There's more to The Plimsoll than its brilliant burger - Review - London - The Infatuation
"Before becoming The Plimsoll, this Finsbury Park boozer was known as The Auld Triangle. It was popular with locals and Arsenal fans. A proper Irish drinking hole. Guinness was around £3 a pint and packs of Taytos were much less. It was full of red shirts, red walls, and flushed cheeks. We liked it a lot. Now, The Plimsoll serves cod cheeks, pappardelle, and Basque cheesecake. It’s changed to a different kind of fantastic. The yellowing ceiling is lovingly unrestored and, while floorboards have had a scrub, there’s still an aura of several decades of lager being spilled inside. If you’re meeting for a pint, the walk-in bar area is always sardines, but you can pitch up with a burger by the window. Locals, young and old, Gooner or not, can (and do) still come here for a drink. The kitchen isn’t properly open on weekends or matchdays, while during the week there are Supreme-drop-type scrums for a table. It all feels quite work in progress and sort of on the hoof. A lot of fun pubs tend to. video credit: Jake Missing photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Pause Unmute The menu here is forever-changing. It could be a glorious pile of grated gouda and caesar sauce masquerading as a friseé salad. Or the soon-to-be canapé of the decade that is deep-fried oysters and tartare sauce on corner-shop baguette. The style here is high and low, strong flavours and subtle ones. The preeminent cheeseburger continues to be the standard in London. Look around the room and you’ll see more than one glistening bun with a birthday candle stuck on top of it. An estate agent might describe The Plimsoll as ‘respectively restored’. We’d say it’s the right side of dingy chic. Here, gutsy small plates on estate sale floral crockery are taken to the next level, all with immense care. Both for the people who used to drink here and those who are going to eat here tomorrow. Sure, they might get a dodgy keg of Guinness and the toilets aren’t exactly The Ritz, but The Plimsoll is a pub. It should be perfectly imperfect. RESERVE A TABLE WITH RESERVE A TABLE Food Rundown Chipolatas Yes, that’s right, chipolatas. A plate of lovely, caramelised, skinny sausages, with a puddle of homemade ketchup. What could be more perfect than a pile of sausages and a cold pint beside them? Very little. An Escabeche Contrary to their famous cheeseburger and fondness for robust foods, delicate seafood plates are often the best thing you can order. Their zesty, lime-heavy escabeche can appear in seafood, mussel, or scallop varieties, and is a sharply delicious small plate. photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch Deep-Fried Oyster Few things hit the spot quite like deep-fried finger food. It’s a combination made not in heaven but oil. Lovely, bubbling, oil. Throw a breaded oyster in there and lay it on a dollop of aioli or homemade tartare that sits upon the finest of vehicles—stodgy, slightly sweet, supermarket baguette—and you have the finest of drinking snacks. Something With Clams Or Mussels Molluscs are a favourite here. Previously they were often found paired with a fiery, umami-filled XO sauce, but you may just as likely see them simply paired with garlic and parsley. Either way, you’ll want to get them with a side of bread. photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli A Whole Fish As suckers for seafood, a piece of hake or a lemon sole will always jump out to us. While the flavours are always on point, the cooking can sometimes be a little off and a tad over. Dexter Cheeseburger The famous dexter cheeseburger continues to be an outstanding piece of beefy, buttery, craftsmanship. It’s all meat, cheese, sauce, and gherkins; no lettuce. And that’s just how we like it. If you’re not into McDonald’s-style burgers, you may not like this. But the odds are, you will. photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli Burnt Cheesecake An established favourite in London restaurants, the Basque-style burnt cheesecake is also a regular at The Plimsoll. It isn’t the best around, but it’s still a nice way to end your meal." - Jake Missing
