The Yellow Bittern
Restaurant · Pentonville ·
Champagne-soaked game pie, Dublin coddle, and apple pie
Champagne-soaked game pie, Dublin coddle, and apple pie
"This quaint place close to King’s Cross hasn’t been open long, but has been a conversation starter the likes of which the London restaurant scene hasn’t seen for years. Chef and Belfastman Hugh Corcoran’s sub-20-seater venue is open only at lunchtime (midday and 2 p.m. sittings are offered), reservations must be made via the restaurant’s landline (or postcard, honestly), it is cash-only, and the wine menu is all kept inside the faintly grumpy, periodically affable proprietor’s head. You can skip the starters (save, perhaps, the homemade soda bread and butter); just head straight to the mains, where you might find a slice of game bird pie with mash, a portion of braised guinea fowl with cabbage, or a fantastic rendition of a Dublin classic — coddle: boiled, peppery white sausages in a salty broth with root vegetables and lots of allium. This place eschews everything that the London restaurant industry has become, while bringing forth some (if not all) of the good things it once offered. And you can say, “I was there then.” Best for: Going back in time." - Adam Coghlan
"A lunchtime hideaway above a second-hand bookshop, where wine flows and Dublin coddle steams faces. When the staff praised our appetite like matriarchal feeders after we demolished a wood pigeon and guinea fowl pie for two, then asked for dessert. Lose yourself in all the beige tones, starting with soda bread and carrot soup, before the champagne-marinated meat pie, and finishing with another pie, this time apple. The period between Christmas and New Year, when all there is to do is graze and drink." - rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, jake missing, heidi lauth beasley, heidi lauth beasley, sinead cranna, jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, heidi lauth beasley, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, rianne shlebak, jake missing, rianne shlebak, jake missing, jake missing
"Have you ever thought that you and Jane Austen would get on really well? If yes, chances are you’ll have a big, juicy crush on this charming British-Irish restaurant on Caledonian Road. It’s lunchtime-only and everything from the comforting Dublin coddle to the rustic champagne-soaked pies are all excellent reasons to cancel your plans for the rest of the day. Expect a gloriously old-school feel—no QR codes, no credit cards, just analogue comfort complete with a basement bookshop downstairs." - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, sinead cranna
"An intentionally old-fashioned, intimate lunchtime-only restaurant with just 18 seats, no website or social media, and reservations only by phone or postcard; cash preferred and a leftist bookstore tucked into the basement add to the offbeat charm. The daily-changing menu nods to Irish, French and Basque influences—potato-leek soup, guinea fowl pie, Dublin coddle, rice pudding—executed as honest, well-seasoned midday fare best enjoyed with a bottle from a thoughtfully curated Burgundy cellar and perhaps a small eau de vie to finish." - ByAmiel Stanek
"An 18-seat, cash-only lunch-only restaurant with noon and 2 p.m. seatings (closed weekends) that was deliberately designed as a prelapsarian, long midday-meal escape from reservation apps and point-of-sale modernity. Reservations are made by telephone or postcard and there’s a left-leaning bookstore in the basement; the daily-changing menu reflects the chef’s Irish roots plus time in France and the Basque Country, with straightforward, well-seasoned dishes such as potato-leek soup, guinea fowl pie, Dublin coddle and rice pudding—food that is simple and honest, pretentious only in its aggressive unpretentiousness. The chef’s outspoken social-media post criticizing patrons who order sparingly, share little and abstain from drink ignited a wider debate about who restaurants are for, class and cultural expectations; the proprietors, including the politically outspoken chef, argue these expectations are necessary to sustain the precarious margins of a tiny lunch service and to defend a convivial lunch culture that values long, boozy mid-day meals." - ByAmiel Stanek
