Craft Beer In Islington - A Beginner's Guide

Craft beer is a term you hear a lot these days. Way back in the dim, distant days of .. ooh, 2011? .. most of us had barely heard of "craft beer". Quite a few people of the "I preferred their first album" variety were already very familiar with it, and had been following the progress of the American-influenced revival of craft brewing for the previous few years. But there is no doubt that craft beer, or real ale, or whatever you wish to call it (and I won't go into the tedious discussions of what "craft beer" means ... I'll just assume if you're reading this you understand English), has exploded in London over the past couple of years, with a growth in craft-oriented pubs, breweries, enthusiasts, restaurant beer menus, pop-ups and events that is astonishing. This expansion has been too much for the mainstream media, who are woefully behind with the whole thing - beer bloggers, and applications like the supremely useful Craft Beer London app, or user-driven nerd-magnets like Untappd, have taken their place. Newspapers and even London publications like Time Out seem to be blissfully unaware of one of the best things to happen in London, and the UK in general, for ages - something which is improving the sum of human happiness at a time when our malicious rulers appear hell-bent on turning everything else to shit. As Bob Dylan might say, something is happening here, but they don't know what it is.

OK, rant over. Here in Islington, the past two years has seen us go from relative destitution in terms of places to get an interesting range of craft beers, to an embarrassment of riches. This post is intended as a survey for the uninitiated of the treasures on our doorstep. The vast majority of the places I will mention have opened their doors in the last couple of years. Perhaps because I think only of others, and never of myself, I have been diligently researching pubs, restaurants, and shops and seeking out the best craft beer in the borough for all of this time, so that I can share it with you.

The Craft Beer Co weren't the first company to open a craft beer pub in London, but there is no denying that the opening of their first branch in Leather Lane was an event. The Islington branch in White Lion Street, behind Chapel Market, has a similarly impressive range to the original, and is particularly strong in offering keg versions of Scandinavian beers from the likes of Mikkeller, Evil Twin, and Haand. The interior has been done in a more traditional style, with carpets and velvet curtains, and it is a very pleasant place indeed to have a drink. One of the great things about craft beer pubs is that you are guaranteed to get something you have never had before, and the staff in Craft are always knowledgeable.

The Earl of Essex on Danbury Street has a terrific range, displayed on a board rather than by pump-clip. American beers are particularly well represented, and as a brew-pub the Earl also has the distinction of being, to-date, the only brewery in Islington. It is up there with the best pubs in London in my opinion. The Exmouth Arms on Exmouth Market and The North Pole in New North Road - both the subject of previous posts on this blog - have similarly excellent ranges and also do very decent pub food. All nice places to hang out for an afternoon, or even an evening. The Hops & Glory on Essex Road, formerly the George Orwell, is the latest pub to get a thorough craft beer overhaul, and likewise has an excellent and changing range of beers.

Old Fountain Ales, close to Old Street station, is a bit different from the others in that it is not solely a craft-beer oriented pub, but rather is an ordinary pub with the standard range - Fosters, Guinness etc. - which happens to have a load of great beers from Magic Rock, Marble, Kernel and the like on tap as well. Definitely something for everyone here. There are local retirees meeting for a glass of wine alongside youngsters from abroad on beer pilgrimages. Old Fountain feels very like the way a pub should be to me. Old-school pub food is on offer as well. The Wenlock Arms is another unique pub, with a unique clientele and a fine range of traditional ales which has recently received a refurbishment fully respectful of its heritage and history. More than worth a visit, if you can find it.

The Real Ale Tap Room is an interesting pop-up that has popped up on Upper Street, serving high quality ales directly from casks, without the need for a pub cellar. The focus is on quality over quantity and prices are very reasonable. Definitely worth a visit. The place is basic, with benches and so on, but hey, it's a pop-up. The very fact that it is there is representative of a step forward for Upper Street and for human civilisation. The Lamb on Holloway Road is on the site of the old brewpub the Flounder and Firkin. The Firkin mini-chain of brewpubs suffered from a) being ahead of their time, and b) not making very good beer. The Lamb now has a solid and improving range of beers available, constrained slightly by a shortage of cask pumps, and is definitely the pub to recommend for anyone attending an Arsenal match who doesn't want to drink Carlsberg.

