Merchants Tavern, Shoreditch

This was not my first visit to Merchants Tavern, I had previously tried to have dinner here back in January for the husbands birthday. Unfortunately, a power cable in the street outside the restaurant decided to explode on the night of our visit and scuppered our plans! The electricity had to be cut and so no dinner for us. The staff were wonderful at trying to find us another table at 8pm on a Saturday and it meant we got to eat at the glorious City Social.

We recently celebrated our first wedding anniversary and so instantly thought to head to Merchants Tavern to celebrate. We arrived and there were no exploding pavements or electricity board vans so we were off to a good start!

Merchants Tavern is a collaboration between Angela Hartnett, her partner Neil Borthwick and the men behind Canteen. Located in a Victorian warehouse and former apothecary in the centre of Shoreditch, Merchants Tavern serves Modern European cuisine with a seasonal focus. You enter through the bar area which is a great spot to enjoy one of their punchy cocktails. You make your way through to a large restaurant with green leather booths and exposed brick walls. There is an open kitchen too which is not a main feature, just part of the furniture.

We began with a glass of prosecco whilst we looked through the menu. The wine list is very interesting and they also have a monthly wine club, where they bring a selection of limited run wines from a range of guest suppliers – April was English wines. We went with a great pinot noir from Kent.

It is a well curated menu which I like – I don’t like extensive menus, makes me question how everything can be fresh. Whilst reading through the dishes we soon realised it was going to be a very hard decision to pick just one from each course. Luckily my husband is a sharer, so we picked two different starters and mains so we could taste all four. Good game plan.

We started with the quail, hazelnut pesto, remoulade & foie gras, one of their signature dishes, and lamb ragu. I can see why the quail has been a constant on the menu. It was a wonderful dish, I loved the crunchy hazelnut with the soft, rich foie gras and quail. We wished we’d order two! But the ragu, well, this was delicious too. Great flavour packed into the meat; salty and rich it reminded me to Rome.

I always like to ask the staff what they’d recommend off the menu, as they know it best – we were told to order the pork belly. It actually wasn’t on our shortlist but we quickly swapped and ordered. I’m so glad we did! It was served on an earthy bed of lentils and green beans and the crackling, oh my. It was perfection. So crispy and naughty.

We also ordered the cod served with octopus, fennel and red pepper. This perfectly balanced the richness of the pork dish. The cod was cooked skilfully and went well with the smoky pepper.

We did not need dessert, definitely not. We were stuffed. But of course that didn’t stop us! I wanted something chocolatey, but there wasn’t an adequate option, the waitress mentioned the Paris-Brest for two which is made of choux pastry and filled with a praline flavoured cream. So we went for that. This was the only chink in Merchants Tavern’s armour. The choux was a little dry and the parline just so rich. It was far too big: half would have been enough for two!

This place has and air of special occasion about it, but it’s not stuffy at all. There is a very cool atmosphere at Merchants Tavern, the staff know their stuff and the food is outstanding. I honestly can’t wait for another reason to make a trip back.