The Cock Tavern and Rita's (permanent place), 4th April

The Cock Tavern

Now that you've finished laughing at its silly name, I shall tell you that this is a rather good little pub, at the top of Mare Street, attracting the overflow of hipsters from Broadway Market. Actually, there was a mixed crowd – sure, there was a lot of the younger generation, but also some older, more traditional pub-going folk – you know, people with dogs and beards before they were cool.

We only had time for one but I'm sure when I'm in the area I'll be back. They serve the usual suspects of Kernel, Camden Hells etc, but they also apparently have an in-house brewery called Howling Hops, which we didn't try. And they served my large wine in a carafe which I always like. 

Rita's

I'd already been to Rita's when it was just a little residency at Birthdays, serving fantastic 'down-home' southern cooking, so I have had their permanent place on my List ever since seeing they had finally got new premises.

The permanent place has given them a chance to flex their muscles and really show us the kind of sophisticated, 'all growed up' cooking they can do.

There was definitely an element of asian fusion in the dishes on the menu, but they haven't completely turned their backs on the southern influences that made them so successful during their pop-up. The green chili mac n cheese is still on the menu, and while the chicken burger wasn't, they have instead a half chicken with warm honey and gravy. As delicious as that sounded, we balked at paying £25 for half a chicken, no matter how good it might be. 

We had a couple of cocktails, which were nice enough, though next time I'd probably just go for wine as an accompaniment to my meal, noticing that they sold it in 500ml carafes as well as bottles and by the glass. 

I had really wanted to try the goat tacos, another nod to their 'dirtier' roots but by the time we got there (our reservation was for 8:15) they were already sold out!

So, instead we had quite a mature meal that ranged across the different styles on offer. There were several vegetable dishes that we were torn between, which is unusual for us; the asparagus special with duck egg yolk (cooked in a water bath) and miso butter, the tokyo turnips with soy butter, or, the one we did go for - poached calcots with szechuan minced pork.

The calcots were like mini leeks and came with dry-fried crumbled pork all over it, sitting on a delicious and subtly fiery red sauce. This was my favourite plate of the night!

Stephen then overcame his aversion to ordering a vegetarian dish to get the mushrooms with burnt onions, a ragout of grains, and parmesan cream. This dish would not have been out of place in a high-end restaurant – a fabulous blend of earthy flavours and rich, creamy cheese. I'm not a mushrom person but this dish came close to winning me over. Stephen was almost stunned by how good it was.

'My' dish was the rare tuna with radish, blood orange and pickled cucumber. It was the polar opposite of the mushroom dish - light and delicate, crisp and fresh. Another exquisite plate. 

And finally, lest we start taking ourselves too seriously with all these 'adult' plates, we had a side of the mac n cheese we'd loved so much the first time, and happily, it was just as good.

We rounded off dinner by sharing some 'beignets' without the fois gras. I was very tempted to try it, just to try the combination. I know they're famed for them. But I'm not even sure I would have liked it so much, adn it would have been a shame to not enjoy the dessert as much as I had the rest of the meal. The beignets came with a large puddle of dulce de leche, and it was all really tasty, although maybe just a tad too fried-tasting for me. The doughnuts had a lovely, almost gooey, doughy middle though, and the outside was crispy, almost caramelised in some places. And look at the size of them! Definitely a sharing dessert.

Stephen and I both came away in awe a little bit with what they are doing here. The restaurant is unassuming from the outside, but has a clean, yet warm interior - it might look like a typical new hipster joint but what Rita's doing here is that little bit extra special.

Birthdays, 31st July

I went to Birthdays last night sober. I think this was a mistake. I think Birthdays is the kind of sweaty hole that you have to turn up to fairly inebriated, and then continue to numb your brain cells so that you can ignore pesky things like temperature and people bumping into you because they are snogging so copiously that they’ve failed to notice you, and instead concentrate on the reason you’ve come here. Last night the reason was a gig, on other nights it could be a DJ or club night.

Birthdays is a new venue on Stoke Newington Road, owned by Vice. Currently, upstairs is dominated by Rita’s Bar and Dining, which was very busy when we got there. Downstairs is the where the gigs and parties happen. It’s really rather small, which could be a good thing for seeing a band, but it’s also narrow, which means that even though it’s small, it’s quite hard to see anything unless you are right at the top end where the stage is. Or very tall. I am not so we moved to the front where half the space was being occupied by an older ‘gentlemen’ dancing around overly enthusiastically to the music. There’s always one.

The sound was pretty good though and I did enjoy the gig, though it does get very, very hot in there. My hair was already sticking to me when the support band was on (ie fairly empty). Once the Fixers came on (the headliners) it was getting unpleasant, and this is when I began to wish I was drunk so I wouldn’t care.

This isn’t a venue I would rush back to, although they do have quite a lot of live music on, at bargain prices. The gig last night was £6.00 and there were two support acts as well as Fixers. After the gig was over, two girls seemed to take to the decks and started blasting hip hop (weirdly, considering the type of music the Fixers play) and then followed immediately by some house. I don’t know what time it closes, but it seemed like quite a lot of people were up for staying out on a school night, and Birthdays were about to cater to them.

I will, of course, be coming back at some point, just to sample the food at Rita’s, because it sounds great and has been getting amazing reviews. The throngs upstairs confirmed that this was a place I need to try, before they move on to pastures new.

And, after having said all that, if they have more bands I like, the place might grow on me. Having this on the bar has already helped worm its way into my affections: