London’s hottest new foodie street isn’t where you’d expect
You’d might think the hottest street for new restaurants and food shops is somewhere in deepest Hackney – probably one with lots of railway arches, pop-ups and ‘happenings’. In fact, the gentrified Abbeville Road in Clapham can take that honour.
Besides having some excellent new food and drink shops – Bottle Apostle and Ginger Pig among them – it’s also had a spate of new restaurant openings and refurbs. Kerbisher and Malt is perhaps the most welcome of the new crop: from a small but growing chain, and an outstanding fish and chip shop. Comensal is a Mexican restaurant and bar that brings some new flavours to the neighbourhood; Tokyo Retro is a quirky Japanese café-bar. But it’s stalwarts such as Bistro Union and Abbeville Kitchen that continue to make this street a mid-priced and very appealing dining destination.
So watch out, east London – Clapham has in quality what Hackney has in quantity.
By Guy Dimond