The Bonneville, Lower Clapton Road, Hackney

Nationally, pubs are closing at a rate of 28 a week. In Hackney it can sometimes feel like that many are opening a week - or at least it does in the run up to summer 2014. Within less than a mile of my flat, four pubs have 'transformed' in the past fortnight. Two were long shut (Clapton's Fitzgeralds and the Cricketers, this week becoming the Bonneville and Verden), and two were closed for a quick refurbishment before re-opening under the same name but targeting a different market (Adam and Eve and The Gun, both in Homerton).

Given the growing number of pubs largely targeting the same market, just selling craft beer and putting a few shabby sofas and upcycled furniture isn't going to make you stand out from the crowd. So fancy food, fancy fit outs, and interesting speciality drinks (beyond craft beer) are the focus of many of the new places.

The Bonneville, on Lower Clapton Road, does all of the above, and stands out as the most decadent refurb of a Clapton pub so far. The owner, who was previously involved in a few other gentrified pubs in Hackney, worked slavishly for months, sourcing amazing architectural salvage and stripping the pub back to its core.

The end result is stunning - an arched, stained glass ceiling is atop the main dining room, artfully distressed walls bring out turquoises, browns and golds, luscious leather banquettes, a high darkwood bar, and a bit of expressionist creepiness. It's clearly inspired by the early 20th century decadence of Paris, Brussels, Prague, and Berlin, and the menu of interesting (and well priced - with most around £7) cocktails reflects that decadence.


(photo borrowed from the Bonneville's instagram)

Refreshingly, the beers focuses on Belgian imports, including a specially commissioned house beer. The owner, Ruari, is half Belgian, so knows a thing or two. With the bar, literally, being so high, it was hard to see into their fridges to see what Belgian bottles they had in. A beer menu would be a nice addition if they intend to specialise in beer alongside the cocktails.

The food menu is short, and will change regularly. It's a French kitchen, and the focus is on simple, seasonal, fresh dishes. Starters (we skipped) included asparagus with hollandaise, a soup of the day, and a terrine, while mains were onglet steak, lemon sole, savoury crepes, and a shoulder of lamb to share.

I ordered the onglet steak, which was perfectly cooked (the assumption was that it came rare), chopped already, served with delicious, rich, thick, browned pomme frites - you ain't had nothing like it. The real deal. It also came with wilted spinach and an anchovy flavoured emulsion, which added a nice pungency to everything.



My vegetarian friend enjoyed the crepes, which came in a hot tin dish, ready-rolled, stuffed with chard and goat curd and topped with fresh tomatoes. We were all kept happy with a board of delicious, chewy sourdough and some whipped butter (our waitress informing us that it had been sourced specially from France).



We had all the desserts on the menu. All classics, done very well. Laura's creme caramel was made with thick, proper-tastes-like-real-dairy cream and a deep, deep flavour to the caramel. Belinda's tart tatin was topped with what seemed like whole mini apples, perfectly caramelised and served with a milk ice cream. My moulleux au chocolat (melting middle chocolate pudding, microwave fans!) was perfectly cooked, superbly rich and oozing, and offset nicely with milk ice cream (like a posh mini milk) and raspberries.





Service was chummy, attentive and efficient. We also had proper thick teatowel napkins! So un-Hackney. But it's obviously quite Hackney, because its opening hadn't even been announced or PR-ed and the place was rammed - lots of happy diners getting through the menu, and folk perched on bar stools supping a cocktail or two before moving on.

I suspect the Bonneville is going to do quite well. It's Clapton's first French restaurant, and there's nowhere with a specific and extensive focus on cocktails. It's also bloody stunning inside, and I haven't even told you about my trip down to the most atmospheric pub toilets in London. I won't spoil the surprise. You will have to swing by and see for yourself.

[Disclaimer 16/06/2014: I wrote this blog before a storm erupted over the Bonneville's tweets in response to a stabbing on Lower Clapton Road. I stand by my review of the Bonneville, for which I received no freebies or special treatment, and fully enjoyed. That does not mean I condone the tone and content of the tweets or their subsequent response]

[update 25/06/2014: I've posted my reflections on the issue here.

