Bar Valette - Review - Shoreditch - London - The Infatuation

"Plenty of places open with the intention of being crowd-pleasing. Bar Valette is not one of them. A Basque-influenced riddle that sits calmly in the eye of Shoreditch’s storm, dinner at this restaurant feels like a dud rainy day on an otherwise stylish city break. Despite the whirr of sirens and sapphire flashes through the cafe curtains, Bar Valette lives in its own world. There are cutesy doilies and dinky crab canapés and anyone sipping a crisp martini ‘tuxedo’ under an old Modernist poster from The Met should know that they’re doing it right, although it’s easy to make a misstep. photo credit: Emily Hai photo credit: Emily Hai video credit: Emily Hai Pause Unmute The intention is clear: drink well, share rich, and not-too-heavy, fabada bean stew, and disassociate from the sensory experience of Kingsland Road outside. Nooks by the window are taken by fashionable chancers while ‘PIMP’ (Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band version) plays over the speakers. For drinks, fried snacks, and a post-work DMC, it’s a no-brainer. After that, strategy is required. An order can easily lean overly fried, swimming in sauces, or simply underwhelming. There are insipid Madrid-style snails and you’ll forget a plate of mushrooms quicker than you digest them. Bar Valette isn’t without highlights providing you’re ambivalent to fibre. The fabada stew, the trout, the chocolate mousse, and the gâteau Basque are very good. But there needs to be more. Not every London restaurant needs to be crowd-pleasing, in fact we need some that are a little aggravating. As it is, Bar Valette is neither. Food Rundown Devilled Crab Tart Of the little beige snacks, this is the best. At £6 a pop you’d hope for a generous bite of crab and perfectly crumbly pastry, and that’s what you get. photo credit: Emily Hai Clapshot Croquettes We’re not complaining about this rogue Scottish influence on the menu. Panko-fried croquettes filled with potato and suede, with aioli on the side, and a little doily underneath. photo credit: Emily Hai Duck Egg, Chestnut And Pied De Mouton For a plate of egg and mushrooms that costs as much as a main course, we hoped there would be some flavourful depth and subtleties to this. But there isn’t. Fabada Asturiana Bean Stew Bar Valette’s interpretation of a hearty dish from north west Spain manages to be abundant and refined at the same time. The beans have a lovely background note of smoky paprika and the pork belly, chorizo, and blood sausage are all perfectly juicy. It’s pork and beans for all intents and purposes, and it’s hugely satisfying. photo credit: Emily Hai Snails, Madrid Style With Trotter Broth, Chorizo And Black Pepper The broth with these snails needs to be much richer if it’s all going to be mopped up by bread as is advised. It very quickly became room temperature and, save for a few chunky pouches of chorizo, lacked any of the moreish quality you want in a big, saucy bowl of food. photo credit: Emily Hai Chocolate Mousse To Share The menu states this mousse is to share, though we could also see one glutton taking it down themselves. It’s that good. Barely half an inch-thick and topped with a thin coating of chantilly cream, this mousse balances adult bitterness with moreish sweet deliciousness. photo credit: Jake Missing" - Jake Missing