The Dove Tail in Jerusalem Passage specialises in Belgian beers, like the now-defunct Bierodrome on Upper Street, which perhaps came along about ten years too early and has now turned into a Karaoke joint. Not wanting to drag the pub survey out overly we'll now cut to the honourable mentions, which go to the Wenlock & Essex, The Barnsbury, The George Shillibeer, and, for any Clerkenwell trendies and babes, The Slaughtered Lamb. I'm sure there are others I have missed. It's getting better all the time.

If you would like to eat delicious food while quaffing craft beer, there are quite a few places to recommend. The Charles Lamb, just around the corner from the Earl of Essex, has a decent beer range (the likes of Dark Star Hophead on cask, Kernel in the fridge) and has long been known as an excellent gastro-pub with a short daily-changing menu. Great if a quiet lunch is what you are after. If you are a sprightly young thing you might prefer John Salt on Upper Street, which has hosted a succession of excellent young and happening chefs while offering a solid range of craft beers in bottle and keg. I'd recommend John Salt for a group of friends, perhaps to eat in the bar rather than the restaurant. The Longroom, just near St John restaurant on St John St, is worth a mention - they offer stuff like salt beef sandwiches, cheese toasties, and sharing platters, which went down pretty well with a Lagunitas IPA on my last research visit.

The Pig & Butcher, as any fool knows by now, is a terrific gastro-pub which does its own butchery for its meat-oriented menu. The food is excellent, the beer range is solid, with the usual likes of Kernel and Brewdog in bottle, and a few changing casks including the lovely Big Chief from Redemption on my last visit. Particularly recommended for Sunday lunch. In fact I would say that the Pig & Butcher's is about the best roast I have had outside a family home (it needs love and care to do a good roast, and so many places fall short of both). The owners of the Pig & Butcher are currently teaming up with Neil Rankin (formerly of Pitt Cue and John Salt) to open the Smokehouse on Canonbury Road (on the site that was 'The House' gastropub), which looks to have an even better beer range. I can't wait to try it when it opens. While we are talking food, an honourable mention should go to the excellent burger chain Byron, which has a hard-to-miss branch on Islington Green, and by far the best beer menu of all of the modern breed of gourmet burger joints (with the possible exception of the Lucky Chip residency at the Sebright Arms). Byron is a great option for people with kids who want to slurp a bit of quality beer while on duty.

In terms of buying bottles of craft beer to take home, outlets are not as numerous as they should be in a civilised society, but they are steadily growing. Probably the best in the borough is the legendary Kris Wines, tucked at the top end of York Way and boasting an incredible array of bottles. Range can come at the expense of freshness ocassionally here, particularly with imports, so it's best to check the bottling dates before buying. Elsewhere, Highbury Vintners has a quality beer range to match it's excellent wine selection. There are a growing number of very ordinary looking off-licenses and corner shops that now stock good craft beer ranges - examples I know of include Arsenal Wines on Blackstock Road, Jacks on Stroud Green Road, and the unglamorously named Handy Mini-Market on Mountgrove Road. It's worth checking the fridges of any random shops you happen to live close to. Some pubs such as the North Pole also do "off-sales" of hard-to-find bottles at reduced prices.

If in doubt, the Craft Beer London app will tell you where to get your nearest fix, wherever you happen to be. I know that's the second time I have plugged it but it really is about the most useful iPhone app out there, along with that one that tells you how to get home, should you have ordered one half of 7.3% IPA too many.