Aizle, Salt Cafe Morningside, Ting Thai Caravan: three exciting new Edinburgh restaurants

A fleeting visit to my hometown of Edinburgh for my best friend's wedding was just enough time to squeeze in visits to three of Edinburgh's notable new restaurant openings. As I said when I blogged my visit to the Gardener's Cottage last year, things are notching up a bit in Edinburgh's restaurant scene - which has always done a good Scottish-French bistro and some amazingly long-standing neighbourhood favourites, but I've sometimes found the buzzy, young, factor missing. 

That's why I liked the Gardener's Cottage so much - young, energised, sparky things, committed and passionate about local food and ingredients, doing great things. And the three restaurants I checked out all offered some buzzy promise to hungry Edinburgers: Aizle on St Leonard Street, Ting Thai Caravan on Teviot Row, and Salt Cafe on Morningside Road.

Aizle is a goodie. Tucked away on anonymous drag between South Clerk Street and Arthur's Seat, it is anything but inside - a simple, but warm interior of greys and whites, with big windows, views of the hills and crags just down the road. The joint is run by a Scottish-American couple who've toured the world cooking fancy food for fancy people, and now want to apply their bistronomical skills to local, seasonal fare in relaxed, homely environs.

The menu is not a conventional list of courses, but a list of ingredients they're working with that day - foraged, from their suppliers, from the market. Ours had unusual ingredients such as bee pollen, summer truffle, Inverurie hogget, sea astor, as well as more traditional ingredients: 'apples', 'blood orange', 'jersey royals'. The dishes are announced as they are brought to the table - and sometimes it's just a glimmer of one of those unusual ingredients you get - but each combination hit gold.

A trio of amuse bouche came first, which included an oyster, a mini stack of beetroot, steak tartare and saffron aioli, and a rice crisp with apple. This was followed by salt baked celariac, with celariac puree, a piece of fried chicken skin, then topped with apple. The combination of flavours was perfect - the salty, fatty skin, balanced by the earthy, deep flavours of the celariac, and the crisp freshness of the apple.

A fish course followed: mackerel, cooked simply, with thin slices of jersey royal potatoes, spring garlic, and various purees, drizzles and scatters that have left my memory. The final course was hogget (which I now know is an age of lamb -between lamb and mutton, with the tenderness of lamb and the flavour of mutton - no brainer really!), with a risotto like bulgur, pink radish, pink wildflowers and more unidentifiable gems of flavour.

I always worry that desserts in these kind of restaurants are going to be a bit austere, but not here. A rich chocolate terrine, with lemon curd and sweet cicely at the side, bee pollen and delicious sweet crispy shortbread-like wafers left us with the luxurious, sweet finale we wanted from such a special meal.

The good reviews have been pouring in, and the place was fully booked with a good mix of Edinburgers on the rainy Friday evening we were there. A sure sign that there's a healthy local appetite for exciting cooking. At £35 a head, it is also remarkably good value for a very special, inventive meal.

****

A mile away in Morningside, my old manor, and one famed for its pernickety older ladies, manners, tea shops and a bonanza of well stocked charity shops, Salt Cafe has just opened looking like an East London transplant - all gastropub grey exterior, bare bulbs, brunch and small plates. The area was clearly excited about it - tables were hard to come by at peak brunch hour on Sunday. 

The menu included some nice flourishes: Smoked bacon and poached egg on sourdough with a bit of truffle in the hollandaise, welsh rarebit with smoky tomato chutney, french toast with summer fruits, and some bigger dishes like moules frites and burger.

With most dishes priced at £3.50 we enquired whether one would be enough. They assured us it would, but the dishes (all served in oversized, steep edged bowls) were definitely £3.50's worth of brunch, and therefore not really big enough for hungry brunchers. We ended up ordering seconds - no bad thing, because each item was delicious, and it's nice to have a selection - maybe brunch tapas could be a selling point, rather than something to iron out? Unlike serving toast based food in a bowl - not big or clever, just impractical.

Despite these issues, Salt Yard's proprietors have created a buzzy, young spot in an area crying out for fun, relaxed neighbourhood eating. There's clearly a market for more, and will be interesting to see if any pubs or bars tap into this market too.

****

Finally, we tried Ting Thai Caravan - a bustling Thai street food cafe just opposite the university. Also painted in gastropub grey and with bare bulbs, it's a fast paced, communal tables, loud music and brusk affair, with a big menu that includes meat/rice dishes, soups, noodles, curries and an interesting selection of snack/side dishes.

