Last Updated on April 20, 2026
Rake Residency listed in the Michelin Guide
4.7 out of 5.0 starsNestled on a quiet side street in the heart of Highbury, Compton Arms is a small pub that is very popular with locals and Arsenal supporters whose temple, Emirates Stadium, is nearby. For those of us who are visitors to the area, the pub is known for incubating culinary talent through its successful kitchen residencies. Rake – a duo of chefs – has been in residence for the past year and had recently been listed in the Michelin Guide. My lunch companion had high praise for the previous kitchen residents, Tiella, who now have their own restaurant. Safe to say, we arrived for our Saturday lunchtime booking filled with high expectations of the Rake experience.
The Rake chefs are Jay Claus and Syrus Pickhaver, who cook retro-British cuisine influenced by 17th-century chophouses. While the previous residency showcased Italian cuisine, here Rake presents the sort of food you might expect to find in a pub, the difference being the refinement of the dishes. Roast chicken and chips, fried fish goujons, roast lamb, and crab sandwich, all served with flair. Claus began his career at Quo Vadis before moving on to Smoking Goat and BRAT, eventually heading up the kitchen at Acme Fire Cult. Pickhaver hails from Cornwall, where he worked at one of its finest pubs, Tolcarne Inn, before moving on to Zebra Riding Club and Birch and finally, senior sous chef at Acme Fire Cult.
The 200-year-old Compton Arms was frequented by George Orwell, and it inspired his essay, The Moon Under Water, which described his ideal pub. It is divided into two sections. On entering, there is a traditional bar, low wooden beams and lots of atmosphere. There are barstools around the windows where one can order food. Behind is a small room called the snug, with tables to seat around a dozen diners. Light flooded in from a large, paned window, while the whitewashed walls with waist-high wooden panelling were hung with colourful posters. The Rake duo has constructed a bijoux menu which changes with the seasons. On the day we visited, we were able to taste a couple of dishes that had just been introduced, lighter seasonal items to replace the heavier daubes and other rib-sticking winter dishes.
Seasonal and lighter they may be, but all the dishes from the Rake kitchen were generously portioned and very rich. The chefs clearly have a penchant for butter – lots of it – and although my companion and I had both skipped breakfast and arrived hungry, we were unable to finish our main courses. Perhaps we should not have ordered three starters between us, which we did because they all sounded so delicious. We might have shared a main along with the delectable side dishes, which we also found impossible to resist. Not that anything went to waste – my companion went home with leftovers, kindly wrapped up in the pub kitchen, which made a delicious dinner.
Not wasting any food is clearly on the minds of the chefs, too. The menu showed dishes created to use every part of the bird or animal. Potted chicken and lamb fat beans are just two examples. The pair of chefs access direct landing fish in Cornwall, which is served fresh in the restaurant the following day. Their commitment to sustainability is also evident in their in-house butchering of meat and in their use of all parts of the animal throughout the week.
We began with a chilli Margarita – good and spicy – and a glass of NV Cava Brut. We nibbled on the most delicious soda bread I can recall, served with a mound of whipped butter. This was a dark soda bread with a gorgeous treacly flavour and perfect with the soft, creamy butter.
I had read about the signature starter dish that has gone viral on social media. For good reason, as we discovered. Ray wing tenders, crumpet and hot golden syrup are so good that I would recommend booking at Compton Arms for this dish alone. Ray wings, deep-fried to a lovely mahogany, are piled onto a toasted, buttered crumpet and drizzled with hot golden syrup. Oh My. The result is a hot, crunchy, sweet, and salty mouthful with chopped chives adding some allium love. Move over chicken tenders, these rays are moreish, comfort food at its best.
New on the menu and perfect for Spring was crab, apple, and burnt butter soda. Here was another slice of that delicious soda bread, on top of which was a substantial burnt butter layer, and above that a heap of white crab meat and tiny diced apple. This was another banger – the sweet crab meat, slight crunch of apple, treacly flavour of the bread and the burnt butter clogging my arteries in the most beautiful way. Very rich.
The third starter was potted chicken – another butter-laden dish. Served in a ramekin along with a small pile of lightly pickled swede – what an underrated vegetable – here transformed into a Branston-pickle lookalike with better flavour. It was served with a slice of toasted, homemade white bloomer. Below the layer of set butter was a tangle of pulled chicken with a good roasted flavour. I was beginning to think that the starter section could be named ‘fabulous things to serve with bread and butter’, but that said, we could have ordered Caesar salad with crispy fried egg or cucumber salad with malt and dill.
We left not a morsel of these delicious starter dishes, but the result of all that bread and butter was that we were already quite full. Next visit, I will order less.
The main course options included roast lamb, whole Cornish sole and, for the vegetarian option, Savoy cutlet, seaweed and bergamot. My companion opted for the Fosse meadow chicken while I chose plaice, clams and cod’s roe butter. We simply could not resist the side dishes of chips and curry mayo, along with lamb fat beans. The only vegetable on offer was ‘simple salad’.
The roast chicken can be ordered as a quarter or a half – my companion had a quarter. It had a lovely golden burnish, and the gravy at the bottom of the plate was rich and full-bodied.
My whole plaice was a large fish – fortunately, plaice is very light to eat – perched in a lake of cod’s roe butter. The fish was topped with briny clams on the shell and strewn with samphire. It looked a picture. I must admit that by this stage in proceedings I was beginning to suffer from a surfeit of butter, but the fish, clams and samphire were all delicious.
The two side dishes were each excellent, although too rich for us to make much of an inroad into. The chips were the largest either of us could recall eating, proper Jenga-sized and had that lovely crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside texture. The curry mayo was the colour of Colman’s English mustard and had a sweet and mildly curried flavour.
The lamb fat beans were literally that. I had imagined that we would be served a variety of bean I had not encountered before (something akin to marrowfat peas), but this delectable bowl was revealed to be cannellini beans topped with tiny pieces of lamb fat, fried and strewn on top of the beans, the dish garnished with a veritable heap of dill. On a winter’s day, this alone would make a meal. Most of the beans accompanied my companion home along with the leftover roast chicken.
We protested that we could not face dessert, yet did manage to share a – mercifully smallish – slice of bay custard tart. The other option was rice pudding with marmalade. The custard had a fabulous bay flavour – just the right amount – and the custard was light and not too sweet. I found the pastry thicker than I was expecting from a custard tart.
I was in urgent need of a fresh peppermint tea to end the meal. Curiously, Compton Arms does not serve hot drinks. Fortunately, my companion lives a couple of streets away, and it was not long before I could recline on the sofa with said tea in hand.
My companion and I both enjoyed our lunch, and the warm and friendly service added to the positive experience. This is a restaurant to visit when you are looking for traditional pub food with both flair and creative twists. It would be a great place to take guests who are visiting London. Every dish we ate was well-cooked, very tasty, and generously portioned. We did find the food rather rich and will order more sparingly on a return visit. If you try the restaurant, you will need to book ahead as it is very popular. Go hungry.
As we were leaving, we noticed a homemade hot dog going by into the bar area. By this stage, Compton Arms was packed with dejected Arsenal fans whose team had just lost a game in the final stages of the championship. If anything can provide consolation in such circumstances, it would be a couple of pints and a plate of food from the Rake duo.
Rake at Compton Arms, kitchen open Wednesday – Friday 17.30 – 21.30, Saturday 12.00 – 15.00 and 17.30 – 21.30, Sunday (roasts) 12.00 – 16.30.
Compton Arms, 4 Compton Avenue, London N1 2XD
Tel: 020 73548473
Looking for more traditional British Food? Check our London guide to the best of British restaurants
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