100 Hoxton, 100 Hoxton Street, www.100hoxton.com

100 Hoxton is on Hoxton Street which is having a bit of a renaissance and currently has a nice blend of pubs, places where you can buy 4 avocados for a pound (read that and weep Tesco et al) and more and more good places to eat. The latest is 100 Hoxton, which describes itself as food with an Asian and Eastern European influence – don’t let that put you off, there isn’t any silk dressage in sight and this is true Shoreditch – stripped back concrete, 80s inspired stencilled coloured table and Beirut and Haim playing in background.

There were some crazy looking cocktails available but we went for the standardly priced wine, given the sunny weather and drink to cost ratio it affords (priorities). The menu is arranged into veggy options, meat options, fish options and some sides. They do small plates – despite it being done with the best intention London waiting staff should stop explaining the small plate concept – we understand that duck for a tenner won’t be a huge main course and the concept of dishes coming out at different times and ‘designed to be shared’. When you expand your empire to regions which don’t understand these concepts, like Swansea, then you can start explaining small plates again.

I wanted to eat every dish on the menu which is rare but I fretfully ordered the 7 spiced quail and cod fishcakes with basil sauce. This frustratingly mean't depriving myself of intresting variations of duck, prawns, slow roasted pork and cuttlefish and other veggy stuff I generally ignore. The quail was a deep fried meaty ball which was as satisfying as it sounded – the improvement of KFC concepts knows no bounds – this dish took technique and the two tiny wing bones which remained on my plate attested to how good it was – the side salad was a well thought out combination of chicory, baby onion and a sweet plum dressing to cut they huge deep fried gamey delight. The cod cakes were very interesting – very light, pearly white discs on a bed of basil dressing. Not a breadcrumb in sight which helped balance the brutal quail assault. The fish was a tiny bit lost in the floral tasting dressing but it was an innovative dish and worth tasting on its own right to see how fishcakes could be done.  

My girlfriend had a haloumi and broadbean fritter. This dish could easily take on most onion bahjis in London in terms of taste and texture – a deep smokey, middle eastern flavour with cheese chucked in for banter, as good as it sounds and worth coming here for that dish alone. Excellent. A salad with shredded coconut and a million other tropical flavours which would compete with a can of lilt was also actually really well balanced and tasty. We shared a flatbread covered with onion jam and chilli and coriander which was similar and almost as good as the amazing breads they do in polpo.

Prices are all fair, the meats come in at around 10, the fish 8 and the veggy 6 and snacks only 3.50. All in all, 100 Hoxton is definitely worth a visit for inventive, but comforting, food and to see the East London take on food of an Asian persuasion - where else are you going to see pickled papaya? Just make sure you get your avocados whilst your in the area.

Rotary Bar & Diner, City Road www.rotarybardiner.com

The burger is dead is what the banshees of the Sunday style magazine screamed at the start of the year – but the burger shops keep coming and they are marching East from their Soho enclaves – first Meat Mission, then Hache (far too av to review) and now the new Rotary Bar & Diner.

Rotary is down the road from Old Street and joins Salvation Jane and Ozone by raising the standards of food in the local area. It is basically kitted out as a 70s living room / 70s office canteen – complete with model kitchen and small living room. However the kitsch gone mad look is tempered by the views of Old Street Roundabout on the right.

 The menu has the things you expect to see in this type of place – the smoker was just up and running on the day we went and they had the classics such as ribs, buttermilk chicken, burnt tips and other snacks previously butchered by TGI Friday. But when you come to a new place like this, you ignore everything and else go for the burger, it is the standard bearer which defines all other meals.

The classic beef comes with streaky bacon, cheese, slaw and a side of chips or salad for £10. It was a huge portion and the burger was up there with this best burger renaissance has provided – the toppings were well thought out, pickled slaw a sharp surprise, the burger held together when eaten until the last few bites and the ‘burger sauce’ showed pleasant attention to detail. The beef stood up well to these flavours and wasn’t overpowered by this diverse ensemble. The only negative was the delicate brioche bun, which, although fancy, has no place smacking it lips around these ingredients.

In terms of neighbourhood burger war this is better than Meat Mission and close to, but not quite as good as, Lucky Chip – the market leader in my decadent opinion.

