The Dairy Bar & Bistro (Clapham)

• All the ingredients are in place (attractive parkside location
• Trinity aside (which has never been my favourite place but is at least trying)
• Every licensed establishment within spitting distance of the tube station is either a godawful loud chain in the All Bar One mold
• The meal I and a friend enjoyed on Saturday lunchtime showcased what is surely some of the very best food in the whole city
• Fresh dill and summer vegetables combined with sweet cured smoked salmon
• The real surprise here was something called 'smoked bone marrow butter'
• I don't know whether this was just the wrong side of too smokey
• It was refreshing and invigorating and with a flavour profile so heavenly I couldn't imagine any peas and celery and mint tasting any better anywhere
• Even at the Ledbury who have been playing with textures in this style for a while (and where
• Smoked cod with heritage tomatoes was
• What did go down well though was a little bundle of cavolo nero which tasted like something plucked from the garden of Eden
• A little pre dessert of light yoghurty mousse of some sort with sweet celery sorbet (I'm struggling because it's not on the menu
• The very generous matching wines were really kicking in by this point) brought us back to summer though
• Final proper course was strawberries with vanilla whey and rolled oats
• I'd be tempted to conclude that the Dairy's strengths lie in savoury courses particularly vegetables were it not for a completely extraordinary set of petits fours that followed
• It turns out they have never had anything to do with the place) they are just a couple of bits of cold fruit jelly in a tin lined with cocoa nibs
• Ingredients that make you wonder why we were ever jealous of Spain or Italy or France
• It seems churlish to point out that in terms of seating you are given a not particularly appealing choice between the cave like rear (dark and hot) and the high school stools near the front (lighter
• All you really need to know is that if you have even the most passing interest in finding out what the very best local culinary talent is doing right now
• D like to think the reason these restaurants have not invested in mounds of PR (or very little) is because they are confident that their food is
• All the ingredients used at the dairy are sourced either locally or from companies who are known for their quality a complete list of these companies are shown on their website
• They must have expert hands because the herbs we had with our meal were incredible bright
• 40 (on the website) but was actually £
• At this price it is still extremely competitive
• Cool and edgy (much like the hip middle class parents that parade it) though these are the locals descriptors
• Customers here are very demanding as to what i could see
• They've obviously taken this seriously as instead service is now very attentive and hate to say it
• The waiter was constantly hanging around the table (looking very hip of course)
• Even the house options aren't your run of the mill but reds arrived with age and white with complexity
• We started with bread excellent bread
• The loaf was ready to tear between us and top with the best accompaniments i have had in some while now so refreshing
• The Dairy in Clapham Common is a really really good restaurant right next to the park and station
• The concept here is all about sharing
• The first course consists of crab and home baked sourdough with marrow butter and chicken pate
• The next course was a garden in a plate
• Minty and hint of acidic that was just right
• The smoked haddock with heirloom tomatos
• Smokey haddock went well with the tomatos and cream cheese and the texture and salty note from the crispy bits puts it to the other level
• The venison lost its strong scent which was nice and super tender
• The hazlenut puree and blackberry and pickled beets really were a great combination of sweet
• To end we got a two course dessert of apple granita and ice cream with Dairy&rsquo
• Chewy and sweet meringue with nutty slightly salty crumble and the fresh wild berries add that smooth fragrant and aroma plus its usual flavours really goes down well
• The Dairy for me is a wonderful restaurant
• The food is great and the menu really is light and refreshing
• Robin Gill is the head chef
• The restaurant name is due to its setting in what was once a dairy
• The narrow dining room is simply decorated
• Format so popular these days with London restaurateurs
• A seven course tasting menu was available at £
• Examples of the wines were Gran Cerdo Usabiaga 2011 at £
• A nibble of gazpacho was very pleasant
• Potted salmon with Guinness soda bread had reasonable salmon flavour and quite light soda bread (13/20)
• Crab with sweetcorn and fresh hazelnut was a good combination
• Chicken liver mousse was served in a little jar with blood nectarine and apple
• The intensity of the mousse was impressive
• Mint ice cream and fried bread was a successful dish
• Apple wood smoked eel was served with bacon
• The bacon working nicely with this (14/20)
• Coca beans with slow cooked egg yolk featured tender beans and good quality Scottish girolles (14/20)
• Beef short ribs were slow cooked and very tender
• Even on a mid week August evening it was packed out
• So when my friend Jennie heard about the Dairy through the Irish bush telegraph (Jennie went to school with owner/front of house wonderwoman Sarah Gill in Dublin)
• The interior is unassuming
• So the photos are even worse than my usually poor standard of photography
• (More pics are also on my review on http