Another rainy lunchtime and the place was hoaching. We got the last table, and queues formed quickly and were seated quickly too. We ordered a big selection of mains, sides and a carafe of wine - and the bill came to less than £60 between six.

Dishes went well beyond the anglicised 'classics' - pungent, spicy marinades adorned pork, pickles and salsa-like condiments brought extra flavours to the plates, and dishes were heavy on vegetables too. Each dish is designed as a meal in itself, and students, lecturers and other local workers pop in to take away paper boxes full of this goodness. 

The sides were inspired - and (all less than £2) meant you could quickly and cheaply sample lots of different flavours. We had an aromatic sausage chopped up with chilli and salad, tempura fried sweet potato chips (excellent texture), almost honeycomb like fried tofu with a sweet chilli dressing, and tempura fried juicy prawn skewers.

It was a fun experience, maybe a bit noisy for some, but an excellent antidote to central Edinburgh's mostly tourist-focused fare.

The Dressing Room salad pop up, Hackney

A salad pop up? A SIX COURSE salad pop up? In the event space above a CORNER SHOP on Lower Clapton Road? It wasn't easy for my colleagues to keep a straight face as I told them what I was doing for dinner that night. Persuading the other half that he would be full - even after six courses - from salad was also a challenge, but the guys at The Dressing Room are on a mission to show that vegetable-led food can be stunning, exciting and fully satisfying.

The Dressing Room is a monthly pop up in Clapton run by a group of upstarts from various acclaimed London restaurants, including a chef from one of my favourite restaurants: Moro, in Exmouth Market. They build on Moro's strong Moorish and Middle Eastern influences to encompass classic British flavours, exciting Latin American zestiness, and some Asian twists, all using seasonal (and often local) veg, interesting grains and well sourced meats and dairies.

Guests are sat at communal tables in Palm 2's event space (surely the only corner shop in London to employ an events manager and have a tumblr fansite?) and share some courses as fours or twos, and others as individual plates. We happened to be sitting with Sam and Sam Clarke, the founders and owners of Moro and Morito, and authors of four of my favourite cookbooks. With Courtney Love playing a gig in a shop the weekend before, and Macaulay Culkin playing a gig in a pizza takeaway last week, you never quite know who you'll bump into on Lower Clapton Road these days!

Our first dish was a snack of radishes with whipped butter, served a gin and elderflower cocktail, packing a punch under some beautiful, clear, familiar spring flavours.

Each dish was served with the dressing separate, and part of the schtick was dressing the salad in a fitting and surprising way. Our scallop ceviche was served in a scallop shell, with crispy duck skin, toasted hazelnuts and the zingy amalfi lemon and iced earl grey dressing was poured out of a chintzy teapot.

Fresh, seasonal ingredients were a big deal too. Bang in the middle of the asparagus season, the beautiful green stuff made an appearance alongside outlandish parmesan crisps, creamy goats curd, wild garlic flowers, and a pungent wild garlic and mint dressing.

Mackerel came with Growing Communities bitter salad leaves, and strong aromatic flavours from fennel, olives and capers to match the strength of the mackerel. A nice touch dressing this one: a bolshy blood orange and sherry vinegar dressing came in a little spray bottle, so you could spray on the dressing like ocean spray...geddit?!

Perhaps the most beautifully presented was a salad of grains, with hundreds of pomegranate seeds, chopped pistachio, shelled broad beans and purple edible flowers, and lots of finely chopped herbs – an amazing sea of colour, and more so when served with robust green and red leaves, designed for scooping. The flavours reminded me of those in Georgian cooking, where vegetables are given a huge lift by pomegranate and fresh herbs.

The final savoury course was PX Duck (Sam and Sam Clarke translated Pedro Ximinex – that grapey, thick, sweet sherry) with more Growing Communities leaves, red and gold beetroot and a garlicky rich walnut paste (another Georgian influence) and a kickass horseradish cream. Topped with beautiful edible flowers, of course.

We were blown away with each course individually – the literal wow factor at the presentation as it landed on the table, the ceremony of the dressing – but it worked well as a conventional story too – a snack, an amuse bouche, a salad, a fish course, a meat course, a dessert. It was perfectly paced, filling us up just a little bit more, allowing for slowly munching through each course and letting the flavours and impressions settle down before the next came out.

