Soif

Soif in Battersea by Clapham Common is a charming (parisian-style) neighbourhood restaurant/bistro and wine bar; bursting with character and atmosphere.

SOIF Bistro & Wine Bar | Battersea Clapham

http://soif.co

Soif restaurant review 2012 September London | British Cuisine ...

Like its siblings, the food emphasis is on robust bistro fare, with a wine list that reflects its owners, wine importers Les Caves de Pyrène.

The wine list started at £17 and had choices such as Guy Allion Sauvignon de Touraine 2010 at £19.50 for a wine that you can find in the high street for £8, Albert Mann Riesling Schloss 2009 at £59 for a wine that retails at £26, and the extremely enjoyable Paradiso Manfred Brunello Montalcino 2005 at £67 for a wine that will set you back around £59 in a shop (this is the wine that we chose).

This Moroccan dish was successfully executed, the filo pastry of the coating thin, the duck nicely seasoned with a hint of sweetness, the couscous delicate (14/20).

If you drank a more modest wine it would be easily possible to eat three courses for around £50 a head.

The kindly priced wine list is a real bonus: Soif is a likeable restaurant.

Soif, 27 Battersea Rise, London SW11 | The Independent

I remember when Battersea began to change from grotty up-the-Junction rat hole to a rather fashionable suburb; it was when Acquired Taste appeared, the first wine shop-cum-delicatessen with its array of posh clarets and French cheeses and the salutation in the window that asked passers-by, rather snootily, "Why cross the river?"

I don't know where in London you'll find such a concentration of restaurants as upper Battersea Rise, many of them with their names in gigantic lettering.

It's the third eaterie to be opened by Ed Wilson and Oli Barker, who triumphed with their first wine-bar/restaurant, Terroirs, off the Strand, and followed up with the well-regarded Brawn on Columbia Road in east London.

Though their press material calls Soif a wine bar, it's hard to miss the team of brawny chefs sweating over hot stoves in the back room.

About £100 for two, with wine Tipping policy: "Service charge is 12.5 per cent discretionary, of which 100 per cent goes to the staff; all tips go to the staff" The divinely smoky pipes of squid sat on a big hockey puck of soft and densely flavoursome boudin noir Family-run Cheltenham favourite with two Michelin stars that serves dishes such as sea bream with baby squid and chorizo cream.

Soif - review | London Evening Standard

ES Food Newsletter Soif is the third restaurant to have been created by Ed Wilson and Oli Barker, in succession to Terroirs, which appeared in Charing Cross in 2008 to rave reviews, and Brawn in Columbia Road, which was even more enthusiastically received when it opened at the end of last year.

Black pudding and squid (£11) was very good - a big fat round of juicy black pudding crowned with plenty of judiciously grilled squid, tentacles emerging from a little hat of body pieces, a surf-n-turf arrangement it was a pleasure to dissect with that razor-sharp knife.

Clams, lemon and coriander (£8) was a decent serving of pretty little shellfish, all by themselves for once instead of stretched with pasta, but they would have been more enjoyable served classically with white wine, parsley and garlic.

Pig cheeks, Eric Bordelet sidre, autumn vegetables (£15) was a big plateful, the cheeks tender enough but not yet in the melting stage, the liquid sauce having a surprisingly raw taste of the cider (if it was purely cider, for it seemed strangely winey), while the winter vegetables included some dull Brussels sprouts.

Terroirs and its offshoots (they're planning a fourth restaurant in St Martin's Lane early next year, focusing on wines from the Loire) are backed by the adventurous wine company Caves de Pyrène and the lengthy list here is extraordinary, offering all kinds of out-of-the-way, little known bottles in the £20-£30 range, many of them difficult to track down even where they are made (I've never found Elian da Ros's Le Vin est Une Fête from Marmande or Nicolas Carmarans's Mauvais Temps from the Aveyron on sale in south-west France).

Soif, London SW11, restaurant review - Telegraph

All the edges were harsh and new, the floor was a cheap, clacky terracotta (where we were sitting), the furniture wooden, functional, untroubled by cushioning, and everything that could be, was very close together.

Padrón peppers only work for me dressed with a really good olive oil; they're bitter, so you need some luxury as a counterbalance.

D had the hake with a very classic French medley, pebbly puy lentils flecked with herbs and vegetables at their daintiest (£16).

The kidneys made a much better fist of being the kind of thing you go to a restaurant for: ingredients you don't often find, cooked in ways that you might mess up, served with a panache you might not be able to muster.

Sample the chef's home-made pancetta with fillet of pork and ham-hock croquettes (£16.95) Tipped for its great-value midweek suppers (just £15 for three courses), this small, no-fuss bistro is the place to go for a beautifully presented roast fillet of cod with parmesan mash and pea purée, followed by crème brûlée with roasted plums.

Restaurant review: Soif, London SW11 | Life and style | The Guardian

It's a good word, in and of itself, but thanks to The Who's 1971 singles compilation album, I find it can't come up on its own: it's always "meaty, beaty, big and bouncy".

The cooking of the team at the Battersea restaurant Soif is meaty.

All three restaurants feature a list of starters and nibbles that are biased towards charcuterie and pork products, and follow up with cooking that is strong on flavour and short on frippery.

The fish cooking is good, too, in a meaty way, by which I mean that it is direct, emphatic and flavourful.

The meaty Soif is by far the best restaurant in the strip of eateries on this side of Battersea Rise.

Soif | Restaurants in Clapham Junction, London

Thanks to a partnership with leading wine importer, Les Caves de Pyrène, the Terroirs group has pioneered the natural wine movement in London.

Implausibly delicate C&S glassware provides the perfect vehicle for the terrific collection of intriguing wines, a dozen or so served by the glass.

Vintage ciders and beers featuring the cult Kernel brewery, digestifs and intriguing stickies (tomato liqueur, anyone?)

Food is well sourced, deftly cooked in an open-view kitchen and served in generous measure: velvety duck rillettes with cracking cornichons was a starter sufficient for two; copiously dressed tomato salad dotted with goat’s cheese and excellent pickled walnuts came as a huge plateful; and a dish of smoky and tender pork loin with creamy champ and perky girolles left few gaps to fill.