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Clapham Junction


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good market on a Saturday in Northcote Road; great butchers on Northcote road (cannot remember name, look out for the queue outside the door) Fantastic small independant wine merchant called Philglass and swiggit; Pizza Metro on battersea rise; Chez Bruce ten minutes; Ransomes dock ten minutes (great wine list); Tuman Ti on Lavender Hill v good thai restaurant, Gourmet Burger (the original) on Northcote Road..lots and lots of small restaurants on battersea rise and northcote road now, none apart from those mentioned of note but quite happening. Clapham Junction itself still a bit of a dive, but has that organic chain of food stores(cannot remember name) very close, have lived in the area for twenty years, much better now than it used to be.

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I broadly agree with Jon -- this is an outstanding area for food shops. It's not so good for restaurants. Osteria Antica Bologna, once something of a "draw" for the area, seems to have dissolved into murky mediocrity. Ergens, a Turkish restaurant, just opened on Battersea Rise. We went there with high expectations, but found that the food was almost inedible. Nikson's, at the bottom of Northcote Road, started out with energy and ambition (they made all their own stocks) but seems to have slipped into conventional food.

But the food shops are what make this area. Walking down Northcote Road, you'll find --

Independent wine shop, don't recall the name (specialist in Italian wines)

Philglass and Swiggott, mentioned above -- one of the best independent wine shops in London

Lighthouse Bakery (artisanal)

Hamish Johnston -- cheese shop

Organic grocery, don't recall the name

Salumeria Napoli -- Italian deli

Dove's -- the butcher with the queue mentioned above. Great meats, including superb house-made ham, meat pies, frozen stocks.

The Hive -- honey specialist

La Cuisiniere -- cookware shop

Specialist tea shop (don't recall the name)

Branch of Whittard's -- coffee and tea shop

Dandelion -- natural food shop, but with lots of interesting flours, meals and other grains

Stefano Cavallini -- more upscale Italian deli

Northcote patisserie

There are several other wine shops, another butcher, several general grocery stores, two fishmongers on Northcote Road. On many mornings the market stalls bring excellent vegetables, fruits, and some interesting breads. There's an outstanding fishmonger, Moxon's, at Clapham South, not far away.

You can get on very well in the area without ever visiting a supermarket, though there are decent supermarkets nearby, e.g. a Waitrose that recently opened on Garratt Lane. Buy your meat, fish, fruit and veg from the independents and use a service like Ocado for "chemicals" -- washing up liquid, toilet rolls, etc.

Restaurants we enjoy:

Chez Bruce, Bellevue Road

Pizza Metro (wood burning oven), Battersea Rise

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Pizza by the slice (don't recall the name)

Bar Meze, Northcote Road

Village, Lebanese restaurant on the Queenstown Road

There are new places opening every week. Mini Mundus, a new French restaurant, has recently opened on Trinity Road. We haven't tried it yet.

Edited by Jonathan Day (log)

Jonathan Day

"La cuisine, c'est quand les choses ont le go�t de ce qu'elles sont."

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Thank you very much for the comprehensive feedback! I feel better about checking out the area now.

Whatever the case, it's got to be better than Enfield!!

Has anyone discovered good Indian ethnic shops in places maybe like Tooting and Southfields and are they quite accessible from there?

We do have a Turkish grocers within striking distance and I love it so it would be great if there were a few "foreign" grocers to choose from aside from the upmarket shops.

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  • 1 year later...
Anyone been to Trinity Restaurant yet or know anything about Adam Byatt?

Adam Byatt is ex-sous chef at The Square, ex-head chef of Origin (formerly Thyme) at the Hospital in Covent Garden (which I wrote about on egullet here: click), ex-head chef/owner of Thyme in Clapham. He can cook but there wasn't much evidence of those skills when I ate at Trinity soon after it opened. I was present for the meal that's reviewed here: click.

We were the only table for most of the lunchtime, Adam Byatt was in the kitchen, yet there were long waits for food, my John Dory was over cooked and served without sauce (a service error I think) and a fig dessert was just poor. The room is nice enough but there was nothing about the experience that made me want to give it a second chance.

Trinity website

Edited by Andy Lynes (log)
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Anyone been to Trinity Restaurant yet or know anything about Adam Byatt?

I've been for lunch three or four times and really rate it. Too tired to try to describe it now but flavours are big & clear yet it's pretty striaghtforward in terms of ingredients & not too mucked around. Kind of Frenchified Anchor & Hope style.

