The Sunday Times Magazine - UK (2021-12-19)

The Sunday Times Magazine • 51

Clockwise from top

left: Pali Hill curries

favour; Native at

Browns makes a

fashion statement;

sea views at Sargasso

in Margate; prime pud

at the Palmerston;

Pastan’s Biscoff mini

doughnuts ooze charm

Perfect for

sipping

“real”

wines,

wrestling

with local

crab and

lobster,

slurping

bowls of

mussels

Sargasso

London’s most chic designer
stores. It’s a partnership that might
seem anomalous — like a kitchen
Womble, Tisdall-Downes’s food
frequently makes use of the kind
of things others throw away and
Browns sells 700-quid trainers.
But the result is enchanting.
And his fermented potato waffle
with chicken liver parfait and
sparkling apple jelly is every bit
as glamorous as the footwear.

Pastan
London EC1
pastan.co.uk

Trends move on: burritos shuffle
aside in the name of vegan pasta.
After a series of pop-ups, Pastan
has gone all grown-up bricks
and mortar, moving into the cute
and curious tiled Smithfield
building that used to be a Benito’s
Hat. Good pasta dishes lend
themselves to the vegan treatment
— think Sicily’s cucina povera,

Sargasso

Margate

sargasso.bar

Margate’s reputation as Hackney-

sur-Mer won’t be dented by the

arrival of Sargasso. Brawn in

Bethnal Green has long been

one of my favourite London

restaurants, and this project by

its owners, Ed Wilson and Josie

Stead, is definite cause for putting

out the bunting. Perfect for sipping

“real” wines with parmesan

fritters or marinated scallops,

wrestling with local crab and

lobster, slurping bowls of mussels

or pasta — either outside on fine

Pali Hill
London W1
palihill.co.uk

I’m cheating a little with Pali Hill
as it opened in 2020. But given
it spent more time closed than
otherwise, I’m sneaking it in. I’m
a huge fan of ex-River Café chef
Avinash Shashidhara’s cooking;
his starters in particular are world
class. Crab buns Mangalore style
— pneumatic fried bread stuffed
with the sweetest Dorset crab
ringing with ginger and fennel
seeds; or the crisp, aromatic
lightness of the fried Pondicherry
squid. Unworried by mixing it
up too, adding fontina and black
Tuscan truffle to chillied wild
mushrooms. The place is beautiful:
a peacock’s tail palette, richly
coloured cushions, window screens
and atmospheric artworks. Lovely.

The Palmerston

Edinburgh

thepalmerstonedinburgh.co.uk

First stop on the high road home

to Scotland will be this handsome

number. It’s everything I love —

a Caledonian bistro with daily-

changing menus of stellar local

produce served simply but with

big, bullish flavours. Open all day,

it welcomes blowout lunchers to

quick-pinters in search of a ham

and mustard baguette. There’s

even morning coffee and pastries

(a quince and almond Danish,

maybe). They do their own baking

and butchery, and make their own

terrines and pasta: no messing, no

attitude, just good food and great

drinks. Two Scottish food writer

pals have virtually moved into this

lofty-ceilinged former bank and

I don’t blame them. Make mine

the beef shortrib and suet pie n

Twitter: @MarinaOLoughlin

Instagram: @marinagpoloughlin

where mollica (fried breadcrumbs)

replaces the usual drifts of grated

cheese. Real thought has gone

into these: beetroot gnocchi

with a beetroot-flavoured “cheese

sauce”, or charcoal-activated

taglioni with dill hollandaise and

seaweed caviar (insert your own

inverted commas). I could live

without the cutesy names: Sunset

in Tuscany, Comfort You, Smooth

Operator. Just no. We’re in EC1,

amici, not Disneyland.

days (seaweed pongs permitting)

or cosy inside when sea gales blow.

During lockdowns, moving to

the coast went to the top of many

disaffected city dwellers’ most-

wanted lists. Unsurprisingly, the

good restaurateurs will follow.