Huxtable

The kitchen is in the dining room, the bar is made of house bricks, and the white subway tiles – instead of being set horizontally – have a sideways slant. Huxtable sidesteps convention and puts its own clear and luminous skew on casual dining. Its menu is on shuffle, made up of many small and medium-sized dishes to share, roving across cuisines, including Mexican, Italian and Japanese. The parade of plates can run from a lush, pan-blackened piece of soft buffalo haloumi with vincotto, poached quince, hazelnuts and frisee to a plainly plated single-serve brioche bun filled with creamy crab. From the ‘Sea’, a dish of smoked eel pieces arranged around boiled-and-buttered potato and apple jubes is surprisingly light. The ‘Land’ may proffer maple-cured venison strewn with pickled wild pine mushrooms, dabs of funky black-garlic custard, and sweet toasted brioche crumbs. Dessert could go from refined to dude food with a walnut-and-fig ice-cream sandwich around a rich, dark chocolate fudge centre. Surprising, yet predictably adroit.

And … Try Huxta at home, with Daniel Wilson’s cookbook: Huxtabook.

THE LOW-DOWN
Vibe A cushy, culinary ride.
Best bit The menu’s mash-up of multiple cuisines.
Worst bit Eating by the clock, within two sittings slots.