The veggy burger deserves a big mention for sheer towering mentalness – it came with a triple stack of layered mushrooms and deep fried brie and a punchy don’t plan on kissing anyone for several hours pesto. Deep fried brie is worth trying on its own if you don’t have the uncarnal ability to order a veggy option.
 

In terms of sides the triple cooked chips were good copy of burger kings finest, and the salad was a thorough effort of a proper beetroot salad rather than a few green leaves with vinagerette.

This is a top quality place to come for your burgers and greasy food needs, with good attention to detail and a nice atmosphere – and although Soho is getting a bit saturated in these types of places I reckon Old Street will welcome this with arms wide open and two fingers up to the Sunday magazine foodies.

Bistrotheque, Wadeson Street, www.bistrotheque.com

 

Last Saturday morning, having squeezed through the hordes of Broadway market goers basking in this new concept called sun, we walked around the corner to embrace the calmness of Bistrotheque. It is amusing coming off Cambridge Heath Road into loads of warehouses and the only indication of a restaurant being the other people walking around lost and stumbling in mechanics and sketchy art galleries. Situated upstairs in an unmarked building, the Bistrotheque room sits below a very light and airy white vaulted warehouse ceiling with frosted windows. Assumedly the windows in place so the riff-raff still walking round these parts (everyone knows the crazy guy with a high-vis jacket who stalks people by Frockney Rebel) don’t start to lob empty cans of Skol at the candle lit windows.

The atmosphere is relaxed in a smart way – you don’t find many places with white table cloths round these parts but the brunch menu was very fairly priced, probably similar to most bigger dishes you will find on the Broadway market stalls.  I started with a Bloody Mary – and Bistro managed to break a cardinal BM rule of doing a tiny bit too much by adding chipotle spices – a BM should not taste like an Old El Passo fajita, however different or unique that might make it. They also served a home made lemonade that was so sharp it could have been used to sear off ulcers, in a good way. However the duck hash with poached egg more than made up for the smokey mary. The hash was crisp with a decent helping of large chunks of duck, it came topped with a poached egg and was finished with a mustard sauce, the only tiny let down of the dish being this slightly favourless, tepid sauce. It should have also come with mushrooms, but given that I deplore fungus I opted to forgo it. Even without this the dish was a very tasty breakfast, not dissimilar to the Duck and Waffle, except a billion times cheaper. My girlfriend opted for a blueberry pancakes with mascarpone. These were huge, frisbee sized pancakes which upgraded the richness of cream with the richness of a creamy cheese, well played.

The restaurant service is smart, all ipads and table cloth scraping but it is a pleasant place and definitely worth a visit with the evening menu looking pretty special. It isn’t cheap, but this is definitely somewhere to go when you have won some money or the parents are paying or you are planning on proposing to your mistress or something.

Bouchon Fourchette, Mare Street, http://www.bouchonfourchette.co.uk

 

Situating a French Bistro next to the Dolphin on Mare Street is a bit like putting the Eiffel Tower in Grimsby. This was confirmed when we arrived at Bouchon Fourchette and the warm blue lighting which lit the room emanated from two police cars and a police van outside arresting someone. You don’t get atmosphere like this in Le Gavroche, but if I didn’t love this type of atmosphere I would be crying whilst looking on Zoopla for a flat in Highgate.

 

The converted shop feels like a proper restaurant, in terms of there being no east London benches, all the chair matched, there wasn’t a ‘small plate’ in sight, and meals came out at the fashion of - starter – main – desert. Hurrah! There was even a family in there. There was obviously exposed brick, but I am now sure this is part of an obscure Hackney licensing law.

 

The menu is traditional French fare at incredibly good prices. We started with a camembert which came spiked with garlic and a side salad with a French dressing. It had the classic feety twang everyone now loves and stayed impressively runny throughout the dining time. Nothing angers one more than jabbing your bread at solidified cheese before resorting to peeling it off with your nails. However, it was runny boxed cheese and salad. I am not sure how French people eat camembert but if isn’t with bread then it is confusing.  However an order of bread quickly provided an appropriate vessel to funnel the molten cheese into face. For the main I went with the fish of the day – which was Lemon Sole – on the menu for £11. This was confusing given that in normal establishments the bones of the Lemon Sole normally clock in at £11. The fish came and was pleasingly cooked, charred but still moist and a surprisingly good portion for just over a tenner.

