena Segura from Seville (the pair met while working at Las Tapas de Lola on Wexford Street), is tucked discreetly upstairs over Conway’s Bar in Blackrock. It is signposted with the sort of understatement that feels deliberate. The floorboards are dark wood, tables are simple, chairs vary in height and a long communal table with high stools anchors one end of the rather large room. The lights – strung casually across the ceiling, festival-style – feel somewhat out of place. We start with anchovies (€10). They arrive delicately arrayed on a plate with semi-dried tomatoes and a hint of ponzu, that citrus-soy sharpness that makes your molars tingle. The anchovies are salty but not aggressive, and the tomatoes add a soft, jammy sweetness that threads it all together. We follow with a tin of conservas – spicy sardines (€14.50) – which are a little let down by indifferent olives and focaccia. READ MORE The oyster selection Then there are the oysters. Seven types, sourced directly from each producer with the kind of nerdy geographical precision usually reserved for terroir-obsessed winemakers – Woodstown Bay, Cooley, Killough Bay, Rossmore natives, DK Connemara, Achill and Cromane oysters – each bringing a different level of salinity. You can go purist – raw, briny, glistening – as we do, with a delicious Rossmore native (€3.70). Or you can opt for the lightly cooked versions. The green curry and spinach oyster (€4.50) tastes like a bowl of Thai curry gently caressing your mouth. There’s also a tempura oyster with wasabi mayo and asparagus (€4.50) in a gloriously light batter. Next, octopus (€14) – a single tentacle, grilled and placed on a slick of deep red muhammara. There’s pomegranate seed, mint, maybe even a whisper of walnut. It’s tender – genuinely tender – which is so often not the case. There’s a channelled wrack bhaji (€11), seaweed encased in crunchy batter served with a sauce that nods towards takeaway curry but with more refinement, bringing a minty, nigella-seeded note. From there the menu gets bolder. A calamari taco (€13) – long strips of squid, crispy-edged and salted – comes topped with a tomato salsa, red cabbage slaw and flecks of coriander and mint. It’s a messy mélange of sweetness, acidity and crunch. Calamari taco To drink? This is a low-intervention wine list built by people who care – short, sharp and quietly adventurous – more about interest and texture than labels. Almost everything is available by the glass, which means you can actually match food to wine without committing to a bottle. A Bodegas Barón Xixarito Manzanilla Pasada en Rama (€11.50), aged 10 years and bottled unfiltered from the cask, works brilliantly with the anchovies. A Veltlínske zelené (€10), a Slovak riff on Grüner Veltliner, is bright and mineral. And Claus Preisinger’s Kalkstein Blaufränkisch (€11.50) is light, low-alcohol and fruit-driven – elegant but not fragile. Dessert is mango with mascarpone and saffron syrup (€5.50). It arrives as a sort of whipped-sorbet hybrid – not quite mousse, not quite purée – layered with cream, mint and a drizzle of saffron that’s tastefully restrained. You can eat modestly at Sea Shanty – a glass of wine, a couple of oysters and a few plates – which is perfect for a catch-up with a pal. Or settle in, as we do, for a longer spell, chatting with Segura about the wines and working your way across the menu. Either way, it’s pleasurably satisfying – and likely to be even more so once they secure a permanent home. Dinner for two with three glasses of wine was €113.70. The verdict: Perfect for grazing, sharing and drinking alongside. Food provenance: Oysters direct from producers, Mungo Seaweed and Glenmar fish. Vegetarian options: Channelled wrack bhaji, fried cassava and mojo picon, and kurze curry ramen. Wheelchair access: No accessible room or toilet. Music: Dire Straits and music from Conway’s bar downstairs.