A slightly longer wait followed the duck, and we all knew that its predecessors would be hard acts to follow. But a dessert, served in an oversized antique teacup – which in any other context would have been a nausea-inducing Cath Kidston glimmer of twee hell – of sweetened buttermilk, almond crumble, strawberries and rhubarbs, topped with a granita and served with an elderflower, ginger punch – was pretty much the freshest, most moreish dessert I've had.

The dessert, like the whole thing, shouldn't have worked. Tell it to your friends and it sounds like the most pretentious parody of an East London night out you've heard. But the quality of the cooking, the vibrancy of the flavours, the visceral excitement that the announcement of each course brings, is so fun, sensual and full of love – and not pretentious in the slightest.

I left with a real sense that Tom Sarafian, the head chef of The Dressing Room, and his co-plotters are all future masters of London's restaurant scene – and that I'd just been part of an exciting step in their rise to running their own critically acclaimed more permanent ventures.

The next instalment of The Dressing Room takes place on 5 June at theRusset, just on the other side of Hackney Downs, and promises 7 courses and a cocktail for £40. You might baulk at the price, but you won't find more plentiful portions of expertly cooked, innovative, beautifully presented, seasonal quality food in London. 

Raw Duck, Richmond Road, Hackney

Raw Duck opened summer 2013 right next to Hackney Central station. It was the first of its kind in this part of Hackney - a properly grown up place, with small plates, well-chosen and frequently rotating wines, amidst a stylish interior of moulded concrete, neon signs, chalk boards and interestingly obtuse menu lingo: "smashed" egg, cheeses filed under "milk", charcuterie under "pig".

Slowly building a loyal following, the business literally crashed into an abyss when a crack in the foundations appeared in the next door Travelodge building site. The restaurant and flats above were vacated immediately, people lost their homes and successful business were put on ice, and still work goes on to preserve the facade of those buildings on Amhurst Road.

The good news is that Raw Duck lives. It has had its second coming, opening at the end of April on a site about three times the size on Richmond Road, between Hackney Central and London Fields. A lot of the original charming features remain - all that beautiful concrete, nice desert plants, humongous chalkboards and that cute little neon duck doodle. But bigger.



The menu is bigger too - the raw in duck was a nod to the fact they only had a panini grill for cooking with on the old site. Now it's a whopping great kitchen in view of the big communal tables.

I've been a couple of times since it opened, and I get the feeling the bigger, better Raw Duck will be a big part of my foodie life. The place to take visiting friends when I want to show them what good food is on offer in Hackney, a spot for mid-week drinks and snacks after work, and the spot for a treat meal.

Their brunch menu is extensive, refreshing regularly, with fancy renditions of pastries, granolas, brioche with salted dulce de leche, crumpets, egg dishes, and their delicious sandwiches - including the Reuben, and their longstanding 'dirty bird', with chilli roast chicken, jalapeno mayo and iceberg. There are some interesting juices too: I had a tasty and very healthy seeming spinach, apple, celery and parsley juice.

I had curried potatoes with salt beef hash and two fried eggs, which is sadly not on the current menu. The salt beef was very moist, and the spice on the potatoes was subtle, but brought to life with a generous scattering of curry leaves.



I went back this weekend with a gaggle of friends to make a dent on their dinner menu. The menu is big, and covers off house-fermented and pickled goodies, cheeses, charcuterie, fried and salted snacks and a range of sizes (and prices) of dishes designed for sharing.

We had a couple of fermented red cabbage and caraway seeds, pickled cavolo (nero) ribs and some whipped butter with bread to kick things off. The bread was exceptional, and the ferments were nice - but I regret not trying their sprout kimchi.



A lot of the more specialist produce is sourced from local suppliers. I was particularly pleased to see Chatsworth Road Smokehouse feature a few times on the menu - smoked salmon, bacon and hot smoked trout. The hot smoked trout was a particular highlight - the fish was utterly melt in your mouth, and softly smoked. It came with a salted coconut yoghurt, generous lashings of dill, and lovely, earthy freekeh.



