A distinctive harbour-side seafood tasting-menu destination with exceptional cooking and service potential, but expect small portions, a long meal, limited flexibility, and occasional service inconsistency.
Catch at The Old Fish Market delivers strong food quality anchored by fresh seafood and assured technique, with service that matches its ambitions most of the time. The characterful quayside setting and fishing heritage create genuine destination appeal, though occasional lapses in attentiveness and consistency prevent it from reaching the very top tier.
Catch occupies a beautifully restored old fish-market building above Weymouth Harbour, where the setting does much of the storytelling before the first course arrives. Reviews describe an intimate, polished room, an open-kitchen view, and staff who can make a celebration feel genuinely personal; one diner summed up the experience as being looked after from arrival to departure. It is a destination meal rather than a casual drop-in. The cooking is modern, highly seafood-led, and proudly local, with named boats, skippers, fishermen, and suppliers often part of the narrative. Scallops, crab, sea bass, lobster, octopus, and less familiar local species are treated with considerable precision, while ingredients such as kimchi, miso, shiso, fermented tomato, and seaweed add contemporary edge. The strongest visits sound superb, though the fixed tasting format can feel precious to conservative palates, and several diners found the portions or gaps between courses frustrating. This is not a family restaurant for young children: a detailed review reports that a six-year-old was refused entry under the venue's no-children policy. The current menu is also built around tasting courses rather than familiar children's dishes; even the vegetarian choices are sophisticated, such as kimchi yoghurt brassicas and beetroot with fennel. Families should choose elsewhere, while adults celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or milestone should book ahead and arrive ready for a long, seafood-focused meal.
Area vibe: Tourist-focused coastal harbour with promenades, seafood and boating activity.
Safety: Generally safe in daytime; quieter in evenings with limited late-night footfall.
What's nearby: Beside Weymouth Harbour, near the esplanade, ferry terminal, shops and coastal attractions.
The tasting menu moves from Portland Brown Crab and roasted scallops to miso-glazed octopus and sea bass with lobster sauce.
Plan for a long, seafood-focused set menu in an adults-only setting, with creative flavours, potentially small portions, and a reservation recommended.
The harbour-side listed building, open kitchen, and polished service create an intimate special-occasion setting, though the tasting format is not casual.