Eat Out London!Reviews and related sites
LuLu's Shanghai Delicacy & Sake Bar in Stoke Newington review ...
food
Google it and you’ll find mixed reviews – “this restaurant isn’t what it used to be, blah, blah, blah” – but I have friends who know their stuff and swear that if you catch them on the right day, you’ll be rewarded with some of the best dim sum in town.
Except this story has a happy ending, because a lady called LuLu has taken a load of the staff – including the former head chef, who now works as sous chef – and opened a restaurant just up the road in Stoke Newington, called LuLu’s Shanghai Delicacy & Sake Bar.
LuLu’s is a couple of doors down from The Three Crowns pub, right in the middle of the thriving little Stoke Newington restaurant scene that also includes Escocesa and Rubedo and a Franco Manca.
Next were three steamy little pork and prawn dim sum, followed by a plate of deep fried squid in a light, crumbly batter, then a plate of gailan – at once crunchy and floppy – lying on a bed of crushed ice, then some Shanghai noodles with pork mince, after which came that divine pork belly floating in broth, all melty and fatty and utterly delicious.
I ordered the dumplings all over again, and then the lion’s head pork meatball, consisting of three fist-sized hunks of meat in a gravy rich with umami, and a huge plate of french beans with minced pork, and some more of the pork belly, this time on rice, and by the time I was done I was sweating and my chair was straining under the weight, although my hand was still autonomously shovelling beans down my throat.
Escocesa Archives - paufood
Escocesa brings Scottish tapas to Stoke Newington Church Street ...
A 15-year-old Guardian article saying that all the best Scottish seafood left Scotland headed for Spain, as there was no domestic market for the more esoteric or indeed expensive catches, stuck with Stephen Leroni, owner of new Stoke Newington restaurant Escocesa.
The former music producer opened his first restaurant Bar Esteban in 2013 in Crouch End with Pablo Rodriguez (ex Barrafina and Moro) and Naroa Ortega.
Pablo served time in Michelin star restaurant Jean Luc Figueras in Catalunya, before coming to London and working in Barrafina and Moro.
For the team's new Stokie restaurant, they've brought in head chef David Herrera who has worked at Arzak in San Sebastian, then the Waterside Inn and Barrafina.
They describe Escocesa's ethos as "hi-jacking some of the best Scottish seafood on its way to Spain and serving it along side some of the best Spanish produce, wines and sherries."
Rubedo brings natural wine bistronomie to Stoke Newington Church ...
drinks food
So while we were excited to bring you news of the opening of Escocesa on Stoke Newington Church Street a week or so ago, seems we'd completely missed another new opening from recent weeks, Rubedo.
Rubedo, as owner Federico Carafoli tells us, is a natural wine bar restaurant.
"We created Rubedo to share our passion for natural wines and quality food.
Our goal is to promote the hard work and the talent of a (growing) bunch of people who treat nature and its products with the utmost respect.
He does have a rather useful mentor in his oldest friend Pierre Jancou whose responsible for creating well respected Parisian natural wine bistros such as La Cremerie, Racines, Vivant and Heimat.
Escocesa, London N16: 'Some fine Scottish seafood, in a Spanish ...
food drinks
Fifteen years ago in the Hollywood Hills, then record producer Stephen Lironi (also ex-Altered Images and still Mr Clare Grogan) was reading an article in this very paper, bemoaning that there was no local market for Scotland’s more esoteric shellfish and seafood.
The place looks fantastic: bar stools fringe an open kitchen at the front, all the better to ogle bustling chefs and sparkling seafood on ice – scallops, silvery sardines, tuna to be served “a la Bilbaina” with tomatoes, garlic and sherry, and, yes, langoustines; and at the back – yippee!
This isn’t where to come for reinvention of any Spanish wheels: it’s a fleecy comfort blanket of familiar dishes – croquetas, patatas bravas, tortilla, boards of fine, silky lomo, chorizo and pepper-studded salsichon served with crisp little picos de pan.
Quail from the specials board comes with chunks of carrot and caramelised oranges – the scent of fine sherry imbues many of the dishes.
Some fine Scottish seafood, in a Spanish restaurant, in Stokey.
Escocesa | Restaurants in Stoke Newington, London
food
'Escocesa’ is Spanish for ‘Scottish’ – a clue to the set-up at this new Stoke Newington tapas bar.
Church Street is roughly a third of the way from Sauchiehall Street to La Rambla, and Escocesa is clearly two-thirds Spanish.
Highlights like these (and a borderline-obsessive sherry list) show Escocesa’s serious passion for good sourcing.
This is the kind of London local that believes quality isn’t just for la-di-dah Zone One restaurantland.
Stoke Newington has its old favourites, like Rasa, and its fashionable, superior pizza and burger joints, but the Good Egg and Escocesa are upping the game, the noo.