St. John Bread & Wine, Commercial Street, London

A day in London and the options for food are plentiful, luckily http://www.fashionbitsandbobs.com/ made some suggestions. St. John has a couple of outlets in London and it is focused on organic food with a strong english heritage. I failed to make a reservation and in hindsight that would have been a good idea. Even for dining alone at 13:45 I had to saunter over to the pub next door to grab a pint before getting a table. I get seated and gaze around, noting that it’s still packed at 14:30 and that there’s a table of Asians tucking into a whole pig, something which is available when you call ahead. The menu makes a point of focussing older, less known classics, offal and ingredients which are only available in England.

The blood cake and duck egg was a nice and simple dish, done in a way that even if you think blood cake is weird you’ll try it. One of the more interesting courses was Cobnuts and pork back fat. Cobnuts are essentially a british hazelnut and also taste similar. The layers of back fat made an interesting contrast to the crunch of the nut, while quite a novelty at first, the excitment did wear off rather quickly, but the dish shows the style of the restaurant very nicely. My main course was an ox tongue dish, which I enjoyed very much. It was a tad rougher than veal’s tongue but cooked with great skill and shows that you don’t always need to eat filet of beef to be happy. Finishing it off with some cake and ice cream seemed like a decent idea.

Overall still the experience left me somewhat unsatisfied. The food is good, the idea of strong british heritage (ingredients & recipes) compelling but it lacks in the details. The service isn’t up to standard (kind of like buying something at H&M), the place is too crowded (some more space between tables) and the wine list is almost exclusively french. But – and this is the interesting thought – good idea, good marketing, half-assed execution is very british, isn’t it ?