After my exhilarating white water Duck Tour adventure, I was
whisked off to Dalston for a night out there followed by a stay in the Avo
boutique hotel. I won't go into too much detail on the hotel as it wasn't on
the List, but it was very cute, a fantastic location and I quite liked the
breakfast, though the guy on reception could do with improving his warmth and
people skills.
Anyway so next on the agenda was dinner at Oui Madame! This
was such a French-feeling restaurant - superfriendly and homely. It had two
sections to the restaurant - we were at the front where it opens out onto the
street giving the inside a bit of a cafe/bistro feel. The back half felt more
like a 'proper' restaurant.
The back side |
It felt very much like you were at his house and he was
treating you to dinner as he bustled around, showing off the specials board,
greeting diners, and swigging from the glass of wine he kept close to hand on
the counter. I fell in love with the place even without trying any of the food.
Happily, the food was also a joy to eat. It's not fine
dining - it wouldn't win Michelin stars - but it was good, homemade food, just
the sort of thing you'd want from a neighbourhood restaurant. I keep wanting to
say the cuisine was French, but actually there was quite an Italian feel to the
menu. The starter was a gazpacho and the dessert was salted caramel pannacotta.
We had one each of the main meat dishes - pork loin for
Stephen and beef for me.
The tomato gazpacho came with sardine rillete on toast,
which turned out to be far too fishy for me, but appreciated for that very
reason by Stephen so he had mine, leaving me with the toast it was served on.
This had been sprinkled with some sort of seed (I think pumpkin or linseed),
giving it an added nutty dimension. The gazpacho was beautifully fresh-tasting,
dotted with basil and (perhaps) further tomato oil which dispersed into the
soup. It had a deep garlic flavour and was like eating liquid bruschetta. I
loved it.
I had mainly chosen the beef over the pork because it came
with potato dauphinoise. It was also accompanied by a blue cheese sauce, and
what turned out to be a basil sauce as well. This basil sauce seemed to be a
signature of their plates as it appeared on Stephen's pork dish too. Both of us
agreed that it was delicious but we couldn't quite work out its relationship to
the other food on the plate. Stephen's pork came with roasted tomatoes, and
unsurprisingly the basil went a treat with those, but didn't really pair with
the pork so much. I thought it complemented my beef quite well but clashed with
the very cheesy and creamy blue cheese sauce and potatoes. Each plate was
almost like two dishes in one.
My steak was cooked very well (by that I mean medium rare) and the potato dauphinoise
were creamy without being too stodgy, with a crispy potato layer on top.
Stephen had forgotten his pork was loin rather than shoulder and wsa about to moan at me that it was a little dry in parts before remembering that was a likely characteristics
of this cut. I must admit when our plates were first set down I had a pang of
food envy and flirted with preferring his dish over mine after I'd had a bite
of the edge of his loin - caramelized and crunchy round the edges. But I think
my beef was probably more consistently good.
Our dessert reminded us a bit of the dessert we'd had at
Flat Iron. Stephen fulfilled the role of food critic here by trying each
element and pronouncing that individually they were all delicious and… together
they were still delicious! We had a blackberry sorbet with the chantilly and
pannacotta, which tasted great but sadly was a bit too authentic for me.
Horrible seeds kept getting in my teeth so I gave mine to Stephen. (Only the
sorbet, I ate the other stuff!)
Pretty gazpacho! |
Pork loin |
Steak |
We had planned to get a cheese course as well but I was
feeling pretty comfortably full by then and didn't want to push it. I knew we
were going for cocktails after and I didn't want to feel bloated and destroy my
further enjoyment of cocktails.
We foolishly started perusing the food as soon as we sat
down instead of the drinks so when our drinks order was taken, I ordered in a
bit of a rush, picking the biodynamic wine just because I hadn’t had one
before. Stephen admonished me, saying I should have remembered they have a
reputation for being awful, but our hostess (naturally) said it was a fine
choice and that you can drink bottles of the stuff without getting a hangover.
We only had the one bottle to share, but it was very drinkable, nice and dry, and
I didn’t have a headache at all the next day so maybe it can take some of the
credit for that.
We didn’t have any cocktails because a) they were all quite absinthe-based and b) we were having cocktails later, but I did love that one was called the Oui Madame!, and one was called the Non Monsieur!.
We didn’t have any cocktails because a) they were all quite absinthe-based and b) we were having cocktails later, but I did love that one was called the Oui Madame!, and one was called the Non Monsieur!.
And weirdly, the bathroom deserves a special mention for
being somewhat out-of-the-ordinary. A huge feather duster hung from the ceiling
as the light switch, it was illuminated by a soft red glow and on the whole
felt a bit like walking into a sex dungeon. I tried to take a picture but it
doesn’t do it justice.
Apparently downstairs they have exhibitions and whatnot
(which is how I first heard of the place). It’s a little far up Kingsland Road,
pretty much straddling Dalston and Stoke Newington but I would say it is well worth
the extra walk.
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Please feel free to add your views, or maybe suggest somewhere I should put on my list!