Eats the World: Oyster Feast at Wright Bros, Soho

I love eating oysters but am far from a connoisseur. Actually, I think I was something of an oyster-ignoramus before going to the Oyster Feast event at Wright Bros, Soho on Monday!

The three-floored Soho restaurant is the latest venture from the Wright Bros, expanding on the success of the iconic Borough Market oyster bar and the Ferryboat Inn, Cornwall. Wright Bros also run the Duchy of Cornwall oyster farm, cultivating and harvesting over 5 million native and pacific oysters a year. This makes the Duchy Oyster Farm one of the largest oyster farms in the UK. Suffice to say, they know their stuff.

The evening began with a glass of prosecco and a presentation from Wright Brother (in-law) Robin Hancock on all things bivalve. Lots of interesting facts and figures about oyster consumption (the French eat two billion oysters a year, compared to the UK's 20 million), nutrition (oysters contain just six calories each - I am soo doing the oyster diet!), production, history and so on. I'm a food geek, so I love this stuff.

On to the main event, we started with an oyster shot - a mini bloody mary with a whole oyster. Very fun - would be a nice touch at a dinner party.

Next we moved on to the more serious business of trying different varieties of oyster: Carlingford Lough (Ireland), Speciale de Claire (France) and Maldon (Essex). We had a rather nice glass of Chablis, whilst chatting to Robin and his team about the differences between the oysters. Whilst they were all delicious, I think my favourite was the Maldon, which was plump and sweet.

Rockefeller oysters (oysters topped with breadcrumbs, spinach and herbs) were followed by deep fried oysters and tartare sauce. These were washed down with a glass of Picpoul. Both very interesting ways to serve oysters that worked really well.

The last of the oyster courses was oyster rarebits. Oysters, bread and melted cheese, what's not to love?

Finally we had a little palate cleanser of Gelupo white peach sorbet.

We paid £26 each for the event, which I think was very good value. This included a glass of prosecco, a glass of Chablis and all of the food. The Oyster Feast events will run monthly. If you're a bivalve lover, I highly recommend going along.