 

Pleasingly BF didn’t opt for the annoying tact of a providing cheap protein only to discover it comes with a single (or no) leaf to leave you wantonly wondering if you should order chips. The side was a generous double portion of green beans wrapped in bacon. My girlfriend got a French take on the aubergine parmigana of courgette gratin which actually works much better: the courgettes don’t turn to mush and held the tomato sauce, which could of held its own as a soup or amouse bouche. It only cost £8! Anyone taking out a vegetarian go here and confound their fear of French food (and hopefully trick them into going into a Parisian restaurant to find out the only veggy thing they can eat is Onion Soup laced with beef stock).

 

Desert was an deep tasting concoction of home-made chocolate sauce, brownie and cream and more sauce with ice cream (chocolate obvs) in a sundae glass for two people which was a reasonable £7. The bottled house wine (they have house barrel as well) was notably tasty and they had a really nice desert wine – I think, it was like drinking thin alchoholic syrup - at fair prices. Just in case you didn’t feel like you were robbing the place they even have an offer for a free glass of house wine with any main course in April.

 

The only criticism I can think of was that it was a tiny bit cold in the restaurant but everywhere which isn’t a new build is cold in hackney at the moment. Bouchon Fourchette is the 'dream' neighbourhood restaurant – everything is good value, the food is interesting, comforting and tasty and service is relaxed and friendly. Also after getting nicely drunk on French wine and you can go do 9 Sambucas in the Dolphin afterwards. Win, win.

The Hackney Pearl, Prince Edward Road, www.thehackneypearl.com

Last Friday night I took the bold move of sitting on the 55 bus and leaving the safe confines of Hackney Road for the mysterious Hackney Wick. It is a mystery as I want to somehow penetrate and I don’t know why. It is strange place sandwiched between tall and warmly glowing new flats overlooking our fabulous Olympic artefacts and a hotchpotch of real factories and converted factories. The converted factories are special flats, all big windows and envy inspiring rafters and crumbling brick. Unfortunately the place doesn’t seem to have been matched by the catering community, an hour of wandering around Fish Island provided two options of Crate and the Hackney Pearl – however, as it was Friday night and half of the populous seemed to be in the very amiable Crate we opted for the pearl.

 

It sits on one of the many incredibly quiet roads in the area, so much so that in the summer there are benches in the middle of the road. I suspect that this road is actually closed and it isn’t pressurising its customers to risk death for sunny seating options. On a cold and rainy spring Friday we opted to sit inside. It is an ex-shop and has been kitted out in mismatched retro tables and other bric-a-brac you expect to find in a hackney place of dining – although this doesn’t have the try hard atmosphere forced on some, it wears it spots naturally.

 

The food here isn’t cheap – most of the mains, including veggy, are around or above the £12 mark. Seeing as it was going to be expensive I obviously went big and went for the Onglet steak with thrice cooked chips. The steak was cooked perfectly rare, but being an onglet it is its destiny is to be a tiny bit chewy. Disappointingly it came with a nice Parisian butter that obviously had just been taken out the fridge so spent the first few minutes sadly sitting on the steak refusing to melt. When it eventually did it was very nice and brought the dish together. The chips were good though probably didn’t need the third cooking session as they began to take on a more roast potato structure. My girlfriend's dish was a better accomplishment of cauliflower fritters, imagine huge cinamon spiked onion bahjis, and pickle/chutney with a green ragu. The ragu in itself was an innovative bright green concoction which screamed of health and vitamins. An apple crumble for desert was excellent but the hard shake coaxed from the brunch menu was more of a double vodka and milk, effective for pissheads with heartburn but not a drink I would quickly return too.

 

The Pearl also has very nice brunch and lunch menu and having been on a summer's day it is a great sun trap, albeit more industrial estate than a country pub Sunday but that is what you want sometimes. The staff are friendly and it is a a very nice place to go to laze away a Sunday or Bank Holiday. This will be a stalwart of the Wick as it develops and once the ‘Queen Elizabeth II Park’ (still weird) is open and more punters flood the area it will definitely be the go-to place alongside Crate.

