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New Restaurant Review: Comensal | Londonist
location staff food ambience
This neighbourhood Mexican eatery has arrived on the same stretch of Clapham’s Abbeville Road that also includes Bistro Union, Newton’s, La Bonne Heure and Abbeville Kitchen; an independent restaurant quarter in an otherwise residential area.
Not because there’s any lack of appeal among the array of tacos, enchiladas and so on, but because the restaurant’s website and promotional material had banged on with such strength about Comensal’s modern, authentic and different approach that we were expecting something a little more unusual.
There was a time not so many years ago, in the dark days before Wahaca and other excellent and authentic Mexican restaurants, that the slowly-cooked and richly earthy frijoles served at Comensal would have been exotic.
Here it’s labelled as the chef’s signature dish, coming in the form of a chicken breast slathered in the mole sauce and served with Mexican red rice.
A meal at Comensal is certainly no worthy eight-hour bus ride, but rather a soaring flight of fancy through some of Mexican cuisine's greatest hits.
Trinity Restaurant | Clapham Old Town, London
food
Click here to see a day in the life of Trinity Trinity is a privately-owned neighbourhood restaurant situated in the heart of Clapham Old Town.
When we started out, way back in 2006, our self-set mission was to serve great food.
While we are the proud holders of one Michelin Star and numerous accolades – our motivation is as it has always been, to continuously provide our guests with a memorable gastronomic experience.
Upstairs, our aptly named restaurant space situated above Trinity – offers our guests a casual dining space to complement Trinity that is well suited for private functions and larger groups.
As well as being available for reservations and exclusive hires, Upstairs at Trinity proudly plays host to a variety of exciting events and special evenings for our guests to enjoy We very much look forward to sharing our food and hospitality with you.
Get a free coffee at Bistro Union on Clapham's Abbeville Road ...
Calling all caffeine fiends… Bistro Union, the quintessentially British neighbourhood bistro located in the heart of Abbeville Village, Clapham, is offering Foodism readers a free coffee of their choice until the end of June 2017.
Simply quote Foodism coffee offer and enjoy one on the house.
And while you're there, why not try something from Bistro Union’s delicious brunch and lunch menu – our pick is the stack of maple pancakes with banana, pecans and cream.
Bistro Union, 40 Abbeville Road, London, SW4 9NG; bistrounion.co.uk.
Bistro Union, London SW4, restaurant review - Telegraph
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This was lost on Jen, who is from Texas and has no nostalgia for the foodstuffs of pre-cosmopolitan England.
Indeed, the only way it deviated from a main course was that it was cold and on a tiny plate.
My main course, on the other hand, was rather petite, so I guess they evened each other out: a spatchcocked quail (£13), flash-grilled, smoky, salty and silky, engaging in the way that small birds are, because you have to concentrate so hard to nibble out the protein.
Jen had the ginger-beer float (£4.50), in which foodstuff she has some considerable expertise (you can blend the ice cream with the fizzy drink if you like, but she prefers it as it arrived, a half pint of ginger beer with a scoop of home-made vanilla ice cream bobbing in it, for a spooning-drinking experience).
A biscuit on the side tasted a bit stale on first go, but we decided in the end that it just didn't have enough ginger in it; we'd mistaken a congenital lack of flavour for flavour lost over time.
Restaurant: Bistro Union, London SW4 | Life and style | The Guardian
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Byatt is still cooking at Trinity, but he has now opened Bistro Union on Abbeville Road, a different take on the local restaurant.
Trinity's is the kind of food that could (and should) have a Michelin star; Bistro Union's is the kind where the question doesn't seem relevant – it's a place you might go for a glass of wine and a pickled quail's egg, or pork scratchings, or a fish finger sandwich, or steak and chips.
The toad in the hole, for instance, is a good quality Cumberland sausage set down on an agreeable batter in a hot skillet; that's all fine, but then a small boat of gravy is poured over, which sizzles to dramatic effect, but makes the batter soggy.
Other dishes that have worked well: a rich, pretty and very satisfying fish pie; a dead simple but still lovely piece of bream, baked in paper and served with a fennel salad on the side (a trick there, since when you see bream and fennel on the menu, you assume they'll be cooked together); knickerbocker glory, the English apotheosis of jelly and ice-cream together, looks gorgeous and ticks all its sweet boxes.
If the pace of Bistro Union were to pick up a little, and the kitchen does its best work more of the time, this place will be a real boon for its neighbourhood, but it hasn't yet hit its stride.
Bistro Union | Restaurants in Clapham Park, London
food
This deservedly popular Clapham local, a self-styled ‘quintessentially British bistro’, excels at savoury snacks and Anglo-American-French comfort food.
This self-styled ‘quintessentially British bistro’ succeeds on so many levels.
The main courses lean more towards Anglo-American-French comfort food: salt beef hash with fried egg and pickles (part of the Sunday brunch offering), Middlewhite pork faggots with ‘bashed neeps’, and a mac ’n’ cheese that contained soft shards of leek and was crisply gratinated.
Note that the tall wooden stools at the bar can’t be booked – and these offer the best spectator seats.
Deservedly popular locally, Bistro Union is the second Clapham venture from Adam Byatt, who runs smart French restaurant Trinity in Clapham Old Town.