Primeur
The original garage door rolls up onto Petherton Road and the communal tables go out with it.2
Why go
David Gingell and Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim met working at Wright Brothers in Soho and opened this, their first place together, in May 2014: Gingell in the kitchen, Cometto-Lingenheim on the floor.2 The site was a garage from the 1930s and a greengrocer before that, and the door is the one that was already there. Inside is big communal tables with counters round the edge, and a menu written by hand on a blackboard that changes every day. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is on the board. A daily menu out of a small open kitchen is the promise the room is making, so take it.
- Avoid: booking on a strict allergen requirement. The kitchen says outright that it cannot guarantee the absence of allergens through cross contamination.1
Good to know
- Where: 116 Petherton Road N5 2RT, between Highbury and Stoke Newington. The saved pin names Barnes Motors, which is the garage the restaurant is built into.
- Booking: taken on the restaurant's own site.
- Michelin: Bib Gourmand. The first year it was awarded is not established here.
- Seating: communal tables in the middle, counters at the edges.
Verdict
should-visit — David Gingell and Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim met working at Wright Brothers, split the kitchen and the floor between them, and opened their first place in a Petherton Road garage that had been a greengrocer before that. The original garage door is still there and rolls up onto the street, and the room is laid out around big communal tables with counters at the edges. The menu is written on a blackboard and changes daily, which is the whole proposition. It carries a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Two honest caveats: the kitchen states plainly that it cannot guarantee the absence of allergens across a small open pass and a daily menu, and nothing read this pass names a single dish, so you are trusting the blackboard.