One Big Six of One
The Cypriot Sam Allardyce, Big John’s Biltong Bar, battered chicken burgers and more great restaurants to try across London this weekend.
Hello and welcome back to Vittles Restaurants.
Six of One is a column dedicated to London restaurant recommendations. In each issue, six writers will share a restaurant, bakery, cafe or takeaway spot that they believe deserves to be better known. You can find the full Six of One back catalogue here.
As you may have also seen on Wednesday this week, we announced the new Vittles Restaurants mentorship. It is open to all first-time or early career restaurant writers from global majority and/or working-class backgrounds based in London. To find out more about the scheme as well as how to apply here.
Today’s Six of One recommendations are from Yanyu Sun, Jonathan Nunn, Kelly Pochyba, Gavin Cleaver, Rohan Jones and Zayneb Al Asaadi.
To read all the recommendations, as well as the back catalogue, please subscribe below.
1. Big John’s Biltong Bar
After living in the UK for almost three years, I’ve learned that people love meeting up for pints of beer before they eat – and sometimes at the end of the night, beer and snacks end up replacing dinner. As I slowly adopted this habit, I’ve established my preference on snacks, which have to be packed with flavour. Recently, I discovered the pairing of spicy biltong with a pint of lager at Big John’s Biltong Bar in Deptford, where the heat and saltiness of the dried meat counters well with the malty and bitter flavour of the beer. What’s more, Big John’s also offers free crisps with drinks, which is rare to find in London.
Ever since my friend Emily took me there, my curiosity towards the bar and its food has motivated me to go back. Visiting Big John’s is like entering a quirky home: there are different styles of wooden tables and chairs, ink drawings of the old River Thames, beer coasters on the wall and collected objects which each have no intention to match, but collectively and shambolically work perfectly together. Beneath these decorations, tables are arranged in rows, with the chairs placed back to back against each other, which means you are always likely to end up chatting with the table next to you – especially if you are with a chatty friend like Emily. As she began to show me some of her newer drawings, at the table behind us a group of older artists joined our conversation soon after.
Although it’s on Deptford High Street, Big John appears hidden and tucked away with a missing shop-front sign and hand-scrawled red letters on its windows. At night, the high street has an atmosphere similar to Ridley Road Market in Dalston: empty, but you feel the legacy of liveliness left behind by the market that runs during the day. As I leave the bar, I look forward to my next visit to Big John’s and wonder who we might meet. I am also excited to try the biltong covered in spices like pepper, coriander and chillies while sipping on an ice-cold beer. Yanyu Sun
29 Deptford High St, SE8 4AD
Below the paywall: A phenomenal chip shop chicken burger (battered, not crumbed), a significant piece of souvla news from Palmers Green, more excellent báhn mì, a very good value West London Thai local, and a Sudanese ‘certified banger’ in Acton.
