Last Updated on May 23, 2026
Ancient and Modern
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
We are a sentimental bunch at London Unattached. When we heard that the team behind Restaurant St. Barts, our very first Restaurant of the Month in 2022, were opening a new British Bistro named Tavern in Old Street, it was a no-brainer as to what should be this month’s ROTM. We have even more history with this group than just having predicted awards for the now Michelin-starred St. Barts.
In 2018 we reviewed Nest, their very first joint that nestled on an unprepossessing roundabout in Hackney. It had a set menu at £28 for seven courses and we sat on rough-hewn handmade tables and chairs they had built themselves. From then on we were fans, and the three young chaps have gone from strength to strength. Nest moved to the site that Tavern is now on and there was Fenn in Fulham and of course Restaurant St. Barts. But the sense of idealism and unworldliness behind Nest seems to have been maintained in subsequent projects.
Tavern is being marketed as a British Bistro which is suddenly becoming a ‘thing’. Last month our ROTM was Sally Abé’s Teal in Hackney, another British Bistro, with both Abé and Johnnie Crowe from the Nest/Tavern/St. Bars team having worked at The Harwood Arms. The redoubtable Gladwin Brothers have been mining this particular culinary seam for a while now with Rabbit in Chelsea and The Sussex in Soho and of course, there is Pivot in Covent Garden.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see British Bistros popping up in the backrooms of posher pubs in the next few months. It feels as if it is the logical successor to the Gastropub. But what is a British Bistro? Clearly, food has to be UK sourced and many dishes are delving into our lost culinary heritage. But at Tavern they are incorporating techniques such as pickling and fermenting as well as bringing in global influences from Asia, Europe and South America. It will be interesting to watch this one play out.
As its name suggests, Tavern is a contemporary and stylish vision of an ancient tavern. Ship’s bulkhead lights give a yellow glow to the vanilla wood panelling and distressed flooring. The focal point is the counter bar where you can sit at eat and sup beer from a tankard. Old brass dishes and antique plates hang from the walls and rustic wooden chairs with are covered with sheepskin throws.
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The menu focuses on ‘seasonal British produce, whole animal butchery and dishes cooked over fire’. Dishes we didn’t try include devilled pig skin with smoked cod’s roe, hogget scrumpets with mint, or the Tavern sausage served with curry sauce which should give an idea of the restaurant’s culinary landscape.
From the snacks menu we chose a couple of Chunion Puffs. A light pastry case filled to the brim with a sweet and rich cheese custard and onions filling and topped with grated cheese and spring onions. A comforting and rustic flavour bomb it set us up perfectly for the rest of the meal. You may not have known that the word ‘chunion’ is urban slang for a particularly tangy underarm odour…but now you do.
The wine list is stacked with bottles from natural and low-intervention producers and there are classic and contemporary cocktails including a pickle chilli martini, a classic pickleback with a chilli kick and a pickle to finish. We tried a couple of wines with our three small plates. A lively Thalia Orange 2024, Viognier, Languedoc had well-rounded apricot notes and was a lovely match with our plate of crunchy asparagus slathered in a luxuriant brown butter Hollandaise. The sauce was cut through by the saltiness of a cured St Ewes egg yolk turning a classic dish into something more contemporary.
The dry lemony and herbal flavours of a 2023 Melsheimer Estate Riesling, Mosel, pleasingly counterpointed a buttery baked Barra Scallop in a cobnut XO sauce. The XO had formed a slight crust on the scallop making me slightly anxious in a first-world kind of way, but the gnarly-looking bivalve was moist and tender with the XO adding a grainy texture and rich umami flavours.
A lovely-looking sea trout tartare and Nutbourne tomato salad was the only duff note of the meal for me. Dotted with a crab mayo and herbal, peppery lovage emulsion, the fish lacked flavour with the tomato not compensating.
