Shankeys
Poitin goes into the coupe with lime and Kerrygold butter, and it also goes into the turmeric butter that gets slathered over the potatoes, which is what makes this Irish-Indian rather than Irish-and-Indian.
Why go
Eoghan Shankey trained behind the bar at Milk & Honey and Sacha Henry cooks. They opened on Dalston Lane in 2022 and moved into an old bookmaker's on Well Street that November (Hot Dinners). Their own line for it is Spuds n Spice: Indian food and Irish booze in an old bookies.
The menu is short and it moves. Huw Oliver gave it five out of five for Time Out in 2023; Sinéad Cranna scored it 8.6 for The Infatuation in 2024; Andi Oliver names it when a magazine asks her where she eats. The room runs on mismatched floral plates with a framed James Joyce line on the wall reminding everyone that the sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue
.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the cauliflower curry and cheese-stuffed paratha, which every table gets and which Andi Oliver tells you to order by name. Chaat potatoes in poitín butter with green chilli chutney. Irish rock oysters under crisp anchovy and a disco mignonette. A Spuds & Butter, then a Barry's Tea-groni.
- Avoid: deciding from the pavement, since the old bakery frontage is still up. Expecting a long menu. The gulab jamun, unless every element on a dessert plate being sweet is what you want.
What locals & experts say
- Andi Oliver, chef and broadcaster, asked by Condé Nast Traveller where she eats:
This is the most incredibly exciting place, plus it's so affordable for anybody's pocket... Order the cauliflower and cheese paratha. You literally can't believe what you're eating, the paratha is perfectly flakey; the cauliflower cheese is buttery; the chilli punches through.
4 - Huw Oliver for Time Out, five stars out of five:
Like every dish at the fantastic Shankeys, it's a beautiful, colourful mess, served on floral crockery straight off Grandma's dresser.
His reservation, in the same piece: keeping the previous tenant's bakery frontageis pretty confusing.
1 - Sinéad Cranna for The Infatuation, scoring 8.6:
The only thing that ruins the wedding reception narrative is the food, because it's excellent.
2
Good to know
- Where: 221 Well Street, E9 6RG, in a former bookmaker's. The sign over the door still says Loafing, which was the bakery before it.
- Booking: through Tock, and worth doing. The room is small and loud by seven.
- Price: small plates were six to eight pounds fifty at the last published account, with the Naga chicken at twenty-four.
- Drinks: the reason half the reviews exist. Poitín, Irish whiskey, an Irish coffee with both whiskey and Baileys in it, and a negroni built on Barry's tea.
- Hygiene: no FSA registration exists for this premises, and it is recorded as an open question.
Verdict
must-visit — Poitin is in the glass and in the butter, and that is the whole argument. Eoghan Shankey trained at Milk & Honey and puts Irish moonshine into a coupe with lime, salt, pepper and Kerrygold; Sacha Henry takes the same spirit into a turmeric butter and slathers it over Cornish earlies with a green chilli chutney to cool them down. Two traditions meeting in a technique rather than in a menu description is what a cultural bridge actually looks like, and it is worth crossing London for. Huw Oliver gave it five stars out of five for Time Out and called every dish a beautiful, colourful mess on floral crockery. Sinead Cranna scored it 8.6 and wrote that the only thing spoiling the wedding-reception atmosphere is that the food is excellent. Andi Oliver names it in a where-chefs-eat piece and tells you to order the cauliflower and cheese paratha. It is in an old bookies on Well Street with the previous bakery's sign still up, the menu is short and changes, and the small plates were six to eight pounds. Shankey's puts craft, uniqueness and value in one room.