"Calong is the wine bar we never knew we needed, even though it’s technically a Korean restaurant. The Stoke Newington setting is familiar—blackboard menu, exposed brick, wildflowers romantically decaying in the corner, a lambrusco-initiated crowd—but it’s a dining experience that’s never predictable. One minute the chef is hand-delivering a refined, pretty little plate of sea trout slivers that are silky and citric, the next a jenga stack of fried chicken arrives with a handful of peanuts and sweet chilli sauce. A lot of the Korean dishes here make us think of a record scratch followed by a DJ shouting “REMIX”—the zing of pickled rhubarb with sesame, rich tartare sauce with a briny, salt-show hwangtae croquette, a hunky piece of French baguette soaking in the spicy jjamppong. Sometimes all this creativity means Calong misses the mark, but order wisely—paging our food rundown below—and you’re set for a trendy dream sequence of a date night or a one-on-one catch-up with all of the tealight charm and low-intervention wines, none of the small plates deja vu. photo credit: Calong photo credit: Calong video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Food Rundown video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Sea Trout Hoe, Sesame, Plum Soy & Rhubarb Excuse us, while we make eating pickled rhubarb our entire personalities for the foreseeable future. It’s hard to choose our favourite element of this light, citric dish, but plum soy and sea trout is a combination we need more of in our lives. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Joo’s Fried Chicken, Sweet Chilli & Peanut This luminous sauce is more sweet than chilli, but the fried chicken is starchy with the perfect subtle crunch. A hack: save some of the chicken for the seafood jjamppong’s arrival and dip generously in the spicy sauce for an excellent, impromptu surf and turf situation. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Pressed Brawn & Bossam Mooli This is what cats will eat when they eventually take over the world. It’s a rare miss and is deceptively solid and congealed. Even the zing factor of the accompanying bossam mooli doesn’t make this worth an order. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Spicy Seafood Jjamppong & Aioli Weird to be jealous of a prawn, but just look at that little fella languishing in this spicy broth, complete with lightly toasted baguette lilo and squid flotation noodles. It has a heat that simmers at the back of your throat like you’ve swallowed a tealight. Very, very good. video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley Rhubarb & Custard Tart, Yoghurt Cream & Candied Ginger We almost didn’t order dessert at Calong. What a sad state of affairs that would be, because this best-in-class vanilla tart just knocked Rochelle Canteen off our London tart top spot. The candied ginger adds some sneaky heat which is the perfect alibi for loading up on more cream." - Heidi Lauth Beasley
