“How do they produce such good meals in such a tiny space?”; for a “leisurely romantic meal”, this “neighbourhood gem” is just the job – it hasn’t suffered at all from its “simpler” approach since the owner shifted his main focus to ‘North Road’.
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The critic visits an Islington restaurant that’s a “rather dizzying conflation of old and new” – “nestling on a quiet residential street”, the interior is “all very Edwardian”, but the menu reveals “molecular gastronomy gone cosy and local.” With the exception of “grim” roast wood pigeon, the critic enjoys some “wild and crazy and fun” dishes, with “extraordinary” sweetbreads with milk skin (“sort of pointless, but sort of amazing”) a particular highlight. “I’ll be honest: I don’t know what all this stuff – some of which works and some of which doesn’t – is doing on the menu in a tiny local restaurant in Islington, but I’m damned if I’m going to overdo the weirdness thing.”
David Sexton (17th April 2008)
2/5 stars
A rather negative review of this “cosy” Barnsbury spot. “Fig delivers an awful lot of fuss on the plate for a relatively modest bill — and a lot of mouth entertainment for a relatively small caloric intake. That’s not my idea of a neighbourhood restaurant or indeed of good-taste cooking”.
Fay Maschler (22nd May 2007)
2/5 stars
The menu may be “novel and also notably reasonably priced”, but “variable” execution dogs Mrs M’s meal at this quirky Islington spot (which has been a year or so in its current ownership). A lamb chump, for example was “so undercooked” that it “looked altogether too close to once having been mobile”.
Giles Coren (4th May 2010)
David Sexton (17th April 2008)
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