The Great Exhibition is long gone and the surroundings are some way short of palatial, yet there is food to marvel at in Crystal Palace, says Nika Jazaee.
Crystal Palace is located in southeast London. It might not be the first place in mind when deciding to dine out with friends on a Saturday evening, unless you live nearby or happen to be in the area. However, it’s worth the trip, if you ask me. The Crystal Palace Market Restaurant is located in the heart of the area. The street is busy with shops and restaurants of sorts, slightly reminding me of Shoreditch or Brixton.
I enter the restaurant with my friend and the manager Stuart straight away greets us. He ask for my name, and luckily I have already booked a table in advance, as I can tell they must be fully booked tonight. “Are you busy tonight?” I ask. Stuart smiles and tells me that lunch wasa full, too – they’ve already served 200 customers.
We get a table by the window as I asked for. The windows are huge and invite natural light to the restaurant. The décor reflects the interesting menu with walnut wood furniture and an exposed kitchen. There is a big display of fresh fish beautifully structured in front of the open kitchen and you can more or less follow your food from the display all the way to the grill.
To begin your experience at deliberately homely restaurant, the menu offers you a range of delicate appetizers, ranging from fresh Oysters to lemon cured tuna tartar; and for main you can find aged steaks and burgers.
I am carefully observing the simple but striking way in which food is set out on the plates: you get fish, salad and a bowl of French fries, simple but oh so delicious. The open kitchen leaves allows you to see what a great job they are doing – it’s a joy to watch the collaboration in the kitchen.
On my left side there is a couple, probably on their first date. They are both slightly dressed up and they are sipping a glass of red. In the middle of the venue there is a bigger group of six. They seem to be celebrating something as they when I look over to their table they are cheering something or someone over glasses of bubbly. They have huge trays of fresh Oyster over crushed ice. By the bar there are people sitting, some in sneakers and T-shirt and some in high heels. Surely the restaurant speaks to a wide audience. You can also see that there are many regulars, since they are having friendly and longer conversations with the staff.
We are asked what we would like to drink and we decide to give the bartender a free hands to mix us two cocktails, and it is a good decision: they are a mix of wild berries with a bitter taste of cognac and cinnamon. It’s a good start for us.
My choice for appetizer is a Chicken Broth; it smoothly runs down and leaves me not full but ready for more. My friend goes for beef tartar; it is one of the better raw beefs I have tasted. The yolk is whipped finely and put back into the half broken eggshell with the beef tartar on the side and two slices of anchovy focaccias.
For main we both go for classic burgers, and we are not disappointed. The caramelized onion is covering the tender beef in between perfectly soft (yet not too soft) buns. To sum this up, the food quality and the service of the restaurant almost reaches top class, but still keeps the homely spirit of your everyday diner.
http://www.thecrystalpalacemarket.com
