In the hood

Since moving to the X, it has become home to some of London's hottest restaurants. Coincidence, you ask. Hmmm, yes I think so.

None have been more lauded than Acorn House, a mere two minutes from me, which is the current Observer new restaurant of the year and was decscribed by Giles Coren as being 'the most important restaurant to open in London in the last 200 years'. My schtick as I wander up the street is that - however good the place is - far from being the most important restaurant to open in the capital in the last two centuries, it's not even the most important opening within a three-minute walk of my flat in the last year. That honour should fall to Konstam at the Prince Albert, a restaurant so devoted to local sourcing that all the ingredients come from within the M25 (and the food's pretty good too). I do admire the ethical and green credentials of Acorn House, but it just bugs me that it has cornered all the laudatory press for following that path, when at least one other local restaurant had already taken the risk (and I believe that St Chad's, just down the road, also acts as a social enterprise in offering jobs to the disadvantaged, as is the case with Acorn House, which is allied to the Terence Higgins Trust - they share the same building). Anyhow, enough caveats, for even I am impressed that apparently the restaurant generates only one bin's worth of waste each week, which is a hell of a lot less than me...

So what's it like inside? Well, it's a pretty good-looking place, mainly whites, green and wood, which suffers slightly from its long, thin footprint, which means that most tables are in effect simply two sides of a long bench. The issue here is that one person in a group will always be on the outside and it is not therefore that great a set-up for those of us who have issues with people brushing behind us whilst we eat. I may be overstating this as, when I walk past in the evening, the place is beautifully (darkly) lit, and there is actually a fair amount of space in the walkway, so after a glass of wine or two I'm sure one would forget one had such an anal 'personal space in restaurants issue'. This was certainly not a problem for me today as I was lunching solo, as a way of starting off an afternoon of fun. I have to attend a boring conference at work tomorrow, so I decided that Friday would be the new Saturday. I'm off to see Damian Hirst in a mo', but I will now get round to describing the food. Jeez, this guy is beginning to get like all those food critics who end up writing about nothing but the food.

So, the choices at lunch were between soup, salads or pasta/risotto. I went for salads on the basis that it offered a chance to try more things (3 salads for £8, 4 for £10) and also as it seemed more lunch-y than nettle risotto with garlic, which did appeal mucho mucho. The salads I went for were as follows: bobby beans with tahini and toasted sesame seeds; roasted sweet potato, pale miso and faro; early summer artichoke 'erbette'; and spring beetroot and carrot with toasted fennel seeds. Before they arrived, I tucked into two slices of excellent multi-grain bread. When the salads did arrive they made up what was probably the most colourful plate I've ever been served in a restaurant, which rather delighted me. The portion sizes were generous and I am certainly full as I write this, which is both a delight and a relief.

The quality of all the salads was high and it varied, I think, from good to really special. Dish by dish, the sweet potato was good, as it should have been since roasted sweet potato is a good thing, though the miso was barely present, if at all, and the faro just wasn't in attendance. The artichoke was a dish of two halves: when you ate bits which were well-dressed with the herby vinaigrette,you thought 'gosh, delicious', but the drier portions induced musings of 'could be better'. The carrots were just not that special, but the beetroot really was. Now beetroot is the kind of thing one doesn't eat all that often and there is a danger of being suckered into saying something like 'and the beetroot was so good that it expressed the very essence of beetrootness, like vegetables are supposed to in that Alice Waters' restaurant in California', but, as I avoid prentention, I shall say no such thing. It did remind me quite how lovely beetroot can be, though, and it had been beautifully cooked so that the texture was perfect. The bobby beans were just fantastic. Of all the dishes this is the one that I'll try and recreate, since the idea of french beans with tahini and roasted sesame seeds is just such a good one - the toastiness of the accompaniments seemed perfect with the crunchiness of the beans - and I shall ogle this salad as I walk past on my way to work. All the salads - as the menu announces - are served at room temperature, and quite right too.

With a sparkling mineral water and service the bill was £13.84, so not cheap, but pretty fair for a restaurant which really aspires to be a good place, in what it does and in the food it offers. The place the salads reminded me of was La Zucca in Venice, which I would say is the best salad restaurant I've ever encountered by a long way. No other eating place has ever really made me think of La Zucca before, so it is to Acorn House's credit that it is aspiring to such heights.

Guardian article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1953988,00.html