• The soda bread comes in a little sack (I'm thinking gimmick here) but that thought is swiftly demolished when the butter arrives
• Shur it's just butter you say but this one is mixed with bone marrow
• So we kick off with the Venison Scotch Egg
• Wouldn't have been my first choice as I typically associate scotch eggs (unjustly it seems) with dry meat and dry egg
• The oat granola (another oddity) that comes with the rooftop carrots (so called because they grow on the roof
• Yorkshire venison with cocoa and Irish onglet
• The Yorkshire venison with chocolate stole the show for me
• The Venison as they were both built along the same lines but the venison was far superior
• The chicken skin was good but I'm still thinking about the venison
• The chocolate sauce was cocoa y and somehow complemented the meat beautifully
• By now I'm so full that even speaking is becoming a chore
• The clementine and brown butter ice cream was fresh and frothy and cleared the over eating cobwebs but the Jerusalem artichokes &
• The salted caramel with barley ice cream was great but just too rich for us to do it justice
• The doughnuts were hot with crispy sugar and the jellies were well
• There is Trinity recognised as a high end neighbourhood establishment doing great things with seasonal produce it&rsquo
• The Rapscallion has served me a very good duck confit with puy lentils and pomegranate before
• Down the high street for couples with a carton of Waitrose wine for the common wearing matching Havaianas
• In March (please don't) a place with Dualit toasters on each table where you pay for the privilege of browning your own bread
• S put Clapham firmly on the culinary map with one of those flag pins you stick in a cork board print of the world to proudly display that you&rsquo
• They were never the tasting menus and they were never with wine
• The environment is that of conviviality and rustic charm seating straight out of a 60&rsquo
• The crockery is a shabby chic mix of pretty porcelain
• The front half is occupied by bars and stools for off the cuff visits (if there&rsquo
• S space) and free wheeling ordering expect to fidget as the seats are not the most ergonomic
• House lardo with spring white truffle
• Several shades of earthy carrot slithers grown in the roof garden came with aerated buttermilk
• Bread was broken over the table with the assistance of a knife a mound of hot from the oven sourdough the breached crust bellowing puffs of steam
• On this bread we alternated between the slathering of house butter whipped up with smoked bone marrow
• Leave me alone with this scene for the remainder of the evening and I would have left just as happy
• The unrivalled savoury pleasure unique to crisped fat was found in the hunks of fried chicken skin with a still soft layer beneath
• Then there was a compact package of well cooked seabass
• Followed by a Pollock esque arrangement of smoked cod with glossy mashed potato
• The 32 day aged Irish onglet with firm cubes of squash and black cabbage had flirted with heat so momentarily that beyond the outermost half millimetre
• If the cutlery was adequate enough to tackle this
• With nothing sharper in the vicinity than a curved butter knife with no hint of serration (I did ask)
• I used the tools I was given to tear the meat apart into manageable chunks
• A clementine segment sporting char from a lick of flames along with a wonderful neutral brown butter ice cream and puffed up rice (like less sweet Sugar Puffs) was really very good
• Cacao and malted barley parfait was better a dark and rich consortium of all things chocolate should be on a plate
• A vintage tin housing still warm doughnut balls dredged with hibiscus spiked sugar
• 45 will in fact get you ten separate and perfectly portioned plates of food (including petit fours and other throw ins received with much enthusiasm)
• I am yet to find elsewhere in London with this sort of price point in exchange for the same finesse of kitchen skill
• I suspect your next is already on the cards
• It probably takes a little longer than 2 hours to work through so many dishes (particularly if the extra cheese course is ordered) and that needs to be taken into consideration
• I do think we were there for 2.5 hours though the perils of booking an early evening reservation
• They need cutlery with which meat can be cut
• Affordable tasting menus with no compromise on quality
• A trio of dehydrated potato crisps with sorrel emulsion appeared
• 45 tasting menu is also available
• The next freebie to arrive was a freshly baked loaf of moreish sourdough
• Snugly hiding in a warm hat (these are starting to crop up everywhere)
• We all started with the same Snack dish
• A tasty bowl of squid tagliatelle with pickled and fresh fennel
• My smoked hanger steak tartare with soft yolk and butternut squash was another success
• Dad The List possibly had the pick of the bunch with Rooftop beeswax custard
• Gariguette strawberries with toasted oats and Jersey milk ice cream was the least interesting
• A delightful box of petits fours arrived with warm hibiscus doughnuts
• Fingers crossed my next visit is with 9 people allergic to hibiscus
• Cute place with a very cosy
• A highlight of my week was their home baked bread roll
• Everything was beautifully seasoned and
• The music they were playing was incredibly loud
• Our waiter was very attentive
• All though there were many courses
• The interval between each was timed perfectly
• Good meals with a small group of friends who appreciates something a little different
• I would say it is definitely good value compared to other restaurants of similar standard
• The Dairy Bar & Bistro (Clapham) is a average option for me
