Great food and lovely service. Roast was top notch and great beer
The Dove Freehouse and Kitchen – Hackney
Looking to eat out in London? Sugarvine has an extensive directory of the best restaurants and places to eat in London, covering every type of cuisine. Whether you’re in the mood for the tastiest Indian, Italian, Chinese or fine dining, use the Sugarvine guide to point you in the direction of the finest eating places in Covent Garden, Soho, Camden Town and throughout London.
2-course Set Menu, £21.50. Available Tuesday-Thursday 5pm-10.30pm; Friday 12pm-3pm and 5pm-6pm; Saturday 12pm-4pm and all day Sunday.
Book in advance Wednesday and Thursday evenings (6.30-8.30) for a 2-course nutritional meal for only £20 (either Starter/Main or Main/Dessert)
Great food and lovely service. Roast was top notch and great beer
The Dove Freehouse and Kitchen – HackneyThe ambience is really nice in the restaurant. It’s relaxed and atmospheric. The menu is interesting. Although some of the elements of the menu I would say are better than others. A bit hit and miss. The fish bouillabaisse is excellent and I highly recommend. The fish taco for starter is also excellent. Yesterday, unfortunately my starter and main were not great. I had the seabass and salmon ceviche which looked beautiful on the plate, but was very bland. It has simply been seasoned with lemon juice it seemed and nothing else. As raw fish is very bland on its own, it needs to be flavoured with a lot more such as garlic, ginger, lemon, grass, , coriander, chilli etc . And the grilled mixed fish for main ( which was a special but done fairly regularly I believe ) again looked good on the plate, but was very bland. The fish had simply been grilled, with no seasoning or flavour. So I have to say a bit of a disappointment. As I said it’s hit or miss. One other observation would be that for a local restaurant it’s very pricey. For the four of us, we had two bottles of wine ( white Sancerre) a starter and a main each , no desserts and finished with one Baileys , one brandy and two Sambucas. The bill came to approx £345 for the four of us. Which, as I said, is very expensive for a local restaurant; so an observation would be that they really need to consider their pricing from a customer retention perspective. We do like to support local restaurants as much as possible, but I would say consistency in the food alongside a well priced menu is key. We would go back more often if it wasn’t for these two factors. One thing I would add , on a more positive note , was the staff were very friendly and efficient.
Matthew’s Kitchen – North London