Five Restaurants to Try This Weekend

This weekly column suggestions five restaurants to try at the weekend. There are three rules: The restaurants must not be featured in either the Eater 38 Essential map, nor the monthly-updated Heatmap, and the restaurant must be outside Zone 1.

Minnow

This little fish made a splash when it appeared late last summer, and six months on things are still going swimmingly. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it does exemplary small plates — braised king cabbage, shoots, grains; eels, mussels, liquor – that are also, hearteningly, not that small. The vibe is vintagey: idiosyncratic cutlery, lots of flowers (edible and otherwise) and crackly jazz on the stereo. That all makes it sound a bit manic-pixie-dream-restaurant, but fear not — there’s an impressively hairy-chested cocktail list. —Emma Hughes
21 The Pavement, SW4 0HY

The Pig and Butcher

A single solitary pound buys precious little in London these days. But at The Pig and Butcher on Liverpool Road it will secure a slice of good, unfashionably straightforward bread and a small ramekin of liquid, deep amber beef dripping. It’s a beautifully direct statement of intent from a menu that majors in whole-animal butchery and underloved cuts of meat — that said, on its own it’s also a perfect companion to a pint of ale on a cold winter night. What with this, The Albion and The Drapers Arms, Islington is blessed with gastropubs that avoid the worst cliches associated with the model; this is perhaps the most refreshingly cliché-free, and perhaps the best, too. —George Reynolds
80 Liverpool Rd, N1 0QD

Mother Juiceworks

A plant-based all day (and some of the night) cafe might seem like a January cliche, but while Mother’s (organic, they just don’t shout about it) food is hella nourishing, it’s also flavoursome, filling and, well, fun. And it’s right near Westfield Stratford so the perfect foil to panic-making panic sales shopping. Sink a green juice — there’s probably more than a few who need that right now — then tuck into a burger or non-BLT while sipping homemade kombucha, peanut butter mylkshake or local ale, and cap it off with whatever gorgeous vegan cake lies atop the counter. —Suze Olbrich
1, Canalside, Here East Estate, E20 3BS

Aside

Much previous praise for Aside, a small plate’s throw from Peckham High Street, can be surmised with the following: neighbourhood/ small plates/ share/ modern. While that might be accurate on one level, so too is it superficial. Focus instead on a beautiful terrazzo bar promising cocktails precise and elegant, the thoughtfulness of designing two-tier tables for cutlery that extends to every detail of the service, and the food. It comes on a variety of plate sizes, can or cannot be shared, and focusses on ingredients prepared carefully but with flourish: a maximalist cousin to Lyle’s, perhaps. NB: its Sunday roast is a classic of the genre. —James Hansen
56 Goldsmith Rd, SE15 5TF

Wander

Wander is still new enough to that comparatively uncool northern end of Stoke Newington High street that it feels like most of the locals don’t yet know it’s there. Nevertheless, it’s quickly gaining popularity and it’s easy to see why. Chef and owner Alexis Noble has the vibrant mod-Oz small plates thing down, but that’s hardly the point — her playful riffs on familiar flavours are a treat. Its just back in the game for 2018 as of yesterday, and this week’s menu features their fresh handmade cappelletti (currently feta-stuffed), with brown butter, crispy sage, hazelnuts and bottarga, which is pretty much the type of food that Patrick Sullivan’s Bonkers (wine) was made to be paired with — so grab a bottle of that, too, and make “eat at more killer neighbourhood restaurants” the first resolution to get ticked off the list. —Andrew Leitch
214 Stoke Newington High St, N16 7HU