• The cocktails here are not quite consistent
• The portions are very tiny and therefore
• The food served is very fresh and well cooked
• If you are looking for a place to celebrate your birthday with your group of friends then The Dairy Bar & Bistro (Clapham) would definitely interest you
• The setting is like that from a 60's school
• The menu too is done like old times
• Lovely place to go to if you are looking for a change from the usual uptown restaurant
• I especially like the way the menu is divided into land
• I've been for both mid week dinner and Saturday lunch and they were equally brilliant
• The rustic wooden table is laid out with mismatched plates
• The lighting is comfortably dimmed
• Or if you would rather there is also a tasting menu
• The ordering was pretty easy we asked for one of almost everything and away we went
• The meal kicked off with a tasty pumpkin morsel and toasty warm sourdough buns served with lightly whipped
• As someone who eats with their eyes as much as their mouth
• I thought each dish was beautiful whoever&rsquo
• My highlights were the fluffy piles of Cornish crab sitting in a rich bisque
• That Yorkshire wood pigeon perfectly paired with celeriac and bitter leaves
• There was definitely room for a little extra aged Comte cheese with maple and thyme crackers were enjoyed on one side of the table
• Whilst the other side tucked into a devilishly good salted caramel with cacao crumb and malted barley ice cream
• Because one birthday meal is just not enough
• Situated in SW4 in Clapham which is somewhat out the way of the action of central London but within an easy half an hour tube ride
• It amazes me that Londoners in general seem to share a common trait which is that travelling even to the next postcode is a mammoth effort
• The Dairy is literally a minute from Clapham Common underground station and features a bar area with a narrow dining room
• Whilst deciding whether to order as many dishes from the menu as possible which was split between snacks
• Land and sweet or the 7 course tasting menu we were presented with an amuse of potato
• Not the most exciting as I had seen blogs with crispy oysters but the hot from the oven sourdough bread that followed with smoked bone marrow more than made up for it
• We settled on the a la carte as we were informed that we could order the eel from the tasting menu as
• Even if it was a few stops further down the northern line
• We opted for the 10 course tasting menu but if tasting menus are not your thing
• Dishes are scantily plated with a few morsels at a time
• In which case leaving the house without a pack is living dangerously)
• This meant dishes were not always announced
• One was missed out altogether but made up for with a dessert cocktail)
• Fresh curd and linseed granola was a beautifully example of how simple treatment can still result in a flavour sensation
• Skate with black garlic and monks beard a green I'd never heard of and which has a fresh and slightly bitter taste not to dissimilar to chard was pretty darn tasty
• Dill and crispy onion was another winner that combined never before tried flavours and a range of textures
• It is served with a scrumptiously smooth cultured cream and a sticky fennel jam which I scooped up with gay abandon
• The flavour of which is strangely refreshing and addictive
• I'm not a fan of tough fish like halibut or swordfish and the eel fell in line with these fish for me
• In fact I'd go as far as to say the palate cleanser was my favourite over and above the desserts themselves
• Tart rhubarb contrasting with fiery ginger and offset by sweet crunchy meringue
• What the Dairy is clever at doing
• In some ways the popularity it is currently enjoying
• Just don't expect to have deep meaningful conversations over dinner if you are there on weekends
• Staff were friendly and the venue is well lit with a good atmosphere
• Food is truly excellent however main portions are really small so be prepared to order 4 between 2 of you
• 60 a head for all the food and drink you can muster and four of the 36 seats are available to members of the public
• Chef Robin Gill has an impressive CV with stints at Le Manoir aux Quat&rsquo
• The restaurant has received plenty of positive reviews and is very popular with the locals
• M sure is as good as it was when I was there
• London has no shortage of areas that are a marvel to wonder around yet have been completely neglected by its inhabitants who seem to only know of Soho and other zone 1 areas &ndash
• The plates are made for sharing so it's best to go with a few people so you can sample more of the food
• We went with their recommendations and was it was salivating
• The food was good but service was incredibly disjointed and we had multiple waiters serving us
• Dispute emailing and calling to confirm it was a special dinner and could we have a nice table
• After 2 hours asked we move tables I was confused but agreed
• We got moved to the front door bar area and our food bought with us as we were told our allocated time was now up
• We had to sit with our coats on because everyone kept walking out the front door and leaving the door open
• As it was a set menu and we were being punished for something out of our hands
• I have since contacted The Dairy management 3 x over email to explain how disappointed and upset we both were after paying just shy of £
• 200 that we were treated so badly
• T on my radar but luckily I was introduced to it by another foodie friend
• The ambience is lacking decoration
• The service was slow but friendly

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