Grace Dent reviews The Richmond in Hackney

Grace Dent has a shucking good time at The Richmond in Hackney
A welcome addition to Hackney: The Richmond made Grace Dent reconsider her ideas on raw food
Grace Dent9 April 2015

In the not terribly dim or distant past, announcing plans to open an oyster bar near Kingsland Road would have been a strong hint of one’s growing insanity. ‘And it shall have fancy cocktails and an oyster happy hour!’ one might have exclaimed as men in white coats crept towards one with an oversized butterfly net.

Not that oysters weren’t, at one point, a culinary mainstay for everyday East End folk. But that was circa 1850, and between then and the opening of neighbourhood restaurant The Richmond, residents of Hackney have been largely bereft of places to eat Portland pearls, Menai rocks, Cumbraes and Maldon Kumamotos, washed down with shots of tequila.

But now, from Monday to Friday between 5pm and 6pm, and 3pm-6pm on Saturdays, oysters at The Richmond are £1 a gobble, a swirl, or whatever verb you choose as you open your mouth like a Brabantia flip-top 120 litre bin and tip down something salty and delicious that, in all fairness, resembles a puddle of morose phlegm. I’m not a massive oyster enthusiast, but I certainly see why so many of my friends are. There’s an elegant, purposeful Japanese-tea-ceremony aspect to oyster scoffing, and if this is your bag, then The Richmond and its seriousness about seafood will delight.

It might almost make up for the disappearance of the gaspingly eccentric Pharaoh-themed restaurant LMNT, which has cruelly deprived Londoners of a place to eat cut-price saddle of rabbit between the feet of a sphynx. But worry not, as The Richmond has arrived with cocktails called things like Sage Against The Machine served by hirsute bartenders at a bar littered prettily with discarded oyster shells and a fine array of raw small plates to snack on.

A Bloody Mary oyster shooter at The Richmond

Dinner at The Richmond has made me rethink my ideas on raw food. I’m not averse to sashimis, carpaccios and the like, but so often restaurants make a huge honking fuss of their exquisite freshness, before presenting a meek, flavourless pile of flesh, to which the correct response, when faced with a tableside chef, is: ‘How delicious, it’s so, um, subtle!’ Translation: this tastes of bugger all. But we had an excellent seabass tartare in an insanely good oyster mayonnaise with fresh rye crackers, then shared a much fought-over tuna tartare on a gooey slick of aubergine, harissa and mint.

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1/10

The restaurant is a joint venture by the stylist Mags Crow — and the place was stylish, charming and brimming with beautiful sorts — and Brett Redman from Elliot’s Café by Borough Market. Elliot’s is one of those truly dependable bistros that I worry is overlooked by Londoners due to its location beside the freakishly popular market. For me, another strong signal of insanity is overhearing any real Londoner heading towards the Saturday free-for-all tourist scrum in order to pay £16 for a bunch of Heritage radishes. But when out-of-towners insist on Borough, I slink off to Elliot’s for a cup of coffee and a slice of something sweet and sticky.

Ndjua spiced seafood stew at The Richmond

Although it’s early days, The Richmond seemed of a similar persuasion. We ate small plates of rather perfect buttery crab on toasted English muffin with espelette pepper. So good, we ordered more, greedily, for the table, while still eating the first. Crispy prawns arrived in their edible shells, with a zingy lemon mayo. A large queen scallop appeared with fino butter. My main of monkfish with brown crab butter on gem lettuce was comforting and delicious.

A prettily presented piece of lemon sole was demolished by my friend, along with warmly received sides of cauliflower cheese and the sort of chips that cross majestically into roast potato territory. The Richmond is a welcome addition to Hackney. Come for happy hour, stay for dinner. But don’t eat all the crab muffins before I arrive. That would be truly, well, shellfish.

The Richmond

316 Queensbridge Road, E8 (020 7241 1638; therichmondhackney.com)

2 oysters £4

1 tuna tartare £9

1 seabass tartare £8

1 crispy prawns £9

2 crab £16

1 Queen scallops £9

1 monkfish £16

1 lemon sole £12

1 cauliflower cheese £4

1 chips £3.50

1 bottle of wine £27

TOTAL £117.50

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