Old Fountain Ales 
3 Baldwin Street 
London EC1V 9NU











The Earl of Essex
25 Danbury Street
London N1 8LE










The Exmouth Arms
23 Exmouth Market
London EC1R 4QL










The Craft Beer Co.
55 White Lion Street
London N1 9PP








The North Pole
188-190 New North Road
London N1 7BJ

The Hops & Glory
382 Essex Road
London N1 3PF 

Praise Butty - The Fish & Chip Shop

If you have ever worked in a soul-destroying corporate job, you may have come across the term "praise sandwich", which refers to a trick played on an employee in a performance review. The boss starts by praising the employee, then slags them off for a bit, then finishes with more praise. This is supposed, by the moronic boss and corporation, to leave the employee highly motivated while conveying the necessary criticism. Both the concept and the term are, needless to say, idiotic, particularly as a "praise sandwich" would imply praise in the middle, not the reverse. You don't call a ham sandwich a bread sandwich. Anyway, I digress. Here at Foodie Islington towers we pride ourselves on supportive, constructive criticism as opposed to vindictive hatchet jobs on people trying to start or run a business, so let's consider this a constructive criticism sandwich. If anyone is reading. 

While I've always felt slightly ambivalent about places that posh up working-class food - for many years the Upper Street Fish shop, just over the road from here, still spoken if with misty-eyed nostalgia by many old-time Islingtonians, with its red & white checked table cloths, slightly smug proto-Fromagerie staff and atmosphere, and fish cooked to order, seemed to embody an unspoken but uncomfortable class consciousness, the English disease in restaurant form - the first thing to say about this new venture is that it is a more than welcome addition to the area and is clearly well-intended with a focus on quality. It feels classy but more democratic than its predecessor.

The most important dish on the menu - battered fish - is great; perfectly cooked, with a delicious and impeccably crispy batter which has real flavour. At nine quid, it should be good, but a restaurant has to make it's money and when something is properly good, you can't argue with a price like that. 

Now for a few constructive criticisms:

1. Lobster. When you advertise Lobster Rolls and include them on your permanent menu, you will have to expect some gutted customers when you tell them "no lobster" once they have rocked up salivating over the prospect of a lobster roll. Hopefully a one-off experience for this unlucky punter. 

2. Chips. Sort it out, please. For a start, portions are too stingy for fish & chips, and for the price (£2.50). Secondly, call me old-fashioned, but for me, chips means thick and chunky in this context. These are more like Freedom Fries. When the restaurant has 'Chip' as part of its name, said chips should be triple-cooked, quadruple-cooked or whatever it takes to make them memorable. Room for improvement here. 

3. £1 plus service charge for two small pickled onions is ridiculous. They need to be better than what you get from a supermarket jar at that price. 

OK, back to the positives. I applaud anywhere that tries to have decent beer on the menu so we'll forget about the dodgy menu descriptions (OK, I'll mention them - Brooklyn Brown Ale described as "Brooklyn Brown Sugar", Beavertown 8-Ball described as "Indian IPA"). You can get good beer with your fish & chips here - I would request while they are at it they add a lower ABV Pale Ale such as Kernel Table Beer, but I'm being pedantic now. 

Starters of oysters, pea fritters, and scallops were delicious, as was a delightfully bouncy, sweet and shrimpy shrimp burger. Music was brilliant on our visit, including Brenton Wood's 'Gimme Little Sign', The Velvet Underground, Dusty Springfield, John Lee Hooker, and the Rolling Stones. A better class of chippy music. The place itself is lovely and has plenty of two of my favourite things, bar seats (for couples and solo diners), and booths. Hooray for booths. 

Some of the gripes above may well be due to first-week syndrome, but I couldn't wait to check the place out. My fault really. The positives are such that I'll definitely be back before too long, and I'm looking forward to it as well. Might phone ahead though, to make sure they have lobster in. 

Next!

