Canal’s menu brings together seasonal cooking with a thoughtful approach to ingredients and flavour. From carefully prepared starters to satisfying mains and desserts, each dish reflects the kitchen’s style and the produce available. Here’s a closer look at what to order, what makes each dish special and why the menu is worth exploring.
Every meal at Canal opens the same unhurried way.
From there the snacks move fast and light:
They are designed to make the wait for your main feel like part of the meal. Order two or three across the table and let them arrive however the kitchen sends them out.
This is where the Canal food menu dishes start to show their hand a little more. The anchovy toast with goat's curd and gremolata is a good measure of the kitchen's instincts: salty, creamy, sharp.
If you are after something cooler, the monkfish crudo with blood orange and radicchio is built for a warm evening on the terrace, bright without being sweet. The burrata with courgette, mint and fried capers does something similar in a gentler register.
For anyone who wants a starter that eats more like a main, the white asparagus with brown shrimps and brown butter or the fried cod cheeks with tartare sauce both land closer to a full plate than a taste.
The mains lean into produce rather than spectacle, which is very much the point. Rolled lamb belly with anchovy, peas, broad beans and mustard greens is one of the standout best dishes at Canal restaurant right now, savoury and green in equal measure.
The Portland crab linguine, with chilli and garlic, is a straightforward, well-judged plate for anyone who wants something a little lighter but still generous. The brill, served with chicken butter sauce and Tropea onion, is the more indulgent choice, and worth ordering if you want the meal to feel like an occasion.
If you are planning ahead rather than dropping in, the bouillabaisse deserves its own conversation. Inspired by Marseille and built around monkfish, gurnard, mussels and clams, it arrives with croutons, garlic and a proper rouille and gruyère on the side. It is the kind of dish that wants a table of six or more, unhurried and shared, and it needs to be booked in advance rather than ordered on the night. We have written more about the dish and its Marseille roots in our bouillabaisse and Marseille piece on the blog, if you want the fuller story before you book.
These Canal seasonal plates close things gently rather than with a bang, which suits the whole meal. The chocolate crémeux with olive oil and sea salt is the one most people order twice across a visit, once for themselves and once "to try," and the brown butter cake with rhubarb and crème fraîche is the better pick if you want something a little brighter. The chartreuse sorbet is worth knowing about if you want to finish on something cold and herbal rather than rich.
The cocktail list is built for the terrace as much as the dining room. Order the olive oil negroni if you want something savoury and a little unexpected, and the brown butter old fashioned is the closest thing to a house signature. Both work as well with the snacks as they do with a main course, which is part of the point.
The menu shifts with the seasons, so what we have described here is a starting point rather than a fixed order, and half the pleasure of coming back is seeing what has changed.
Take a look at the full food menu and book your table when you are ready. We will have a spot by the window or the water waiting.
