Brat x Climpson's Arch
Tomos Parry first cooked a residency in this railway arch in 2013, before Brat existed, and the wood grill he came back to in the summer of 2020 has been permanent since January 2021.
Why go
Climpson's Arch is a coffee roastery's yard off Helmsley Place, and the restaurant is a marquee over the courtyard with the fire in the open and trains running above the brickwork. The menu is a blackboard rewritten daily against what the farms send, which is why the Good Food Guide review tells you to photograph it before you sit down (The Good Food Guide). Parry's Basque hand is all over it: hake pil-pil built on kokotxas, the fish cheeks whose gelatin sets the sauce with nothing but oil and movement, and a whole turbot priced and portioned for four. The frying gets specific praise, which is rarer than praise for the grill: A top tempura chef could hardly better the lacy batter, pristine frying and impeccable produce on show here.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the turbot if there are four of you, hake pil-pil with the kokotxas if there are two, the fritto misto of whatever came in from Flourish Farm, and the burnt cheesecake. Roasted chicken rice and whole crab with hay butter are what Harden's reporters name as typical (Harden's).
- Avoid: Mondays and Tuesdays, when the arch is closed. Do not book it for conversation. And know before you go that you are eating well in a tent: Jake Missing's line is that paying these prices on
plastic school chairs on a tarmac floor
won't suit everyone (The Infatuation).
What locals & experts say
- Jake Missing, The Infatuation (22 August 2023), 7.9/10:
Part greenhouse, part deluxe BBQ, and part future dry-cleaning bill, there's a relaxed attitude to this space that suits bigger groups and louder voices.
His caveat in the same piece is that the fooddoesn't quite hit the heights as the original.
3 - The Good Food Guide, rated Very Good, on the room at full tilt:
On a busy night, the place is packed, the staff harried, the atmosphere unparalleled. Great fun.
2 - Harden's survey reporters, the dissent worth reading before you book:
interesting and trendy, but at a hell of a price for a glorified pop-up,
alongside the majority line,Truly outstanding all round.
5 - Time Out (Joe Mackertich, 12 January 2021) reported the residency going permanent, which is coverage, and dates the change.4
Good to know
- Where: Arch 374, Helmsley Place, London Fields E8 3SB. The courtyard is covered by a marquee, so weather is survivable and noise is not.
- Timing: closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday from 5pm, Friday and Saturday from noon, Sunday noon to 9pm.
- Booking: book online or email arch@bratrestaurant.com. The site publishes no walk-in policy.
- Sites: two premises trade under the Brat name. This page is the arch at Helmsley Place. BRAT at First Floor, 4 Redchurch Street E1 6JL is the separate Shoreditch restaurant and has its own page. The Michelin star in the 2026 guide belongs to Redchurch Street; nothing here claims it for the arch.
- Hygiene: no rating on record. The FSA holds the premises as FHRSID 1973610, awaiting inspection. The Shoreditch parent's rating is a different record and does not apply to this address.6
- Diet: the venue publishes no dietary statement, so nothing is claimed either way.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth rearranging an evening for, with a clear caveat about what you are paying for. Tomos Parry has been cooking in this arch since 2013 on and off, and the fire work is the same hand that holds a star half a mile away: hake pil-pil where the kokotxas set the sauce, a whole turbot sized for four, a fritto misto The Good Food Guide says a top tempura chef could hardly better. The blackboard is rewritten daily off what the farms send, which is the craft axis here and it is moving. It stops short of must-visit because two independent sets of reporters land on the same complaint, that the money is Redchurch Street money and the seat is a plastic chair on tarmac under a marquee. Primacy puts the plate first and the plate holds up; it just does not hold up hard enough to make this the night you build.