I only went to Thyme once and wasn't too impressed, but then I left hungry which never impresses me.

Edit to add - the light lunch menu is a great concept - check out the web site.

Oh - and it's not that close to Clapham Junction.

Edited by Winot (log)
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I went for dinner on a Saturday night a few weeks ago and had a good, albeit not stellar meal. I was booked in for 9.30pm but arrive only to be told that our table was not yet ready. We were finally seated at 10.15pm and informed that we would not be able to have the tasting menu as some of the components were finished. At this point Adam came out and explained that as he has invited me down that he would create something off piste for us so we would still be able to have a tasting menu, and I have to say he did a good job.

Not all the courses were a resounding success, but there were a couple of stellar dishes, one of which was a gratin of razor clams, with a shot of the razor clam broth, a second dish was sent to accompany this and was a seared carpaccio of tuna with guacamole puree and a basil-balsalmic reduction.

The meal ended on another excellent dish - Adam's apple tarte tartin - a dish so huge that it could easily have filled up 4 people, let alone the two of us.

The room is rather buzzy and acoustics but all in all a pleasant experience. I would certainly go back if I was in the area, but not sure I would make the journey just for the food - especailly as they are planning to hike the prices at some point soon.

If a man makes a statement and a woman is not around to witness it, is he still wrong?

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I live in the same building as Trinity and have been three times now, yet each visit has been a little bit disappointing. Not awful, just not as good as I had hoped for. Similar to Andy, there have been long waits for food, despite the restaurant being less than half full and on more than one occasion, dishes have tasted and appeared pre-cooked. A morel tart springs to mind, which was barely warm, soggy, limp and underseasoned. It always seems pretty busy though, so maybe I'm wrong...

Gazette in Battersea Reach is nice enough. Superbly cheap, rustic French stuff. Nearish to Clapham Junction.

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Donna Margherita in Lavander Hill for Authentic Neapolitan Pizza in  a wonderful wood burning oven...

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Lola Roja, a new tapas restaurant in Northcote Road (10 minutes walk from Clapham Junction). Really exciting and interesting food, not expensive, served by nice people in a rather noisy restaurant. Also does terrific takeaways on Saturday lunchtimes.

Alas, the small independent food shops mentioned on this thread a couple of years back are under threat from rising rents. We are trying to save the area from becoming yet another Gap and Starbucks high street. Get in touch with me on jennysheridan@btinternet.com if you want ot know more.

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  • 2 months later...
they are planning to hike the prices at some point soon.

Went again to Trinity for lunch on Friday and actually lunch prices have gone down with the alc now three courses for £20 - a bargain. I started with the mackerel tartar with cucumber cream and then had the pork belly with black olive mash. The missus had Lyonnaise duck confit salad (more of a rillette) then beef pot au feu with summer vegetables. Puddings were hit and miss but then I'm not a pudding fan - should have gone for the cheese. Check out the pigs trotters on (Poilane) toast starter withsauce gribiche - excellent. However still some kitchen issues - took far to long for the food to come out and there were only two tables occupied - not good enough.

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Went again to Trinity for lunch on Friday and actually lunch prices have gone down with the alc now three courses for £20 - a bargain.

I was there last month (writeup here) and had the £20 a la carte, even though it was evening (though it was Sunday; it might not be available in the evening on other days).

Puddings were hit and miss but then I'm not a pudding fan - should have gone for the cheese.

I did go for the cheese; I was undecided until I saw someone at another table getting the cheeseboard, and my mind was then made up! A good selection, including the gooey smelly kinds I like (you get to choose five from the selection).

However still some kitchen issues - took far to long for the food to come out and there were only two tables occupied - not good enough.

The food came quite promptly on our visit. I also thought the staff were very personable and friendly, and that's what really clinched it for me since while I enjoyed the food I wasn't bowled over by it.

I think I'll go back, but then it's not too hard to get to for me (Bermondsey). Not sure I'd travel across London for it.

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Thank you very much for the comprehensive feedback! I feel better about checking out the area now.

Whatever the case, it's got to be better than Enfield!!

Has anyone discovered good Indian ethnic shops in places maybe like Tooting and Southfields and are they quite accessible from there?

Well you're obviously doing all right! Wish I could afford something around Northcote Rd! Yes I think it's safe to say it's better than Enfield but you'd best get a really big 4x4 if you don't want your new neighbours to sneer at you.

Tooting Bec to Tooting Boadway road is jam packed with superb Asian/ethnic shops etc. This is sort of where I live. Sadly.

S

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