Plaquemine Lock, London: ‘celebration of Louisiana’ restaurant review

Jacob Kenedy has written a love letter to Cajun and Creole cookery from a pub in Islington

Plaquemine Lock, 139 Graham Street, London N1 8LB (020 7688 1488). Meal for two, including drinks and service: £40 to £90

Plaquemine Lock is that dangerous love affair you warn your best friend to avoid. Leave it, mate. They’re not worth it. It will only end in heartbreak and, this being a lousy metaphor for restaurant failure, debt. But Jacob Kenedy will not be told. The chef renowned for his gutsy Italian cooking at Soho’s Bocca di Lupo has chosen to take over a north London pub and turn it into a celebration of the food of the Louisiana basin. Because on a hot summer’s day, with the smell of diesel rising off the foetid waters of the nearby Regent’s Canal, Islington is exactly like New Orleans. Kinda.

Crayfish are offered by the pound, with potatoes and corn on the cob. They are boiled and spiced and impressive