The opening comes from Clare Lattin and Tom Hill who delivered appealing seasonal simplicity with Ducksoup and Little Duck the Picklery in London before striking up the spirit of an Italian osteria with Emilia in Ashburton, Devon.
This Francophone turn (like Josephine, named after a grandmother) has Elliot Hashtroudi as its headline act, a chef who works the brief with plenty of flair and a deft hand with good ingredients. Whole-animal cookery fits the agenda and on an early visit the menu and blackboard specials paid tribute to a Mangalitsa in the form of pig head schnitzel, trotter terrine, rillettes, pigs liver and house-made Attriaux sausage.
From the rest of the menu, the devilled eggs dressed up with smoked eel, crab toast with bisque, and thick-cut ox tongue piled with chanterelles vie for status as instant classics. Headline mains might be whole gurnard with snails or electric pink onglet with Café de Paris butter to share. While a burnt milk tart proved a perfect finale, the table next door at our Saturday night dinner finished their mains and headed back to the top of the menu to start again.
All this in a setting of neat bistro proportions, the room dressed simply in café curtains, mirror-hung walls, soft globe lighting and candles flickering on the tables. For those that don’t mind a stool, there’s space at the bar kept for wallk ins or, better still, in the window looking out onto Ted’s Veg stall and the bustle of Borough Market.
The tight-knit team is drawn from a network of London’s top hospitality spots like Brat and St John so service is suitably slick but easygoing. Wines on the bottle list start from £45 on the bottle list which showcases small, independent French producers with a sprinkling of Italian choices in the mix.
WHERE 2-3 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AA
WHEN Opened 8th February 2024
OPEN Lunch Tuesday-Sunday and dinner every day
FOLLOW camille_se1
BOOK camillerestaurant.co.uk
The Good Food Guide allows three to six months before anonymously inspecting a new restaurant. Look out for a full review coming soon.