Monikers, Hoxton Square, www.monikers.co.uk

Monikers is sat in the top corner of Hoxton Square in (what seems) an old school building which has been popped up as various bars in recent years, it brings a more upmarket feel to the various bar / restaurants on the square churning out burgers of various guises. The building has reclaimed the former school vibe and offers specials on a school blackboard, various old maps and periodic tables dotted around and they have dug out the old wood flooring found in multipurpose school assembly halls / gyms / school lunch room (presuming you went to a school that didn’t cost money). Oh and water came from a beaker – convenient for measuring how little hydration you’re getting as you pile through wine.

The food is mainly a range of small plates at the normal costing from £4 – 12ish depending on if it is a small small plate, a small plate or a big small plate. There were also some proper big plate specials on the blackboard, which we didn’t have a chance to try. We sampled quite a few of the small plates which offered a nice range of dishes – I went for chorizo sausages in honey and mustard sauce, a tasty pre-meal snack, buttermilk chicken wings with tartar sauce, an interesting combination with tartar sauce seemingly working well with anything battered and deep fried.

The bigger small dish of steak salad, was very good, a rare hangar steak thinly sliced over an Asian style salad dressing. My girlfriend had mushroom gnocchi which came in a cream sauce. This was good but not a dish to go for following the leeks with truffle oil and parmesan – ironically a meal with about 20 dishes and the leeks were the most accomplished dish, they tasted like they had been poached in butter (in a good way) and were sumptuous with a spikey parmesan punch. As we went the day before St Davids day I am also claiming this is a distinctly Welsh dish. A vat of chocolate mousse desert was very good and the cheese board could have done with another cheese but it did have an amazing soft cheese which looked like brie but tasted of a blue cheese which was worth getting on its own right.

The restaurant was still in soft opening mode when I went there so I wouldn’t assume that this is the finished product. But on this outing the only negatives from Monikers was that if it is quiet then you can feel like you are in an awkward detention and when the music came on it was 90s indie. This was a step in school memories too far. To be clear, Oasis is suitable for pre-lash drinks music on a sat night but not restauranting. But am sure the quietness and music was down to it being the first week. However Monikers offers is an enjoyable, friendly and relaxed (non-burger) restaurant in the heart of Hoxton Square. Although I didn’t try any of the specials they showed that this is a pretty ambitious kitchen which won’t turn out your standard small plate fare and it will deservedly get busier over the next few months.

 

Also, for those of you with an inane curiousity about what a 'moniker' is - it is the graffiti on the side of a freight train, of course.

The Looking Glass, Hackney Road, http://lookingglasslondon.co.uk/

Some people moan about the rapid gentrification of Hackney, however a small part of me sings with joy every time I see one of the many Hackney Road Handbag wholesalers give way to something I can enjoy. A road needs one shop selling handbags with discounts on orders over 100, maybe two at a push, Hackney Road inexplicably has about 30.

 

The Looking Glass cocktail bar has now appeared opposite the junction with Columbia Road and the shop which sells chairs for about a grand each – the other side of ridiculousness on Hackney Road. It hasn’t gone for anything too renegade and contains the stripped back and moodily lit atmosphere which has worked so well for bars like Rubys. But there are a number of huge renaissance sofas which give the bar a more of a upmarket feel than many similar bars in the area.

The cocktails are on the expensive side (~£10), however these are proper cocktails. What gastropubs did in raising pub food quality there needs to a similar conjoined verb and noun for these places; Gastails works with me. The cocktail I had came with a chocolate spray spritz so that the rum based drink had an inexplicable aroma of chocolate without overpowering the taste of rum. It also came with a block of chocolate to eat on the side which was confusing but who doesn’t like bonus chocolate. My girlfriend’s drink (served in tea cup obviously) had a lemony aroma and taste not dissimilar to something you would treat congestion with, in a good way. The service was great and they were willing to adjust flavours for personal tastes.

