Smoke & Salt
Tooting, London
CONTINUE READING
Already a member? Log in here
Subscribe to our newsletter to gain access to limited free articles, reviews, news and our weekly newsletter.
The Good Food Guide Membership: Save £100s at Britain's best restaurants - try for free for 30 days
Born and raised in one of POP Brixton’s shipping containers, Smoke & Salt now has a permanent home on the streets of Tooting – thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign (the donors’ names are inscribed on fermentation jars along one side of the restaurant). Stripped-back slate walls and exposed brickwork are standard-issue for an on-trend neighbourhood eatery, but all eyes are on the open kitchen – a ‘constant rush of energy, heat, flames and smoke’. Snacks set the tone for a menu that takes its cue from the restaurant’s name: sweetcorn is grilled ‘to within an inch of its life’ and served with salty miso dip, while just-cooked cauliflower nuggets come smothered in smoked chilli salt and aïoli. Bigger dishes show the kitchen’s flair with seasonal ingredients – perhaps English heirloom tomatoes (seemingly picked ‘at their perfect ripeness’) intertwined with smoked egg yolk, plus a sharp elderflower vinaigrette and a few smoked almonds tossed in for good measure. Or how about a flavour-packed, 12-hour smoked pork chop topped with an utterly mouthwatering apple, sweetcorn and seaweed jam – ‘the best savoury condiment I have possibly ever experienced’. If you’re sweet of tooth, don’t miss the English plums with hazelnut frangipane to finish. The wine list is short and accessible, but don’t ignore the bespoke classic cocktails ‘touched by smoke and salt’.