Buttermilk and yoghurts featured throughout as dressings and accompaniments. We shared a wedge of lettuce smothered in creamy buttermilk, with lots of bottarga (roe of tuna or mullet) scattered on top. It was a bit like a fancy, de-constructed ceasar salad - fresh, rich and mildly fishy. Also in theme was a yoghurt dressed slaw of hipsi cabbage and watermelon radish, which was equally fresh, but light and crisp.





A roast quail came with a thick labneh yoghurt, broad beans and zatar, and with a spicy sauce tasted like a fancy version of the smoky charcoal grilled meats you get at the Turkish ocakbasi joints around Hackney.



The menu is great for vegetarians too, even those who don't turn eye to a bit of fish every now and then. Seasonal green veg led the way in many of the dishes. We enjoyed a fiddlehead fern (yes, fern) risotto with wild garlic and hazelnuts. Fern tasted just like you might imagine - green and fresh despite its shadiness, and the risotto was perfectly creamy.



Asparagus appeared twice: battered in tempura and served with a yoghurt (again!), cucumber and curry leaves - offsetting the fried tempura perfectly. And again, chargrilled and topped with shaved ricotta.





That's just some of what we ate - I could have mentioned the buttermilk chicken, or the king oyster mushrooms with spatzle and miso, the shaved fennel and salted ricotta salad, or the lemon marmalade pies with clotted cream - but we'd be here all day.

The wines were excellent too - Raw Duck used to sell itself pretty much on its winelist alone - and bottles start at about £24 upwards. Almost entirely from France and Italy, the list is relatively trim but with excellent selections and some more unusual variations on familiar types. We particularly enjoyed some orange muscat.

So what's the catch? Surely the service must be really snooty? Nope, not at all - very relaxed, efficient - all the people serving our table had the full picture of what we'd ordered, what they'd run out of etc - ad we held our table for a good three hours. Is it expensive? A couple of bottles of (nice) wine and all that food came to £36 per person between five - so it's not cheap, but it's good value for the quality and inventiveness of the food. If there is a catch I've yet to spot it.

The Mare Street axis in Hackney was already the most exciting part of the borough for eating out, and with Raw Duck it's just got even better. Get in there before it starts getting the big reviews and it's hassle getting a table.

Eat17 burger bar in a Spar, Chatsworth Road, Clapton

We're used to being at the vanguard of 'stuff' in Hackney, but when I heard that a luxury mini-supermarket would be opening on Chatsworth Road, with a burger bar, modern British restaurant and fancy pop up flower shop imported from Broadway Market...well, I could hardly believe it.

But it's opened. Clapton has gone meta. Our fancypants supermarket with a burger bar is in a former cinema which later became a snooker hall. It is just down the road from the public toilets converted into a multi-generational social enterprise cafe-bar with roof terrace, a lifestyle flower boutique, four vintage furniture shops, two Italian restuarants, a creperie, a deli, a French bakery, a Swedish cafe, a cycle cafe, a fancy jam shop, and that's not even mentioning Lower Clapton Road.

In an interesting example of gentrification creeping inward, back to the places from which it originated. There is a net outward flow of middle incomes families from Clapton, moving to Walthamstow and Leyton as they struggle to afford the jump in price to a family size home from their starter flat. Walthamstow Village, a couple of miles down the road is home to Eat17 - the brand that brought you (and folk all around the world) bacon jam, but also a fancy Spar supermarket and upscale bistro. It's been such a success that they've rolled it out to Clapton.

As you might expect, it's a funny setting. There's no separation between burger bar and supermarket. From your table at the burger bar you can see people going about their evening's shopping, mulling over cheese, olives and beer, and getting their fags and lottery tickets. It's also cold. REAL cold. Because, of course, supermarkets are full of open fridges, and a lot of open fridges makes for cold air. I bumped into my neighbour on the way in: said exactly the same.



But that aside, it's a fun experience. You get a neat snapshot of who lives in this (estate agent language) vibrant, ever-changing neighbourhood, and what they're having for dinner. They also get a snapshot of who eats burgers in a supermarket *waves*. There's a decent playlist, which included Belle and Sebastian, Blur, The Police. And the food is really quite good.

The menu includes a beef burger, a buttermilk fried chicken burger, a pork and chorizo jam burger, panko crusted haloumi wrap, some suitably fried sides, Gelupo ice cream and a small selection of drinks, including Crate beers, Borough wines and a negroni. All very London mini-brand.

