Marksman: The menu is simple – but dramatically pleasing

Grace Dent squabbles over perfect pudding in Hackney’s revamped Marksman dining room
Grace Dent14 December 2017

Ambience 4/5

Food 5/5

It seems idiotically remiss of Grace & Flavour never to have written about Marksman in Hackney. Since an unobtrusive revamp last September, respect for the place has quietly augmented. Six short months have turned it into a reliable pit stop for resting chefs, travelling foodies and locals too slothful to reach their own kitchens.

These types nod sagely about the beef and barley bun with horseradish, the brown butter tart and the mutton-neck curry with roti. They speak respectfully of chefs Tom Harris and Jon Rotherham, whose pedigrees include a Michelin star at the St John Hotel. Marksman has become somewhere peoples’ eyes light up over. At the same time, you’ve probably never heard of the bloody place. After all, it’s just a boozer in Hackney that’s been around forever, then had a lick of paint and a chef takeover six months back.

And if we’re being honest, only Marksman’s upstairs dining room has been tarted up. The ground floor remains the same old few-frills boozer that I’ve found myself in many times. In fact, it’s where I had one of my most abominable first dates some years ago. One of us was newly bereaved, the other recently divorced. We met at 8pm and by 9.15pm had already had our first furious square-up. I’d have flounced out then but it was a cold evening, they had the radiators on, and like hell was I leaving my Tanqueray. So I stayed for more arguing. We now live together and own an imbecilic labrador.

It’s where I had one of my most abominable first dates some years ago. One of us was newly bereaved, the other recently divorced. We now live together and own an imbecilic labrador.

On a recent visit to Marksman with the man in question, I was pleased to see that it’s still a popular place for dates, casual drinking and mild midweek debauchery. Many of the venues in this gentrified strip saw no option than to become fully sanitised. Marksman, on the other hand, still has one foot entrenched in East London’s past, even if a plate of Tamworth belly pork with hispi cabbage costs £18.

Prices, it should be stressed, will not impress an out-of-towner. Marksman’s chicken and leek pie, which serves two, costs a rather brutal £34. For this price, outside London, the pie would need to contain ethically-reared organic unicorn. Or at the very least a pastry bottom and not be, officially speaking, ‘a stew with a hat’.

Peculiar but moreish: honey tart

I quibbled like this until I tasted the rich, buttery puff-pastry lid and its tarragon-flecked aromatic innards, then I shut up. Do, please, order a side of the drably titled ‘fried potatoes’; the glorious-bastard hinterworld between fondant potato and giant triple-cooked chips, they arrive in a deep puddle of burnt-onion mayonnaise. Marksman’s devil is very much in the detail. Horseradish creams, home-made relishes, buttermilk dressings with dill and veg served drenched in garlic and mustard. The menu is simple, but dramatically pleasing.

A plate of smoked haddock rissoles had all the assertive slap one wants from haddock, even if their crunch might have benefited from longer in the pan. A plate of cured beef with thinly sliced celeriac and anchovy was perfect. We ordered the brown butter and honey tart to share, which is a peculiar, moreish invention. Not sturdy enough to earn tart status. Not a pretty colour, unless the silt-shaded Pantone 15-1315 floats your boat. The first spoonful resembles an underwhelming Butterscotch Angel Delight gone awry, with shades of bread pudding. The second spoonful reveals this is a taste unlike any other: buttery, nutty, delicately hoppy. The third spoonful will reveal your naivety in ‘splitting’ this tart, as you’re being unattractively territorial. We bickered throughout the pudding, but stayed for another half hour finishing the Claret. Plus ça change. Plus c’est la même chose.

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1/128

Marksman

1 Claret Carafe £20

1 Buxton IPA £5

1 Bread & Butter £3

1 Rissoles £7

1 Cured Hereford £8

1 Chicken Pie (for 2) £34

1 Fried Potatoes £4

1 Runner Beans £4

1 Belu Large Bottle £3

1 Brown Butter & Honey Tart £7

1 Cheese Plate £5

1 Fernet Branca £3

1 LVB Port 75ml £6

Total £109

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