The main dishes were stupendous with careful product sourcing clearly playing its part. A glorious tranche of halibut in a vegetal cockle and broad bean broth was topped with pickled fried laverbread giving a welcome acidity to the dish. My matched glass of Ciuri Terraze dell’ Etna was brimming with volcanic minerality and a hint of mango.
Hogget is a two-year-old lamb. Tavern source their meat from Lowfields farm from where they buy and use the whole carcass. The meat was superb, tender, pink as Lady Penelope’s Rolls-Royce and big flavoured with a rich jus, some juicy mussels, the grainy lactic tanginess of ewe’s curd in a Flourish courgette flower and sweetbreads. A peppery glass of Petit Ours Mathieu Barret had oodles of black fruit notes and well-rounded tannins.
Chips were rustic and suitably medieval, but they tasted good!
Panela (unrefined cane sugar) Custard Tart was a revelation. It had an unrefined sweetness, a bit like Barbara Bach in the Dukes of Hazzard. The purity of a milk ice cream and a miso caramel sauce with its savoury tones added complexity.
I really enjoyed my meal at Tavern and it was good to catch up with Luke, one of the partners. Like Nieves Barragan’s Legado around the corner it felt very zeitgeisty and was full of the trendy young creating an enthusiastic buzz. We need to support this type of operation which is a million miles from the identikit corporate blandness that mars so many operations. Go and try it out. There’s a car park around the corner!
374-378 Old St, London EC1V 9LT
Other new openings that have caught our eye this month include
Avi Bistro
Just opening at The Lowndes Hotel in Belgravia, Avi Bistro blends American and French influences with luxury twists on nostalgic classics in a French bistrot dining room. Dishes including New York Fried Chicken & Caviar, Caviar Fish and Chips, LA Brioche Noire Lobster Roll, Le Big Mac avec Truffle, and Red Claw Lobster Linguine, alongside premium grilled meats and seafood. The kitchen is led by chef Joshua Conte (ex The Dorchester, Chiltern Firehouse, The Crown at Bray) who has a background in classic French technique and Mediterranean cooking.
Avi Bistro
21 Lowndes St,, SW1X 9ES
020 4615 4777
Maki Nori
Maki Nori in Soho’s Old Compton Street is a new high-quality handroll experience without the formality or price point often associated with premium sushi. At the centre of the concept is its ’15-second roll’ proposition, with sushi chefs slicing, rolling and presenting handrolls to order in seconds, ensuring each one is served and eaten at its freshest.
There’s a 20-seat sushi counter will act as the core of the setting, giving guests a direct view of the chefs at work, while the wider restaurant will also feature tableside service elements, including a roaming sushi cart. With seafood sourced from leading fisheries, scallops from Hikido in Japan, sea urchin from Japan, bluefin tuna from Spain and salmon from Scotland, this is sure to be a Soho hit.
Maki Nori
15 Moor St, London W1D 5ND
020 8075 4944
Dante Mayfair
New York institution Dante, resident at Claridge’s since last year, will move into a permanent restaurant and bar at the hotel in June moving into the space occupied by Claridge’s Restaurant. With a Dante’s signature Martini hour and soulful live music, the winner of Number 1 World’s 50 Best Bars, Time Out New York’s Bar of the Year, and World’s Best Bar will be a welcome addition to the Mayfair scene.
Dante Mayfair
Claridge’s, Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HR
+44 (0)20 7629 8860
Lady of the Grapes SE1
Covent Garden favourite Lady of the Grapes is opening a Modern French bistro and an underground speakeasy-style wine bar, Forbidden Fruit, in the historic Menier Chocolate Factory, steps from Borough Market. With a strong focus on organic and natural wines and championing female producers, the new London Bridge location will continue to cook modern French bistro fare paired with a 400+ wine list and the same ethos. Forbidden Fruit sits in the basement, an intimate 45-seat space serving a charcuterie menu alongside the broad Lady of the Grapes wines list and multiple wines by the glass.
Lady of the Grapes SE1
4 O’Meara Street, London, SE1 1TE
020 3725 1111
Check out our Best of British Restaurants in London
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