The Fish & Chip Shop

189 Upper Street

London N1 1RQ

http://www.thefishandchipshop.uk.com

RE: Laksa

The Official Foodie Handbook, by Ann Barr and Paul Levy, which appeared in the 1980s and may even have coined the term 'foodie' (I’ll have to get one of the Foodie Islington research interns to check that), had a section called 'Ten Dishes That Shook The World'. I forget what they all were, but the list definitely included Chilli Con Carne, and Gravlax. If I had to compile a similar list today, it would have to include Laksa. There are many different versions of Laksa, but the one most familiar in this country, and which is the Platonic ideal to my mind, is the Singapore version which includes coconut milk and is therefore sometimes referred to as 'Laksa Lemak'.

Laksa shook my world in many ways. It is one of those dishes that absolutely blew me away the first time I had it, and opened mental doors about the possibilities of food. It is a dish that seems to have everything both in terms of sensation - heat, spice, sweetness, saltiness, acidity – and in terms of nutrition – protein, starch, vegetable matter, citrus, whatever other stuff we are meant to eat.

The first time I had an authentic Laksa was in a hawker centre in Singapore with my parents when I was a young man. Never having been outside Europe before, the hawker centre itself was a pretty mind-blowing experience, with incredible delights available all around, such as plates of satay, bottles of cold beer, or the freshest crab I had ever eaten, dispatched in front of you with a cleaver and on your plate in a matter of minutes. If you wanted more of anything, you just went and got more. Simplicity itself, as genius ideas so often are. It was the Laksa that I kept wanting more of. The version I had there was pretty basic and unfancy in terms of ingredients if I remember rightly – maybe just tofu and fishcake as protein – but the soup was so delicious and moreish. Later I learned to make Laksa myself, and found that despite it’s complexity it’s not that hard to make a passable version.

Laksa is in many ways the perfect lunch. However, it does have several qualities that are perhaps undesirable in the average weekday lunch. Firstly, brings on a strong desire for a cold beer (during), and secondly, it brings on a strong desire for a nap (after). Cold beer and naps, we should note, are not actually bad things but good things. Some might say they are very good things. So really it is only our need to do pain-in-the-arse work that has the potential to hamper our complete enjoyment of this wonderful dish.

Where in our compact borough can you actually buy and eat Laksa? Not nearly as many places as you should be able to. If I had my way there would be hawker stalls on every corner selling it, and we would all be arguing all day on Twitter about which was the best one. But alas, in these parts we still live well below the Laksa poverty line. The otherwise-decent sandwich chain EAT have made a laughing stock (pun intended) of themselves by selling something called 'Laksa Pho', which I could not bring myself to buy even for research, but I imagine it is mediocre in the same vein as their other 'Pho' pots.

The small pan-Asian chain Banana Tree, which has a branch at the Angel, does a very reasonable version. The chicken Laksa at lunch time is particularly good value for £5.95. It’s a generous portion, with a nice level of heat (and raw chilli added for tweaking), sweetness, an appetising appearance, and some nice bits of properly cooked aubergine (I have heard that undercooking aubergines is punishable by lethal injection in some U.S. states - quite right too). On the downside, the chicken pieces are dull generic takeaway style pieces of overly white meat, and the stock lacks a certain fishy depth that I associate with Laksa perfection. When all is said and done the Banana Tree Laksa still kicks the arse of many lunch options at the same price level.

Just over the road, Naamyaa does a very respectable version with the right thickness, depth of flavour and chilli kick, let down ever-so-slightly by the toppings, which include crisps which seem to be made of sweet potato, and some slightly dull greens. It has what seems to me a more 'Thai' level of sweetness, meaning that it tastes like it has palm sugar in it as well as the sweetness from the coconut milk. As well as seafood and chicken laksa, they have a beef laksa, which sounds inauthentic but delicious. One to try perhaps.

Then there is the small Malaysian restaurant Puji Puji on Balls Pond Road, which has both Laksa Lemak and the more sour, fishy Assam Laksa on the menu, and is notable mainly for random opening hours which seem to bear no relation to the advertised times.

