Who said salads were boring?
Stop what you are doing and book a table at The Dressing Room immediately.
NOW!
The Dressing Room is a pop-up restaurant serving six courses of salad for £40 in Clapton.
Slightly deflated?
Thinking ‘ok, so there’s nicoise and caesar…maybe a boring bean salad…what on earth else?’
Now, my friends sometimes call me a drama queen, but days after visiting The Dressing Room I am still maintaining that this is the best food that I have eaten in recent memory. Possibly ever. These are no ordinary salads. Not when this new pop-up concept involves a Tom Sarafian, a Moro chef, the cleverest combination of ingredients you could possibly imagine, flavours you didn’t even know existed unique presentation.
With the clue in the name, each dish has been paired with a different dressing – placed on the table for you to add as you wish. An Iced Earl Grey and Amalfi lemon dressing poured from a vintage teapot, or a sumac and borage (say what?) honey dressing painted on with a paintbrush? Oil and balsamic will never seem the same again.
My favourite dish was the scallop ceviche, hazelnut, lime, coriander and crispy duck salad, served in a large scallop shell – pure melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness with so many beautifully contrasting and incredible flavours. Each mouthful was punctuated with us all exclaiming how insanely good this was.
The Scallop & Duck salad
Several equally amazing courses later (grilled mackerel, duck breast and a lot of funny-sounding ingredients I’ve never heard of) and we arrive at the grand finale – a pudding of rhubarb, buttermilk, almond, strawberry, frozen yoghurt and elderflower, served in a pretty teacup with a St Germain and ginger beer punch. Utter heaven.
By the end we were happy and full, certain that is this a very special venture destined for great things. As we leave, the leftover dressings have been packaged up for you to help yourself, along with a note saying that the leftover food will be turned into soup and donated to the local soup kitchen. A lovely touch.
Thank you The Dressing Room – see you next month!
Take a look at the interview with the Dressing Room team or read another review.
The Dressing Room pops up for 2 days every month. 6 courses costs £40, including a cocktail. Vegans, vegetarians, gluten-dodgers and dairy-dodgers are all welcome and catered for.
Next event is 5th June at The Russet, 17 Amhurst Terrace, London E8 2BT
Click here to book www.itsthedressingroom.co.uk
Review written by Annie Stewart. She works in advertising, loves dogs, afternoon tea and photographing pretty things.
Leave a Reply