Smoke & Salt at The Chapel Bar, Islington – tried and tasted

Nomadic pop-up duo Smoke & Salt have found a semi-permanent base, and they’re using it to show just how much they deserve a space of their own, says Ben Norum
Lamb: The main course at Smoke & Salt
Remi Williams
Ben Norum12 December 2017

Young chefs Aaron Webster and Remi Williams are behind Smoke & Salt, a food business which has popped up in numerous locations around town over the past year.

Prior to this Webster worked at Michelin-starred The Latymer in Surrey as well as at Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner in Knightsbridge before joining The Shed in Notting Hill.

Williams racked up experience at two of Boston’s best restaurants, Craigie on Main and Deuxave, before returning to London where he took a job at The Shed and met Webster. The rest, as they say, is history.

Style and surrounds

As this is a residency not a restaurant, the influence that the Smoke & Salt team have over the setting is minimal. What has been achieved is a fairly blank canvas against which to let the food shine, rather than a truly wonderful setting.

What they have control over, they've done well — the positive effect of efficient and incredibly friendly service easily outweighs the slightly odd garden-style furniture.

Duo: Aaron Webster and Remi Williams are the smoke and the salt, in no particular order
Remi Williams

On the menu

A single set menu is available, though with advance notice the guys can cater for pretty much any dietary requirement or taste.

The procession of food kicks off in indulgent style with freshly baked guinness-glazed pretzels served with a light whipped butter; the kind of things you’d eat at your grandma’s — if only your grandma was a better cook.

After the crack: Broth topped with a slow-cooked egg

The starter pulls together a sprightly selection of thinly sliced asparagus, calçots (a type of Spanish spring onion) and other members of the allium family in a hearty broth. Its crowning glory comes in the form of a slow-cooked egg, which is served still in its shell, in an egg box on the table to be cracked and poured into the bowl yourself. Mix the yolk into the liquid to enrich the whole dish.

Lamb takes centre stage for the main course (pictured at top). It’s served with bright puddles of green garlic purée, juicy lamb faggots and slithers of crunchy-textured pickled okra — a clever treatment for a difficult vegetable.

Citrus and custard: A final flourish in dessert
Remi Williams

Something sweet

Pudding sees cubes of pound cake (a dense sponge) served with segments and sorbet of pink grapefruit with elderflower yoghurt. It’s all draped in a thick custard not completely unlike Bird’s with a hint of citrus, which works to sooth the dish’s otherwise sharp flavours.

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Liquid libations

Drinks options span half a dozen cocktails — including a luscious buttered rum and an effortlessly refreshing, summery Rhubarb Fusion featuring vodka, grapefruit, rhubarb and prosecco — alongside a short list of wines and local beers from Hammerton Brewery.

Smoke & Salt: The Lowdown

Final flavour: Creative cooking focused on dishes which are great to eat rather gimmicky — and likely the start of something much bigger for these two chefs. There's no smoke without fire and Smoke & Salt will soon be a red hot ticket.

At what cost? The set menu costs a bargainous £25, with cocktails at £8-9 and beers £5-6.

Visit if you like: The Manor, Craft, Social Eating House.

Find it: The Chapel Bar, 29 Penton Street, N1 9PX; smokeandsalt.com.

Follow Ben Norum on Twitter @BenNorum

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