The Looking Glass also has a secret section at the back, (what self-respecting bar nowadays doesn’t?) in which you can pull a huge floor to ceiling mirror which swings back to reveal more seating at the back. This could be a cruel trick which leads to awful injuries as a 1 tonne mirror falls on you, so you will need a certain amount of trust with this. The Looking Glass is a nice place for a date, post meal drink or to just sit in the huge decadent chaise sofa which faces out onto Hackney Road and watch the world go by as you hope the gentrification is complete to the stage that no one stops and urinates / vomits on the window.

Meat Mission, Hoxton Market, www.meatmission.com

As the new dirty burger craze goes, Meat Liquor and its many off shoots is the daddy. Queues around the block, legions of fans, many, many copy-cats, however, up to this point I had never braved the momentous queue by Debenhams. However now that it has stretched its empire to the East I thought it appropriate to break the burger cherry.

Based in an old Mission just off Hoxton Square, the large restaurant keeps many of the original features of the Mission which sit happily next to the neo-gothic decoration and stripped back interiors. The shocking thing on arrival at Meat Mission was that there was no queue. Obviously we couldn’t take our seats instantly, that would be mental, but we did get the chance to have some civilised cocktails at the bar. This is a world away from shivering outside whilst ravaged shoppers gaze at you in a confused manner. After only 15 minutes of relaxing with a decent man cocktail (whisky) and an sugary girl cocktail (minty), we took our bench.

 

The shared benches are very much part of the ‘get stuck in with a dirty meat’ type of atmos but the shared environment creates a buzz to the restaurant - I have had much more awkward times in ‘posh’ places when they sit you 2 cm away from the next table.

The menu is obviously beef heavy. I opted for a ‘pastrami and swiss’ (vedict to follow) my girlfriend being a vegetarian, went for the veggy burger, this was a Halloumi and Mushroom burger, this was good, I have known vegetarians to avoid places when they see the words burger and goat cheese in the same sentence. However, more to note was the fact I also opted for a plate of Monkey Fingers. These are strips of chicken in batter covered with hot sauce with a blue cheese dip. The first portion was slightly cold and so I asked them to be heated up. Not only did they apologetically take them back but they took it off the bill without asking, a friendly touch which was reflective of the service throughout. They were addictive and came in a mini monkey mountain, initially perturbed that this was going to be far too much animal for me – it pains me to leave food like this -  the temptation of the chicken was too much for my girlfriend who then ate several pieces of chicken and broke 4 years of veggyness. Ha.

There should be a bell to ring in such circumstances or stocks of some sort made out of cow carcasses – to passively break a vegetarian is quite a feat. And one which should be proudly recognised. The portions are big, a burger and ‘bit and pieces’ is enough for two people, otherwise expect to hit the meat sweats whilst still eating. I did not help the consumption quantity by opting for one of their 3 pint jug bottles of cider – not that I wanted 3 pints but the prices are not cheap but the more you buy on beer and cider the cheaper it gets so in a weird way the vat made total sense.

Burger Verdict – very good. It held together well and was eatable in hand (which I see as important) and the cheese, pastrami and sauerkraut were great accompaniants. The burger itself was beefy and robust and tasted of actual beef (also important!). I wouldn’t say it is had the moreish quality of the Lucky Chip burgers which they knock out down at the Sebright Arms but this burger definitely justifies the Meat chain’s (can we call it that yet?) reputation and will see it march on. At the end of the day it is good food, well priced (though booze isn’t as cheap) and a great atmosphere. Go before it gets busy.

Lardo, Richmond Road, http://www.lardo.co.uk/

Lardo is situated just past the top end of London Fields in a converted factory cum apartment block. The block is symptomatic of the rapid gentrification of the area and next door is a place which doesn’t do packaging – the hoardes of Islington move in by the day. Mere mortals without trust funds, city jobs or dubious connections in the gangster world need not apply. However, for those who wish to sit in the building for a few hours without applying for a £400k mortgage then Lardo is a safe bet.