My beef burger (with added bacon) was sublime: quality beef, cooked perfectly medium rare, lathered with 'special sauce' (e.g. their own version of the Big Mac sauce), stuffed with salad and served in a glossy brioche bun. Just the right size for picking up in its Eat17 branded wrapper and fitting into your mouth...just.



The buttermilk chicken burger was tender and nicely coated, but it was all about the smoky chutney and almost rataouille-like sauce, which was full of punch.



Portions of chips were big, and the chips were chunky. We overestimated our hunger and ordered them plain and with truffle and goats cheese. I was expecting slithers of truffle and molten goats cheese, like an upscale chilli cheese fries. Alas, both came in a dusty form, applied to the chips before frying. I suppose that's what you expect for £3.90. They were nice, subtly flavoured, but I'd say charge a bit more and make them more of a blowout.



We also had tempura fried tender stem broccoli, which came doused in soy-tinged pomegranate molasses. These were good - nicely charred, still green and fresh tasting, and the molasses worked well.



The food was great and I'll be back. Notably, more people (men, mostly) were getting takeaways on their way home from work, and I suspect that may be more popular than eating in the bar itself unless they find a way of warming it up a bit. But if you're in the area, it's worth a punt for a slightly surreal and completely delicious, well-priced experience.

Eat17 will soon be opening a gastro British restaurant upstairs, under the arched roof of the former cinema. With 50+ covers, it could well be a bit of a game-changer for eating and evening entertainment on the road. I will report back once it's open.

500: Archway's neighbourhood Italian restaurant

I love going back to my old neighbourhoods. Before I moved Hackney way four years ago I did most of my grown up London living around Tufnell Park, Kentish Town and Holloway. It was a very different London then, and most my eating out was done in long-standing neighbourhood restaurants serving up authentic, affordable food from around the world, brought to North London via successive waves of immigration. We were particularly well served by Ethiopian restaurants, old school Italian joints, north African cous cous, and Greek tavernas. Even the mid-range chains hadn't sprawled in.

When 500 opened on Holloway Road in 2008, right by the Archway gyratory, it was the first of its kind in this part of London. An upscale Italian neighbourhood bistro on a grimy patch of the A1. By now that's pretty much a formula for success, but it was a bold move that paid off.  Six years it opened, it was still jam-packed on a cold Monday evening with all those nice older middle class public sector worker types you get around there.

I went a couple of times back then and had lovely meals, and went again this week to take a friend who'd recently moved into the area. 

We had their signature deep fried ravioli filled with pecorino and mint, which could have had a bit more filling, but were bursting with intense flavours. A selection of breads were thrown in gratis, including an excellent black olive focaccia and moreish crisp bread. We also had some burrata (tasty) which came with thinly cut and dressed raw artichoke (not too exciting).

We both had another old favourite for mains: a portion of fresh gnocchi with sausage ragout. The gnocchi was so light and fluffy, and each piece just melted in your mouth. The ragout was good too, although for £11.50 the portion felt a little on the small side. There are bigger mains - marsala stewed rabbit, big rich meat dishes, that clock in at around £15.

The tiramisu was one of the best I've had, and I've had more than most. It was a gigantic slab, could have easily fed two, but happily it was all for me. Light and fluffy on the top and simple coffee soaked base.

Service was friendly and efficient, and despite being completely full, there was no hurrying, no upselling to maximise our value. The menu has changed little in the six years its been open, save for a few seasonal specials, and the décor is beginning to look a little worn, but the food is still mostly super, and so the punters keep coming back.

With a fancy-looking neighbourhood Italian restaurant just opened in Clapton (not even selling pizza!), E5 may also have that special kind of neighbourhood Italian too. I certainly hope it is, and hope it stays steady like 500. It's nice to have some classics amidst all the ephemeral and novel.

Little Ivy's Lower Clapton Road

At the start of the year I predicted that, after a year of lots of interesting new businesses opening on the Mare Street axis, the biggest change in 2014 would be to the north east on Lower Clapton Road. It was a strong hunch, but I am startled by the pace of change that's afoot, as are many other local residents over on the busiest thread on the Yeah! Hackney forum.

