Nourishing food at Counter Kitchen, Clerkenwell

I’ve already had a dose of the dreaded winter cold but I’m very much hoping it will be the last too! When the nights get longer and the days colder, it gets more and more tempting to just eat ‘comfort food’, meal after meal.

That is definitely the truth for me anyway!

But I’m sure I’m not the only one who associates comfort food with plates piled high with cottage pie, stews or roast dinners. Now I am definitely one for the ‘everything in moderation’ – never going to turn down chocolate am I!? But it can all become a little heavy.

However, since a glorious warming lunch at Counter Kitchen in Clerkenwell it has reminded me I can still eat well balanced and nourishing meals throughout the cold winter months! It actually made me want to cook more like this at home.

Counter Kitchen is a beautiful bright space located on Goswell Road. It is airy, relaxed and comfortable meaning you could happily sit here working away if you wanted to. We arrived just after midday with a few people sat on their laptops and by the time we left all the tables were full of people eating lunch before heading back to work. There was a real buzz.

The Food

The menu at Counter Kitchen aims to keep things simple to allow the natural flavours to shine through. From breakfast through to lunch, the seasonal menu celebrates produce at its finest.

The lunch menu serves a mix of soups, hearty bowls and nourishing salads. Honestly, when I was looking through the menu I didn’t know what to order because I wanted to try it all!

On a recommendation I ordered the Kimchi Culture hearty bowl. Wow, did the kimchi pack a punch! A bowl of stewed beef is served in a beef broth with house aged kimchi, tofu, pak choi and served with black rice.

At the time of my visit I had a stinking cold so this really felt like the best remedy. It was great to see they weren’t stingy of the portion of beef either, I enjoyed every mouthful swimming in the broth. I didn’t want the bowl of goodness to end!

As well as the main menu there are two specials each day so we decided to try the Tarka Dal. And again it didn’t disappoint! This lentil and chana dal stew was served with salad, yoghurt and again, black rice. This had lovely warm spices running through it and was really quite filling!

In order to up the vitamin intake we also ordered a salad. The La La Land salad of coconut roasted broccoli, shredded kale, raisins and seeds was ordered with an addition of the miso salmon. How do I say this. It was awesome! Firstly, miso salmon. Love. But the salad mix was so moreish and delicious, I’m definitely going to try and recreate this salad at home.

So they say you’re meant to feed a cold right!? Well in the spirit of that we squeezed in a mini gluten free brownie and a little chocolate crisp bite. Unsurprisingly, both were good, but I liked the cherries and apricots going through the brownie keeping it lovely and moist.

The Verdict

Prices start at £4 for soups and go up to £9 for the ‘Hearty Bowls’. The salads start at £6.50, but it’s likely you would want to add some kind of protein to them. It is not cheap. But, in my opinion, you get what you pay for here. Everything we tried was fresh and made with good ingredients. The Kimchi Culture bowl actually came full of beef!

I really enjoyed the food at Counter Kitchen and it’s a beautiful space. I’ll definitely be back to try some other salads and hearty bowls!

Counter Kitchen

63 Goswell Rd
London
EC1V 7EN

*I was a guest of Counter Kitchen but as always views remain my own including my miso salmon loving.

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