It is one of those places which is quite difficult to  lurk and spy without feeling pressured to go inside, and given the location I have walked past many times assuming that it is going to be rammed. But we took a gamble at 2pm on a Sunday (mainly due to rain, cold and the mile walk to Pembury Tavern) and were pleasantly surprised to find the place incredibly quiet. Given the queues to get into the Cat and Mutton and most other places around here, this is no small shock. The seat we got was not just any seat, it was a ‘lovely one’, according to our waitress, and she did not lie, with it being in the corner all expensive cushions normally reserved for ordaining bars with Hookah pipes. The restaurant has a good, relaxed atmosphere and the staff are incredibly friendly, even if you order your meal in about 8 different stages as we did.

The menu is good value for money with a range of pizzas around £10, pastas, steaks, fish dishes a bit more, a roast for £14, and a bunch of side salads for around £6/7. We both opted for pizzas, cooked in the huge wood burning oven which dominates the room, and they were high quality pizzas. The pepperoni had a star anise punch which hinted to its authenticity and was about as far from Pepperami as you could get. The pizzas could actually be picked up by the slice and eaten without it limply drooping in an emasculating manner with the topping slipping off and leaving you with a wet sad pizza slice – take note of a basic principle of pizza please Pizza East. The Bloody Mary was also very good. I drink a few each weekend and slowly becoming a good judge (annoyingly opinionated) of my breakfast drink - having woken at 12 this was technically brekkie. The Lardo BM was particularly good, with salt rim and cocktail stick of gherkin and olive being a nice touch, and avoiding a garden bush or cherry tomatoes in it (just no).

By the time we had finished the meal the place was getting busier but nothing to stop you wandering here on a Sunday and expecting to get a seat with friendlier treatment (and better food) than most of the pubs in the area. Having stared at the plates others were getting with envy and grumbling about not getting the wild boar pasta or garlic prawns but I can reckon is the type of restaurant which I would turn into my local.

Voodoo Rays, Kingsland High Street, http://dalstonsuperstore.com/features/voodoo-rays/

Located on Kingsland High Street (obvs), Voodoo Rays is part of the same venture as Dalston Superstore. It is a fairly simple concept: late night pizza, but executed in a manner that will leave you confused about why this hasn’t been around forever. I have been there twice now and walked past about 8ish on a Tuesday night last week and the queues made it is obvious that people like their pizza in slices (being in the Sunday Times Style Magazine as a new trend also helps).

The pizzas are large slices which are reheated in the oven and delivered to your table at a temperature similar to molten iron. There is a decent selection of premade pizzas, though if it ain’t on the counter then you ain’t in luck - my choice of the Honolulu (Ham and Pinapple) was everything you expect the pizza to be and what you want at 1am - cheesy, hammy, fruity, salty and filling. They also serve beer and margheritas so you can ensure that you get in that utterly pointless one last beer before heading home. The first time I visited it was after a long Efes session which meant after two bites I was done. I obviously wasn’t going to waste any food so wrapped it in tissue paper before using my girlfriend as a mule to get it home. Having got the chance to taste the pizza in a sober mode the next day I can confirm that it was still pretty tasty, a rather good indictment. The pizzas are also decent value for money, all around the 4 quid mark.

In all, it is a pretty good place to get a post or pre-session snack. This isn’t the type of place you should come to replace a meal out, but to compliment some heavy drinking it is ideal. And obviously it helps that you come out feeling you are the front of the coal face discovering trends that will sweep Britain, rather than when you leave USA PIZZA feeling like you have purchased diabetes.

Ritas @ Birthdays, Stoke Newington Road, http://www.ritasbaranddining.com

Ritas has been open for around 7 months in the live music venue, Birthdays. When it first opened it got a lot of love from a lot of reviewers and was predictably rammed. Following the announcement that Voodoo Rays is now the place to eat in Dalston (small plates are obviously so 2012, NY style pizza slice now de riguer) it seems the huge crowd of hipsters has finally decamped from Ritas meaning that it is now feasible to get a table without having to wait an hour (FYI 'no reservations' is also so 2012).

The eating area of Ritas is merged into the bar area of Birthdays giving you chance to stare at what special people are lurking in Dalston. My personal favourite from the night was the guy with a multipack of tissue paper under his arm and a briefcase. You’re also liable to be treated to some classic pop and a small cheer went up when Whitney Houston reared her impeccable voice.

