It’s cold, and John and I are standing in the street, shivering… We’re right in the middle of Abbeville Road, and we are completely surrounded by restaurants. We’re supposed to be here to try a new restaurant, but John mentions that he’s heard good things about Abbeville Kitchen. We look at the menu. Wow. Good olives, charcuterie, etc, looks very inviting. John insists we look at the other menus, although I’m sold on the first glance. Nearby is very appealing food, well plated food, but really we’re after chat, and variety, and lots of picky things…
We return to the Abbeville Kitchen and of course opt for the table right next to the open kitchen, which I think the staff perhaps found a little disconcerting. We on the other hand, want a good look at what’s going on around us. The room is all wooden floor, wooden tables – it’s functional, comfortable.
The menu isn’t huge, but what’s on here is here for a reason. Products look to be very carefully sourced, and everything looks appealing. We decide not to have mains, but to order a variety of dishes. We have huge, plump Gordal olives, Marcona almonds, a plate of charcuterie, and John has a duck heart salad. The bread includes, I think, baguette, ciabatta, and focaccia. My bit of baguette smells good, properly proved, nice mouthfeel, as they say.
The charcuterie includes finocchiona, Iberico ham and Italian ham. The Iberico is exquisite – packed full of flavour, complete melt in the mouth texture, as silky and as fine as you’d want it to be. The finocchiona is denser, not as good as the one I get from Natoora, if I’m truthful, but it has a complete honesty about it. (This is probably where I discover that it *is* the one I get from Natoora)
I don’t try John’s heart salad, but it looks delicious – well, I steal a bit of bacon from it – and it’s good. He shows me the duck hearts, they are beautifully cooked, and pink in the middle.
My own obligatory green salad is very well dressed and seasoned, a hint of mustard to tickle the tastebuds, but not enough to overwhelm it. It also has a really good variety of leaves, a good balance of bitter and delicate.
We stay for hours talking, and the charming staff keep topping up our filtered water, bring excellent coffee and sharp, proper lemonade. I think about all the people I want to bring here, and when we discuss it later, John has been thinking the same thing. It’s a great place. We visited at lunchtime and it wasn’t terribly busy, but judging by the constant prep taking place in the kitchen I’d say this place probably does good business at night. I hadn’t checked out the drinks list, but I will do next time I’m in. Oh, and they appear to do amazing things with prosecco – I see from a past menu they had spiced clementine and when we visited they had quince prosecco. Now how delicious does that sound?
The Abbeville Kitchen
London
