simple food is the best kind of food
Wood-fired grills, white plates, beans, and meat — London's food scene is unfussy and refreshing.
I’m sitting here writing this week’s newsletter while my black bean soup is cooking on the stovetop. I recently came home from a vacation to London where I ate a lot, learned a lot, and returned to my kitchen with a wealth of inspiration.
Tonight’s dinner is inspired by a meal I had on the last night. I stopped into Trullo, an Italian restaurant in Islington, where I ate a beautiful plate of beans and fish. The trip reminded me how simple dishes can still be impressive; classic dishes that use high-quality ingredients executed well, instead of those that try to reinvent the wheel. Like the dinner at Trullo; it was unfussy and delicious. Just beans, seared fish, and rosemary oil, that’s it.
Every restaurant I went to in London seemed to take this approach. At Rochelle Canteen, a quaint spot tucked away in a backyard garden in Shoreditch, I enjoyed somewhat classic British food for the first meal. I attempted to fight off the jet lag after my red-eye flight with hearty bread, whipped cod roe, chicken pie, and monkfish and chips. It ended up putting me to sleep, but I recovered quickly afterward with a nap.
Rochelle Canteen placed salt and pepper bowls on each table; small Duralex glass bowls filled with fresh-cracked pepper and flaky salt. It was as if they rebranded the standard shakers in a chef-y way. I was surprised, though — asking for salt and pepper at a restaurant of this caliber in New York can come across as rude. But here, they didn’t care, they encouraged it. And so did many other restaurants, where I continued to encounter these cute bowls on tables across the city.
The confidence in taking a simple approach to food was also reflected in the restaurants’ dining rooms. The interiors of the places I visited weren’t overly modern or trying hard with bold decor. There was lots of natural wood and white-painted brick walls. The tableware was pretty standard as well; white, wide-rim plates and bowls, not a single Jono Pandolfi plate in sight. It was refreshing to see; food that’s straightforward, using technique and tradition, in contrast to the scene in NYC, where it can feel like restaurants are striving to be distinct in their own right or usher in a “new wave” of cuisine.
A highlight was eating at BRAT, which is unironically Charli XCX’s favorite restaurant in London . . . and a major reason why I was excited to go. Its menu focuses on Basque cuisine from a large wood-fired grill at the front of the dining room. I gnawed on a lamb bone, I drank chilled Spanish red wine, I tasted pigeon for the first time, I was was living my best vacation life. BRAT was rustic and sexy, perfect for a special night out. I see why Charli loves it.
Beyond British food, I tapped into the Middle Eastern scene. I stopped into Hafez, a place that came recommended by a family friend. It was a quintessential Iranian restaurant: kabobs, khoreshts, steaming saffron rice piled high. There was a decent amount of lamb throughout the menu, unlike some of the Iranian restaurants in New York that sub out beef to make the dishes more universal. Similarly, Umut 2000 in Dalston — a Turkish restaurant where the cooks were sweating over a massive charcoal grill as they churned out skewers of meat — was traditional and not particularly fancy, but tasty nonetheless.
There were some let downs, like Lyles in Shoreditch. It’s not that the food wasn’t good or that the cooking was bad, maybe it was all the technique and nuance that didn’t resonate with me. Ingredient pairings that want to make you go “wow that’s new,” like raw oysters with turnips and mandarin orange. Though, I did love the raw venison tartar, which reminded me of beef stroganoff.
Of course, I couldn’t leave England without trying a Sunday roast. I opted for the beef at The Cadogen Arms in Chelsea. My plate was stacked with two thick-cut slabs of roast beef, boiled carrot and broccoli, crispy roasted potatoes, and a Yorkshire pudding on top. It seemed to encapsulate the ethos of the city’s cuisine; rustic and simple. Food that is what it is.
Writing this all out, I’m realizing I dined out a LOT, and didn’t even hit on all the spots I went to. But I’m curious what your thoughts are: If you’ve been to London, did you have a completely different experience? Does British cuisine do it for you? Let me know below.
Alright, I’m off to tackle the pile of dishes in my sink. I’ll leave you with this photo of my parent’s cat enjoying his spur-of-the-moment vacation (aka evacuation from Hurricane Milton).
Hope everyone is staying safe! Talk to you next week.
— Rayna