The menu is obviously small and less small plates, around the £5/8 mark. The menu has some really interesting dishes on it including salad with haggis, blackened wings and chilli, cucumber and peanuts. I elected for the fried chicken roll which looked similar to what you buy from Dixie Chicken down the road but tasted like how Heston would have made over a simple chicken fillet. My only regret was not ordering another, served in a brown paper bag the chicken was battered in buttermilk and came with a spicy and yogurty sauce. A slightly smaller dish of fried cheese with salted cold potatoes was excellent; a physics defying runny cheese concoction somehow held together with panko breadcrumbs. An aubergine parmagana had by the girlfriend was really well done, small touches in marinating the aubergines and including capers making the classic dish above the norm.  A chocolate ‘pie’ tasted like it had been made with Nesquik (a good thing in my book) but some random fruits in the bottom were an odd accompaniment.

Following food, Ritas / Birthdays is not the type of place you want to hang about unless you’re seeing live music. It is cold, there are slightly aggressive bouncers in high vis jackets patrolling around IDing 40 year old men, and concrete décor doesn’t exactly charm (I know everywhere here is concrete but some are more equal than others). The food however is reason enough to brave this trendiness and enjoy menu but hit those small plates hard or you will, like us, end up in Voodoo Rays 3 hours later banging on about how cool it is in there.

The Marksmen, Hackney Road - http://www.marksmanpub.com

The Marksman is situated on the corner of Hackney Road and Horatio Street – which explains the reference to the dastardly French sniper who took down Nelson. Although I prefer to think of it as an aggressive ploy designed to intimidate the pub 20 metres down the road called the Nelson’s Head. This could potentially be the new Tesco v Sainsbury's market war – although I wouldn’t expect 2p shots of vodka anytime soon, just simmering beef.

I have been here a couple of times in the last few weeks which given the time of year and the fact that it is 30 metres from my house isn’t that surprising. However, fortunately its convenient location is coupled with the fact that the food here is very good, and the atmosphere also normally buzzing. It is quite small and if you aren’t booking a table I reckon you have a 50/50 chance of being able to sit down. Even when sat down you should expect to be knocked and banged as people squeeze through the pub, but it makes for a good atmosphere with a nice mix of new and old locals.

The menu on a Sunday includes classic lunches for around the £14 mark (no veggy) or a range of other dishes such as mussels, burgers, fish and chips - classic pub items all for around the 10-12 mark (except the mussels were a v reasonable £7.50 and could easily be a main). I opted for the cheeseburger which was very good. I am always pleased when a pub actually asks you how you want it cooked despite it being 8pm and rammed on a Sunday night. It came with an aioli that had such a garlic punch you should really refrain after a few dips, but I chose to practically drink it instead. My girlfriend went for veggy soup which had a smoky parsnip taste which resembled bacon and came with what I suspect was E5 bakehouse sourdough which was coated in what can only be described as buttery olive oil, the chef has somehow mixed the two bread competitors and come up with a dream taste, and I am sure the oil cancels out the buttery heart attacks. When a meal's highlights are the dips and bread you know a restaurant is concentrating on the details. Given it was packed I suspect many others recognise this as well.

Just a quick note about the other occasion I visited in which I had breakfast which was a simple but excellent and cheap brunch. A bloody mary came in a pint with a foot of celery to make me feel healthy. The English breakfast was huge and came with a nice touch of two very buttery pieces of farmhouse toast (ie, an inch thick), one white and one brown. The eggs benedict were much better than some of vinagery samples I have had recently and came with proper home cooked ham. Again the prices were friendly and the service was great – we accidently got a plate of bacon which they gave us for free because of a misunderstanding. Free bacon and pints of BM – THE DREAM.

In all the Marksmen definitely has put in place a decent kitchen and the meals are consistently good quality and value – its nearest pub food competitor The Royal Oak charges £15 for fish and chips* – this is definitely quietly one of the best traditional pub food places around the Hackney Road area – just make sure you book in advance.

The positiveness of this review is also helped by the fact that a week in Cardiff showed most pubs outside London are now two meals for ten quid brewers fayre type places, thank fuck we still have ropey little places like this serving quality food in London.

*RIDIC