Peckham Bazaar: A daily changing menu full of vigour and depth

That chef John Gionleka came to London from his native Albania to enter a Greek Orthodox seminary — but obviously got distracted — is a detail that seems significant when you observe his burning devotion to the charcoal grill. The restaurant presents the cooking style as eastern Mediterranean or, more stirringly, the area that once comprised the Ottoman Empire, but I think of it as the direction Greek food could go if only it tried a lot harder. The menu based on the markets changes every day. Here are some dishes to give the flavour, vigour and depth of understanding: caramelised onion pide, heritage tomatoes, Sicilian aubergine, anthotyro (Greek cheese); Kadayif-wrapped prawn, Jerusalem artichoke puree, charred broccoli; John Dory, freekah, monk’s beard, fennel, blood orange; marinated leg of Yorkshire lamb, coco beans, Charleston pepper, ktipiti (Greek red pepper/feta dip); venison, pork and prune adanas, cracked wheat, marinated peppers, adjika (spicy Georgian dip). There are interesting wines to match. Peckham beckons doesn’t it?