It was a heat, balmy night in Highbury, and although we had no plans to eat out, the starvation pangs bought the higher of us. That’s once we stumbled upon Franks Canteen on the excessive avenue, a tiny black-fronted restaurant that seemed nice sufficient for informal eating.
The inside was easy, with simply 20 or so covers. The decor was uncluttered with unpretentious chairs alongside equally unpretentious tables and a few tall stool chairs with views over the road all donned with nice dim lighting. It all felt snug.
Turns out the restaurant is known as after head chef/proprietor Paul Warburton’s son. Ironically Frank is allergic to so many meals that he can’t readily eat right here.
Food & Drink
We took our seats and had been advised that the menu was populated with sharing plates. The waitress recommended we decide 4 or 5 and simply enable for these to come back as they’re ready. I used to be pleased with that as I generally order a spread of starters fairly than choosing the primary meal when eating out with pals.
I’m not certain what we hoping for, however what we bought so surpassed the boundaries of expectations our minds had been blown by the creativity, the beneficiant parts and the flavours.
Asparagus
Mackerel
Black sausage burger
First to reach was a plate of chunky items of St John sourdough served with a really morish whipped salted honey butter. We needed to reign in our need to devour the lot as we nonetheless had tons to sit up for.
Then got here the Kent asparagus, beurre noisette hollandaise, topped with roasted hazelnuts – this isn’t simply hollandaise, that is brown butter sauce that already has a nuttyesque flavour and in live performance with the nut topping made it very good.
Soon the Brixham mackerel, pan con tomate and bitter cream landed. The mackerel was tender, nearly soften within the mouth and when eaten with the sourcream was notably particular.
The final dish the Blood sausage bun, jalapeno salsa, chopped egg aioli, shoestring fries made fairly the finale. We couldn’t have imagined extra flavour inside a single bun, certainly this was an entire meal in itself.
We downed our meals with a gin and tonic however there are different cocktails, together with a Plum Sake Manhatten, and wines on the menu.
PS. They do superb breakfasts too. Check out the lead image, it’s charred asparagus, Parmesan, pickled shallots, tomatoes, and a fried egg all served in a bap.
Check out the menu right here.
VERDICT:Franks Canteen seems a humble area however what comes out of their kitchen is haut delicacies. This is a restaurant to placed on the bucket record.
Source: www.thetravelmagazine.web