Smoke & Salt

The name is the method. Smoking, curing and preserving are what the kitchen is built around, and the trout comes out cured before it ever meets a plate.

Why go

Aaron Webster cooked at Dinner by Heston and The Latymer at Pennyhill Park, Remi Williams came through Craigie on Main and Deuxave in Boston, and the two ran a shipping container at Pop Brixton before taking this Tooting High Street site from Dip & Flip in September 2020. They described the food at opening as a "re-imagination of the modern dining scene in London," worked through smoking, curing and preserving. The current Culture menu runs 80 pounds a head, with homemade pretzels and smoked butter to start, Chalkstream trout with basil and berries, and a piri-piri sirloin. The Craft menu is a shorter version at 48 pounds. Harden's surveyers score the food 5 out of 5 and one of them writes that the place "should be shouted out more by restaurant guides."

Order this / avoid

Order: the Culture menu with the 65 pound pairing if it is a proper night out, otherwise the Craft menu at 48. The smoked Chalkstream trout has been on the menu in one form or another since opening.
Avoid: arriving late and expecting the cheaper menu. The kitchen serves the Craft menu only between 6.00 and 6.30pm.

What locals & experts say

Harden's (2026 survey): For the price point, the quality and service is outstanding. If this place was in Central London, you wouldn't be able to get a table, and Worth the rattling ride down on the Northern line! Food 5, service 4, ambience 3.1
Hot Dinners (11 Sep 2020): reported the opening and the pedigree, Aaron Webster (Dinner by Heston and The Latymer at Pennyhill Park) & Remi Williams (Craigie on Main and Deuxave), on a site that had been an outpost of Dip & Flip.2
MICHELIN Guide: listed in the Great Britain and Ireland selection. No star and no Bib Gourmand.4

Good to know

Timing: Thursday to Saturday, 6pm to 11pm, per the venue. Harden's lists Tuesday to Saturday; the venue's hours are the ones to trust.
Booking: essential. Three services a week in a small room.
Dietary: the venue states both tasting menus are available in pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan versions. Nothing is published about gluten or cross-contamination.
Price: Culture 80 pounds, wine pairing 65. Craft 48 pounds, pairing 42. Harden's puts a full evening at about 80 a head.
Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Wandsworth, inspected 13 June 2025.
Getting there: 115 Tooting High Street SW17 0SY, next to Tooting Broadway on the Northern line.

Jeff's take (his words)

Note: "Multiple recs for destination tasting menu that's cheap-ish." REAL.

Verdict

should-visit — Aaron Webster cooked at Dinner by Heston and The Latymer, Remi Williams came through Craigie on Main and Deuxave in Boston, and the two of them run a preservation kitchen out of a Tooting High Street room they took over from a burger shop in 2020. Smoking, curing and pickling are the method, not the garnish, and Harden's surveyers rate the food 5 out of 5 at about 80 pounds a head. The 48 pound Craft menu makes it one of the cheapest serious tasting menus in London, if you can be seated by 6.30pm. Three nights a week only, at the far end of the Northern line.

Smoke & Salt.