‘This is all about the joys of letting good food speak for itself’
On one of the only sweltering days of this dismal summer, thoughts turn to chilled rosé and sweet, sweet seafood. Sadly, we’re not on the ozone-licked beaches of Whitstable or Whitby, but in the sweating heart of the city. And it’s fair to say that gritty old St Paul’s Road in Highbury, north London, isn’t offering the sunsets-kissing-the-waves environment I’m hankering after.
But this is where we find Prawn On The Lawn, and inside this cool, tiled and blackboarded little temple to the piscine, you could close your eyes and swear it’s the ocean you’re hearing, rather than the rumble of traffic trundling past the Sainsbury’s opposite. This is all about the joys of letting good ingredients speak for themselves: the small open kitchen does very little to the sea creatures piled on the ice-lined counter – in addition to being a restaurant, it’s a fully-functioning fishmonger – other than applying heat and the odd, frequently Asian-style aromatic. And sometimes it just does nothing at all: why faff with oysters this briny and pristine? Nothing much is allowed to distract from the sinking of teeth into the freshest possible fish: simple, almost primeval pleasure.
Related: Rick Stein, Sandbanks: ‘I’m not buying it’ – restaurant review
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