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St. John’s Menu Has Barely Changed in Over 25 Years

Meanwhile, London got weird with hot cross buns, and green pasta continued its trend journey

Welsh rarebit at St. John, one of central London’s best snacks Eater

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is so wrong it might actually be right.

News of the week

Take one long weekend layered over a religious ceremony celebrating a period of rebirth and renewal, add in gross-but-seasonally-sanctioned consumption of chocolate and carbohydrates, and top it all off with record-breaking warm weather verging on the ridiculous. The stage was set for a perfect storm of Insta-content this Easter, and boy did the feed deliver. #Blessed, indeed.

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happy easter everyone Lovely eggs @alainducasse

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Hotter than Lisbon

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Serving suggestions of the week

Easter weekend also ushered in a plethora of alternative uses for the hot cross bun — noted Instagram icon of the past few weeks. For the overenthusiastic revellers with a stash of leftovers: here’s some #inspo.

Throwback of the week

St. John patron saint Jon Spiteri hopped all the way back to the era of grunge this week, sharing some choice snippets from a French House Dining Room / St. John scrapbook recently unearthed at his mother’s house. It’s a treasure trove in more ways than one: firstly, for emphasising the huge amount of shared DNA between the two restaurants, the French House Dining Room essentially a prelude to St. John; secondly, for showing how little has changed (in a good way) in the Henderson culinary universe; and thirdly, for underlining quite how much alcohol prices have increased in the intervening decade or two. A bottle of house wine for £7.95? Come back, weird curtain haircuts and BabyG watches, all is forgiven.

Menu of the week

This one-off Jura-inspired dinner would be sexy enough, but what really sells it is the commitment evident in translating the entire document into French. Written in English, poulet aux morilles à la crème would just lose a certain je ne sais quoi, non?

Theatrical catering of the week

Better than the usual £7 for a small bag of Wine Gums.

Week of the week

Seldom will this category’s sole criteria — spending the previous seven days going absolute beast mode — be more appropriate. This week’s incumbent, Martha de Lacey, occupied her Easter weekend by feeding 94 people an ungodly quantity of high-protein Japanese-inspired food, from chicken skin kimchi gyoza to slow-cooked pork belly liberally oozing fatty goodness. Enough to cause shortness of breath, even when mediated by a screen.

Fish / dish of the week

Sorry, Brat — there’s only one winner here.

Shot of the week

Green pasta is going to be this year’s katsu sando, isn’t it?

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Love thy neighbour @padella_pasta

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St. John

26 Saint John Street, , England EC1M 4AY 020 7251 0848 Visit Website

BRAT

4 Redchurch Street, , England E1 6JL Visit Website