An even better, if far less readily available, option, is the version at the PlusSixFive Singaporean supper club, which takes place roughly once a month with a changing menu. When I saw that they planned a special Laksa-based menu recently I just had to get in there. The PlusSixFive team’s very motivation for doing the Laksa special was frustration at the lack of authentic Laksa in London. My expectations were high, but I have to say it satisfied my needs, Laksa-wise. Forehead-wiping heat, sweetness, fishy depth of flavour, nice prawns, and interesting accompaniments such as 'Otah Otah', a delicious kind of mackerel fishcake wrapped in leaf. The only downside of this Laksa is obviously the fact that you can’t get it on demand but have to wait patiently and subscribe to the mailing list in the hope that the event is repeated. I know I have bigged these guys up before, but it really is a supper club that every Islington foodie should know about. Just doing my job, y'know.

If none of the above work, or are convenient, you can always make your own. There is something called a 'Laksa kit' available in my local supermarket, which seems to be part of that middle ground between a ready-meal and cooking yourself that I can never understand (like pre-chopped onions ... if you can’t be arsed to chop an onion why are you bothering to cook?). Anyway, I tried it for research purposes and the results were OK, but it is really not that difficult or time-consuming to make it from fresh ingredients. Laksa is also a dish for which it can be quite fun to change the ingredients around and experiment, although seafood is what I always come back to.

I have included a simple recipe below that I use, with no claims to authenticity. It is a simplified recipe originally adapted (i.e. stolen) from Charmaine Solomon, and usually does the trick for me. (If you want authentic, I can point you at the blogged Nyonya Laksa recipe from PlusSixFive guy, Jason at feasttotheworld: http://www.feasttotheworld.com/2012/08/nostalgia-in-bowl-nyonya-laksa-lemak.html )

Foodie Islington's Easy Laksa Lemak

Main Ingredients:

Rice Vermicelli, or noodles of your preference

Some prawns (I use frozen cooked shell-on Atlantic prawns)

Some white fish fillet

Coconut milk

Paste (proportions to your taste):

Onion

Garlic

Lemongrass

Dried chillies

Galangal or Ginger

1-2 teaspoons shrimp paste

1-2 teaspoons Turmeric

Pinch of salt

Garnishes (as many or as few as you wish, or have available):

Bean sprouts

Sambal

Cucumber

Hard-boiled egg

Chopped spring onions

Sliced fresh red chilli

Fresh coriander or mint leaves, or other herbs

Directions:

Peel the prawns, set them aside, and make a quick stock from the shells, adding some aromatics. Don't use too much water. Any fish bones, crab or lobster shells you happen to have in the freezer will only improve the stock so chuck them in. Remove the shells after 30 mins or so and reduce the stock a bit.

Meanwhile chop up the fish fillet, season with salt and a little pepper and form into balls. Set aside on a plate.

Par-cook the noodles and put into bowls with the prawns (if cooked – if not add them to the soup later, with the fish balls). Add the other garnishes to the bowls, or to a serving plate for any ‘optional’ garnishes such as chillies.

Whizz or pound the paste ingredients, then fry the paste in some oil (in the pot you want the Laksa to end up in) until fragrant and golden. An anchovy or two melted into the frying oil at this point won’t hurt anybody.

Add the stock to the paste in the pot and simmer for a bit, 15 minutes is fine but longer is OK. Add the coconut milk and bring back to simmering point. Check seasoning. Gently add the fish balls (and prawns, if uncooked) to the soup. By the time you have got the pot to the table, the fish should be cooked. Serve by ladelling the soup into the bowls prepared with the noodles and garnishes.

Banana Tree

412-416 St John St

London EC1V 4NJ

http://www.bananatree.co.uk

PlusSixFive supper club

http://plusixfive.wordpress.com/

http://www.edibleexperiences.com/

Naamyaa Cafe

407 St John Street

London EC1V 4AB

http://www.naamyaa.com/

The Return Of The Quality Chop House

When the old new version of the Quality Chop House closed down a couple of years ago, I was, to use the medical term, gutted. My last couple of visits had been great, but perhaps in ways that should have sent alarm bells ringing. A solo lunch of salmon fish cake with sorrel sauce in the bar area was blissfully relaxed and quiet. Too quiet, I now realise. Then a drop-in dinner (without reservation) with inebriated friends, featuring delicious devilled kidneys on toast and I can't remember what else. Perhaps due to the uniquely preserved old-fashioned interior, it had felt like the kind of place that would always be there. And then it was gone.

