Oeno Maris
The wine comes off the shop shelf at shop price with a small corkage, and the sashimi is cut from whatever fish did not sell that day (The London Standard).
Why go
Danny Mustard
Murphy is a Master Fishmonger. He ran Fin and Flounder on Broadway Market for eight years and cooked at The Sea The Sea in Chelsea before opening this with his wife Sarah, and his stated plan was a teaching shop: The plan was to open a master fishmongers where I would use my knowledge to teach other people, whether that be members of the public, chefs, whoever wanted a go
(Katto journal).
The room is a fish counter with wine in it. Whole skate on ice under spotlights, lemon soles across the counter, a few tables inside, a patio for oysters when the sun is out, and a space at the back where they run tastings. Sarah buys the wine, low-intervention, and the shelves are the list.
The board moves because the trade moves. Murphy on why: mackerel's not in season now but sardines are, it's about switching over and enjoying the seasonality and variety
(Katto journal). The evening sashimi is cut from the day's leftovers, so the later you come the shorter the list.
He is also the person to ask about tinned fish, which he stocks properly and argues for: "instead of spending £3.99 on a tin of John West, come in here and have something nice that's been done properly."
Order this / avoid
- Order: oysters and a glass of something low-intervention at the counter while a fillet gets cut for home. If the monkfish is on, have it the way Josh Barrie did, cured and barbecued in a flatbread with garlic butter, chilli and pickles. Then take a bottle off the shelf at shop price and pay the corkage.
- Avoid: building an evening around the terrace, because it depends entirely on the weather. And do not turn up late expecting the full sashimi range.
What locals & experts say
- Josh Barrie, "On the Sauce", The London Standard, May 2025:
Here lies a wonderful situation: fish, oysters and wine in a small shop, with some tables outside for when it's warm and a few inside for when it's not. You can perch on the fish counter and order something lively from Eastern Europe.
His verdict:But I did love it, the Hey Mate! Such a generous drink full of cherries and herbs. And Oeno, too. After a few hours there I began to make plans.
1 - Resy's London Hit List, September 2023: the month's arrivals included
a sashimi counter from a master fishmonger
, which is the earliest dated third-party record of the eat-in counter.4 - The shop on its own sourcing:
Every item in our shop is secured from purveyors we know personally, suppliers we have trusted for years, whom share our mutual respect for the sea and land.
The venue's words about itself, quoted as such.2 - One critic only. Barrie's column is the only bylined verdict this pass could reach, which is the honest limit on everything above.
Good to know
- Where: 105 Newington Green Road N1 4QY. Newington Green, and the customers come down from Stoke Newington.
- Timing: nobody publishes opening hours, so call ahead. Evening is when the sashimi gets cut, and the outside tables depend on the weather.
- Booking: walk in. It is a shop.
- Money: bottles at retail with a small corkage if you drink them there, which is the reason to drink something you would not normally buy.
- Wine: low-intervention, bought by Sarah. No importer, grower or list placing could be established, so treat the buying model as the evidence rather than a wine-list reputation.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 2, Islington, inspected 26 November 2024, FHRSID 1497668. That is
improvement necessary
. It sits above the rating that would change how this list treats a venue, and the inspection is now twenty months old, which makes it weak evidence in either direction. Stated here because this is a fish counter.5 - Sites: one. The register returns a single premises.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth crossing Newington Green for, and go while it is light. Oeno Maris is Danny Murphy's fish shop with a wine bar living inside it, and the trade explains the format: he cuts sashimi in the evening from whatever did not sell during the day, so the board shrinks and shifts as the hours pass. Murphy is a Master Fishmonger who ran Fin and Flounder on Broadway Market for eight years, and his wife Sarah buys the wine, which is low-intervention and sold at shop price with a small corkage rather than a restaurant markup. The money is in the buying. Josh Barrie ate cured and barbecued monkfish in a flatbread with garlic butter, chilli and pickles, drank a Slovakian pinot blanc off the shelf and wrote that after a few hours there he began to make plans. It holds at should-visit rather than higher because the evidence is one bylined column, nobody publishes the opening hours, and the terrace only works when the weather does. The hygiene rating is a 2 from November 2024, which is above the level that would change anything and is worth knowing at a fish counter.