Having made a significant dent in the London Pizza scene, I’ve decided to branch out and review other types of restaurants, for no other good reason other than that I quite enjoy both writing and eating and maybe eventually want to build a career out of it. Over the Christmas period I seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time reading the Times, during which I came across an expectedly good article by their own Marina O’Loughlin of a new, Brutalist style restaurant near Covent Garden. So I managed to get a booking for a week where I would be well past the good intentioned ones of January.

I took an ex-colleague, and we both arrived fairly tipsy after some eventual work drinks, and therefore got immediately stuck-in to a bread, olives and wine order.  Whilst the bread was not the best I’ve ever had (Naughty Piglets or The Camberwell Arms take this), it was definitely up there, a good start.  

The restaurant atmosphere somehow managed to be a bit brutal yet relaxed, in a surprisingly spacious dining room for the location. The crockery emanated this by being square with soft edges. I liked the art work, I liked the clientele. As a result of being relatively new-comer  to the London food review scene outside of pizza, we stuck with what we knew (fried squid) + Calcot’s (milder and less bulbous than onions) – I can’t remember the rationale on this last one as the wine had been flowing for the second time that evening by then.  

The fried squid was determined by both of us to be chewy with no idea what would make it so (subsequent googling has told me it being overcooked). Thankfully they’d thrown in a couple of deep fried lemons and artichokes which were saviours. The bulbous onion was nice, not dissimilar to a really well dressed leek. We then sat and demolished the rest of the bottle of wine which in wine hours felt like about 4, but was likely 45 minutes before main-course came. I couldn’t really fault the Chicken and Dover-sole, other to say that they didn’t really ‘sing’ (check food critic’s term), which you’d have hoped for given that both were near £30. This was probably more to do with us by this point being a bit befuddled and no longer that peckish. 

Having had high hopes and being past the point where I had any regard for the size of the bill, we tackled the dessert menu with the Rhubarb tart (appaz v seasonal says my v foodie housemate) with some dessert wine. Again, nice (realise I need to progress past this term) but as my dining partner put it – Gail’s may have done it better. I think my favourite part of the evening may have been drinking muddy coloured (yet delicious) dessert wine whilst boozily admiring a sizeable bright painting of some tomatoes.   

Usually the bread is a good indicator of what is to come, however this theory in some ways disproved me at Toklas. Maybe this place is worth a visit for the bakery and definitely for the boujie-brutal atmosphere if that’s your sort of thing, but on first appearances it’s not topping the list of favourites.  

What to eat?
Olives 

Price: £9 

Toklas Sourdough

Price: £3 

Calcots, Romesco & Crème Fraiche

Price: £13 

Fried Squid, Artichokes & Meyer Lemons

Price: £15 

Chicken, Tropea Onions & Polenta

Price: £25 

Lemon Sole, Fiolaro & Anchovy Butter

Price: £28



#FLOdown: A 'brutalist-bougie' not-so-little joint where the bread, bakery, art-work and crockery may well be the highlights.

Location:

1 Surrey St, Temple, London WC2R 2ND

Nearest station:

Temple station

Opening hours:

Dinner Tues-Sat 5.30-10pm and lunch Weds-Sat 12-2.30pm

Words by Olivia Samuels