We check out a restaurant with a menu of vegetable-forward cooking and a very unusual setting – a working fabric factory.
One of the great things about dining out in London is the enormous range of restaurants you have to choose from.
There are the fancy spots, as much about style as they are sustenance, there are also the great cheap eats, but every once in a while you stumble across a place like SlowBurn and it makes you really wonder at the out-of-the-box thinking that goes into London’s restaurant scene.
What’s the deal? Well SlowBurn operates out of a denim factory, and that factory is still well and truly in business. That means they only open outside of working hours, and when you eat it’s in what must be one of the most unique settings this city has to offer.
Let’s get stuck in…
SlowBurn – The Full Review
The Food
The menu at SlowBurn is designed for sharing. You know the drill: a section of small plates and bigger mains should you want them.
We started off with a basket of the wild grains sourdough with smoked garlic and thyme butter to see what the place is all about (you can tell a lot from a bread basket). The bread was perfectly soft and chewy and that butter did a disappearing act.
SlowBurn like their vegetables. They’ve got a mission to put them at the forefront of what they do, inverting the classic meal arrangement to make meat a side note. Another starter we had did this with a great touch of creative flare: a burrata with grilled Romano pepper tartare. The combination was excellent, balancing the creamy with the sharp.
We did have to try something meaty though so for mains we got the SlowBurn smoked chicken – a dish so good it may have actually undermined SlowBurn’s whole mission statement by being the star of the show.
To accompany it, a truffle, leek and potato agnolotti, essentially pockets of potato ravioli stuffed with leek and truffle. As you can imagine, earthy flavours went throughout – a watercress sauce adding more, and a bit of zing, to finish it off.
It was a meal that felt very creative. The chefs are obviously putting some serious brain power into their cooking. The results did not disappoint.
The Drink
For drinks we opted for a couple of the Croft Twist Spritz – a concoction of elderflower, lemon, mint, and fino sherry.
Something about the vibe of the place really made us crave a drink that was fresh and crisp. It was the perfect choice, paired perfectly with the food as per the waitress’s recommendation.
Needless to say, we kept them coming.
The Look
This is the major draw with SlowBurn. Dining in a factory may not, at first, sound like your cup of tea but let us tell you it creates a very special atmosphere. All around you are the machines of industry – now still – and stacks of fabric.
Your table seems then to have a secret feel to it – almost like you shouldn’t be eating where you are. With the creative, modern cooking coming out of the kitchen and the industrial setting it also feels totally cool, and (dare we say it) like the kind of place certain people are going to love displaying all over their Instagram.
Final Thoughts
SlowBurn is a unique place on the counts of both setting and food. Even without the hip industrial backdrop, this meal would be one to write home about. The fact that you’re eating it in a factory only seems to make the place stick in your memory more firmly.
And trust us, you’ll find it hard to forget about this one.
SlowBurn – Practical Information and Map
Price: ££
Address: 114b Blackhorse Ln, London E17 6AA
Map
Review 4 / 5
SlowBurn - The Full Review
Dining At: Slow Burn - The Full Review
SlowBurn is a unique place on the counts of both setting and food. Even without the hip industrial backdrop, this meal would be one to write home about. The fact that you’re eating it in a factory only seems to make the place stick in your memory more firmly. And trust us, you’ll find it hard to forget about this one.