Starting from the base of Lower Clapton Road, there are plans for a basement tapas bar next to St John's churchyard (opening TBC), a gallic bar and bistro in the old Fitzgeralds pub (opening April), round the corner Little Ivy's - a Brazilian-Italian tinged tapas bar opened in late February (more on that in a sec), a fancy pizza joint set to open in May, Candela - a Latin themed cocktail bar opened in January, Yoruk - an ocakbasi restaurant opened in March, a salad themed pop is set to open a bit further up in April, and perhaps the most striking addition will be Verden - a Danish-inspired wine, charcuterie and cheese bar in the place of the old Cricketers pub at the top of Clarence Road, with a cold cellar open to customers where they can buy the produce that's been made onsite.

Exhausting huh? And that's only what's coming in the first half of 2014, and not including the craft beer shop, vintners, vets, cycle cafe and denim boutique set to open set to open soon, the gastropubs, cafes and restaurants that opened in the last couple of years, and the longer established businesses.

Lower Clapton Road is still out on a psychological limb in the views of most Londoners, so it's going to be hot competition among these new businesses to draw people here from the surrounding areas. I know long term Stoke Newington residents who still think of the area as Murder Mile and would take no interest in hopping over. Their loss, of course.

Litle Ivy's, one of the most recent openings, has a strong enough offer to draw the crowds from elsewhere. It kind of appeared out of nowhere on the site of a shop which had had three failed business in the last couple of years. It's run by Sao Paulo cool kids, who run its big sister restaurant Ivy Mess Hall over in Dalston. Last time I was there, Lovefoxxx of CSS was propping up the brunch bar.

The Clapton joint is smaller, more intimate, and has a really nice atmosphere. It feels a little bit DIY, the music is a notch or two louder than your average, and is interesting electro. It has a grown up party atmosphere, a bit similar to Rita's.

The menu is all tapas and platters, inspired by Spanish, Brazilian and Italian cuisines, with lots of innovative twists that take it up a few notches from your traditional patatas bravas and tortilla. The menu has sharing snacks and platters - cheeses, cured meats, nibbles and croquettes, fishy things - with tempura coated calamari, garlic prawns, sustainable salmon, a fine selection of vegetable dishes, and more meaty, saucy plates.

We had a selection of croquettes, which were somewhere between Brazilian and Spanish style, with interesting fillings - something mushroom and blue cheesy, something spinachy and one with aromatic spiced chicken.



The Catalan chorizo came out next - it was a generous portion, cooked with a generous amount of rosemary, giving it a woody, earthy balance to the pungency of the chorizo. The sauce was dangerously addictive, and happily the plate came with as generous helping of paprika dusted porous bread to soak every last morsel up.



A particular highlight was a salad of courgette ribbons, arranged in a big cone shape, with rocket, Sicilian lemon, basil, and a mixture what I think was parmesan and ricotta on the top, which was just the zingiest, freshest combination of flavours and would convert even your most raw veg cynical of friends to the cause.

Another highlights was the Brazilian stew of tomato, peppers, coconut milk and plantain, served with the biggest, juiciest, sweetest Atlantic prawns I've had in a long time. It came with the heads sticking out: a dramatic presentation, but kindly for the less adventurous, the tails were already separate, so no messy surgical procedures necessary.



We also had caramelised pork sliders: mini brioche buns, filled with slow cooked pork, lettuce and topped with a lime. They were tasty, but perhaps not quite as remarkable as some of the other dishes. They're probably better as a bar snack.



The wine menu is concise but with a good selection of interesting wines available by the glass and the bottle from around the world. Prices were keen for bottles, but only available in large glasses, so might seem a little pricier. I enjoyed a German Riesling from the Mosel, which had a nice fruity spiciness. Cocktails are also available, and some nice bottled lagers from around the world.

The service was warm and friendly, but could have been a little bit more attentive towards the end. Tap water was brought at the beginning but we had to ask for a refill, and there were a couple of errors on the bill. That said, they've only been open a couple of weeks and I think have been surprised at how busy it's so quickly become: I'm sure any quirks will be ironed out quickly: the team seem very enthusiastic and take pride in running a fun neighbourhood restaurant.

I'll be back soon to try out more of the menu, and try their brunch which they hope to start serving fairly soon. Prices are fair for the portions and the quality - this came to £30 a head with multiple drinks and a tip. We were not even hungry the next morning. It's already getting busy, so you may want to drop in earlier in the day or call up to book.