There followed a short-lived venture called Meatballs at the venue. Maybe it was the name, but despite having flyers shoved into my hand on Exmouth Market I was never tempted to try it. I don't have anything against meatballs, but they have to be pretty special to impress anyone in a restaurant setting. Likewise there is nothing wrong with limited-menu concepts, but 'Meatballs' as a name just doesn't have the mouth-watering quality of, say 'Burger & Lobster' or 'Pho'.

Now at last it has re-opened properly as the Quality Chop House, with Shaun Searley as head chef. The old new Chop House was a hard act to live up to, and the new owners have gone for an emphasis on wine which I was slightly worried might affect the food, but on the evidence of my first visit, the new New QCH is even better than the old New QCH.

The dining room area, which retains the famous pie-and-mash-shop style bench booth seating (now with added cushions), has a no-choice set menu offering at £35 a head. For this we got three tasting-menu style starters, a full main course, and dessert, with cheese at £3 extra. I have seen a few grumbles about this price, but to my mind it is fair value for the quality, service, and overall pleasurable-experience factor. The booths make a perfect mini-venue for four to six people to have dinner together, and the lack of choice actually makes it very relaxed and convivial. I am never comfortable in a restaurant until the ordering is out of the way (very much a First World Problem, I know) so removing the need for this stage enhances the whole business for me. For solo diners, couples, or people who want more choice, there is a "bar menu" in the bar section, which is actually more like a short-ish restaurant menu, filled with tempting options which I am looking forward to sampling in the near future.

 

We were a party of four, and were given smoked ox-heart, deep-fried and battered jerusalem artichokes with aioli, and pork belly with apple and chickweed. That was the starters. Then came two different cuts of delicious roast beef with vegetables and dauphinoise, salted caramel tart with cream, and cheese. All of the food was excellent, and felt fresh from the kitchen in the way home cooking does but restaurant food often doesn't (perhaps another advantage of all having the same dishes). The main course in particular was very satisfying in an un-showy way, presented family-style in generous quantity. "This is proper food", as one of my companions, a confirmed anti-small-portioner, put it. Food that gives pleasure in a natural way without being too in-your-face about it, with quality ingredients to the fore.

My only slight whinge at this point would be with London restaurants in general rather than the Quality Chop House specifically. Enough already with the salted caramel. We get it. The salt enhances the flavour. Now can I go back to desserts that are, y'know, sweet?

We drank a very nice, good-value house red, but there are more interesting wines, along with matched wines by the glass, available. Being a relative wine ignoramus I am always grateful when wine experts help you out a bit by choosing good wines for their menu in the first place. I also enjoy matched wines at times, but with a larger group you just want to crack open a decent bottle and get on with it. The combination of great food and interesting wine is reminiscent of their excellent close neighbour Vinoteca, with perhaps a more European feel that goes well with the setting.

Details are nicely matched with the old fashioned interior: the cutlery, crockery, napkins and pepper grinders are tasteful and substantial, with a whiff of the days (before I was born of course) when such things were done properly as a matter of course. For those who adhere to a looser moral code than mine, they are distinctly worth stealing. Service was charming and hospitable throughout. The booths mean you don't pay too much attention to the other customers, but everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The new incarnation is a quiet triumph and a place I want to tell people about. (Hence the blog post.) And The Quality Chop House is definitely the kind of restaurant you go back to. The kind of restaurant that it’s nice to know is there, doing its thing, ready for your next visit.

 

The Quality Chop House
92-94 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3EA
http://thequalitychophouse.com