Six of One: Finally, Good Tamales in London
Plus five other places to try in the capital this warm weekend.
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.
Today’s recommendations are from Hester van Hensbergen, Jonathan Nunn, Samir Jeraj, Toyo Odetunde, Kelly Pochyba and Gavin Cleaver.
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1. Rheidol Rooms
When I am old, slightly shrunken and wearing my winter coat deep into spring, I hope there will still be those strange and lovely April days where the solar warmth seeps through your thick clothes like a hot water bottle, then drains swiftly to a back-hunching chill in the shade, so you end up following shafts of light back and forth across the street obsessively. I hope, too, that I’ll still be able to get on the bus and walk to a place like the Rheidol Rooms to meet an old colleague for lunch. Spring is the Islington café’s season, with its grassy-stripped canopy, egg-yolk formica tables announcing the end of the winter sun and the yellow and sugary pink glassware promising future days at the beach.
Though Rheidol Rooms, which opened around the time of the Second World War, isn’t in the East End, it still feels like a window to it: there are bagels from Brick Lane and Italian references line the windows, from moka pots of various sizes and wicker-wrapped wine bottles to a single dusty bag of pasta. The terrace that houses the café was built in the mid-19th century, at the same time as a wave of Italian immigration to the area. If the Italian aesthetic dominates the décor, though, it’s hardly reflected in the menu. Once you move beyond the selection of things that go with baked beans and a couple of pasta dishes, there’s a more explicitly European Jewish influence: alongside the bagels, there's salt beef and pickles, smoked fish and chicken noodle soup. Of the things I’ve eaten here lately, my favourite is the fantastically unwieldy fish finger sandwich, with mighty bronzed cod and sprightly tartare, plus a side of crumpled rocket that’s so limp and assured of its own irrelevance you can’t help but grin. I recommend using big hungry hands and inhaling it all gracelessly quickly if you want to stop it from ending up deconstructed and back on your plate. Hester van Hensbergen
16 Rheidol Terrace, N1 8NS
Below the paywall: Jonathan Nunn on a great London tamal and the world’s most phenomenal first date, Samir Jeraj on a famous biryani, Toyo Odetunde on Afro-Caribbean fusion, Kelly Pochyba on Greek yeeros for summer weather and Gavin Cleaver on jerk in Deptford.
