The much-awaited fishmonger opens tomorrow morning. Hope it’s good for you (vegetarian Bugles need not apply, although I’m sure the fish-and-chipocrite Mrs Bugle will be investigating).
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The Blackheath Bugle · A blog about Blackheath, London, SE3, UK
The Blackheath Bugle 
VERY much looking forward to this. Tho i notice when looking through the window today that they’re still a little rough around the edges with the tiling and missed bits!
Ah, Mrs. Coultates Newsagents shop, from way back in the 1940/50’s.
Great . Seems a good idea for such a small space . Let’s hope it’s a success and got the right planning permission !
Would be lovely if they did a decent fish and chips too. The f&c shop opposite the station is awful
Daytime fishmongers, Night time chippy… Right next to two pubs – they’d do a roaring trade. And you’re right, the chipshop isn’t winning any awards.
Am I the only fan of the chips there? I think they’re absolutely tremendous. Stupid price, but very good. I think maybe the turnover there is quite high so they’re usually fresh…
I think maybe you are. Every time I’ve been in there, they’ve tasted like cardboard. And I’m generally forbidden from going anywhere near it.
Cockles to go?
I am looking forward to checking out the prices!
When you have done so, please report back so that I know whether it’s worth the trek from Eltham.
Well worth the visit – friendly and helpful – bought some prawns and they were delicious. Also bought some cod at a reasonable price and have just finished eating it – delicious
As for the trimmings that are missing – as long as the food tastes good then that certainly doesn’t bother me
Going there for my lunch to cook at home tomorrow – will report back
Popped in this afternoon and have to say that, despite my initial excitement at a great new independent business coming to the village (and I love fish), the rather brusque manageress has really put me off going back. I am sure she was just looking forward to getting home (retail, and especially start ups are incredibly hard work) but getting into a ‘who knows Blackheath better me or you’ competition was not much fun. Such a disappointment.
I wasn’t sure whether to publish this comment. Everyone has off days. Is the fish any good? And how do you get into an argument about Blackheath in a fish shop?! (Please don’t answer the second one).
Absolutely – I know we all have bad days so I wasn’t sure about posting at all but I just came away rather shocked by the experience. I think the abrupt manner I was treated with just reflected so badly on this new store – it has only been open 2 weeks and I would sort of expect a positive energy about the place. I have to say I think I’ll keep going to the fantastic place on Royal Hill, I just can’t go back to Coquillage for some time – it was just horrible and I can’t give people like that my business when I know it doesn’t have to be that way. Sad though.
Oh dear. That IS a disappointment.
Enough to put anyone off.
Lady running it is perfectly friendly – though perhaps has firm views. Can confirm the smoked salmon is rater good
I agree with Nick.
Great shop and a really welcome addition to the village.
If we want a diverse, independent “high street” then we have to support new ventures like this!
Does anyone have a phone number for them? I can’t find one anywhere. I just want to check if they have any crabs.
There isn’t a number on their website – can anyone here remember whether they sell crabs?
Bit personal, innit?
They have dressed crab, not sure about alive crab – though they have frozen soft shelled crab that i will be attempting to tempura on Christmas Eve…
They’re pretty quick to reply to emails (email on their website)
They sell dressed frozen crabs which was what I wanted so all sorted. I didn’t find out about a phone number though!
Have to say that I am disappointed with Coquillage. Between my wife and I, we have been in three times since opening and they’ve never had what we wanted – cod, fresh prawns and yesterday bream, all main staples I would have thought (and we were there by midday at the latest). They didn’t volunteer to prep the fish either so had to prompt at least twice on one occasion. We also found the manageress a bit brusque and she interrupted a conversation I was having about Blackheath with someone else to tell us she had been a local for 25 years. The fish we have had though was good. I had hoped for something to rival both The Fishmonger in Greenwich and Moxtons in East Dulwich but it looks like I’ll still be using them. They have better choice and far better service.
I can vouch for the clams – had them twice and they tasted great. Just about to try the sea bass… However, I would agree with the other comments about the manageress and her manner. She doesn’t seem to know a lot about fish. Perhaps the guy in the back who fillets the fish should be running the place?!? It’s a shame, as I was pleased to see a fishmonger in Blackheath, but I will be sticking to the farmer’s market in future when I can.
I’m afraid I have to report that they don’t sell cockles, the lady I asked today looked at me as if I was taking the mickey (I wasn’t). Strange for a shop called Coqillage.
I must call into Coquillage one day soon and meet this lady. If even half of what’s been written about her here is true she must be well on her way to becoming a “Village character” – in the same sort of mould as the wonderful Madeleine Moore and that feisty good ‘ol gal Mrs. Coultate.
Strange as it may seem, not everybody reads the Blackheath Bugle. So I wonder if the lady in Coquillage is aware of what’s being written about her here – almost entirely anonymously.
Hi Michelle,
Seems quite surreal really, I done a paper round for Mrs. Coultate more than 56 years ago, and she is being spoken about in 2012 !
Do you know when her shop actually closed ?
regards
Bob land
@Bob Land
“… I done a paper round for Mrs. Coultate more than 56 years ago, and she is being spoken about in 2012 ! Do you know when her shop actually closed ?”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sometime in the late 1970s, I’d guess, Bob, but maybe later than that, in the early 1980s. Perhaps Blackheath’s local history expert Neil Rhind knows.
Well, the translation is ‘shellfish’ or ‘seashell’, not cockles.
Even so, not a particularly apt name if they sell other fish too. Perhaps ‘poissonerie’ might have been better if it had to be in french.
Coquillage means an assemblage of shells, like a picture frame covered in shells for instance. Similar to montage.
Coquille means shell or seashell, or perhaps shellfish, as in coquille St Jaques.
It’d be nice if they sold cockles, but I can get them from Lewisham mkt or Sopers in Nunhead, don’t know if they sell them in Greenwich. Coquillage sells clams, more or less the same thing but you have to cook them, whereas a cup of cockles can be eaten immediately.
Well I have to start by saying I found the lady at the fish shop
A lot more humble so maybe she has been spoken too!
Other than that all the fish I have bought from the lovely
Shop has been top notch and would have no problem
Recommending this fantastic edition to the Blackheath food chain.
Think we should surport any new business brave enough to open in these
Difficult times , and any new business makes mistakes in the early days. So
Thumbs up from me and good luck for 2012
I should start by apologising…I am the referenced lady from above. If I came over rude or abrupt – that was not my intention – I was very enthusisastic and made some mistakes…..But this is a New Year and I am less stressed and hopefully you will give me another chance.
What a wonderful edition to the village lets hope it evolves into a destination shop. As for characters compare having a conversation with a feisty shopkeeper to ordering on line,
I went recently and the two staff were very polite and helpful – in fact the lady spent 5 minutes explaining to a customer how to cook a particular fish.
No problems with it and good addition to the Village (unlike the estate agents opening).