Union Street Café - restaurant review

A café this isn’t, nor even a trattoria, but an ambitious ristorante in street disguise, says David Sexton
17 October 2013

So this is the joint that Gordon Ramsay was going to open with David Beckham as an investor, prompting such high excitement. Earlier this year, Ramsay was publicly welcoming Beckham as a partner and the antique footballer was snapped visiting the site. A few weeks ago, however, Becks withdrew. It is now rumoured that he and Ramsay intend instead to launch a chain of pie and mash shops together and to this end have copyrighted the fascinating initials “PM”.

No matter. The glamour of the association worked anyway. The Union Street Café tweeted last week that before opening it had already booked “a massive 10,887 covers”, an astonishing result for a place that had remained closely under wraps until now, being Ramsay’s first opening in London since Bread Street Kitchen in 2011, since when he has lived in interesting times, to say the least.

Located on the uninspiring crossing of Union Street and Great Suffolk Street, a few hundred yards south of Southwark Tube, Union Street Café describes itself on its website as “an urban warehouse destination”. What that seems to mean is that it’s on the ground and basement levels of a concrete industrial building which has been carefully not over-adapted by the ubiquitous designer Russell Sage (Grain Store, Tanner & Co down the road). The floor is cement with worn paint; the big concrete pillars haven’t been repainted either; the overhead cabling and ducts are all left showing, Pompidou Centre-style.

Within this large floor-space, the tables felt a bit randomly set, even though they have opted for consistent new designer furniture rather than the eclectic mix of salvaged stuff often used in such places to make it seem spontaneous. On the other hand, working that supposed café vibe, the tables are all left bare, without cloths.

That only emphasises the peculiar mismatch between the food and the ambience. For the head chef here, Davide Degiovanni, is delivering not the vaguely “Mediterranean-inspired” food promised but high, classical North Italian cooking, proudly presented as such on the mainly untranslated menu (you may have no problem with saltimbocca di vitello but do you know what scorfano croccante might be?). Degiovanni has previously worked in hotels such as Baglioni and Four Seasons and what he is serving here would be fully appropriate to such luxury venues, making it a bargain at the moderate prices currently being charged, as well as a bizarre contrast to the almost garagey surroundings.

From the antipasti, Sardinian artichokes & pecorino (£6) were simple enough: warm, carefully prepared veg, soused in good oil, with olives and cheese. Crudo of stone bass, salsa verde & chilli (£7) was excellent: thin raw slices of this unusual and delicious fish (also called Atlantic wreckfish) with a refined green herb and oil sauce and lots of red flecks of chilli that, however, mercifully had almost no heat to spoil the delicate taste.

From the primi, a shared small dish of tagliolini, rabbit & provolone (£9, £13 as a main course) was the best thing we ate: good fresh pasta served with big chunks of tasty farmed rabbit in an intense, highly reduced sauce needing no extra cheese.

From the secondi, however, Polpo, braised borlotti & spicy Calabrian sausage (£15) wasn’t enjoyable, the beans, though fresh, being overwhelmed by the harshly peppery and salty sausage that had dissolved into them, the octopus bland.

Much better was collo d’agnello, wild mushrooms and polenta (£15), the fatty cut of neck of lamb long cooked, to become soft, melting shreds, served with girolles and incredibly rich polenta, not only crusted with parmesan but also with plenty of taleggio melted in.

From the Formaggi & Dolci, we tried only the semifreddo all’arancia & chocolate (£6), crazily creamy and sweet, tasting frankly of marmalade, when, by this point in the meal, overloaded with fish, meat, oil and cheese, what we would have liked would have been fresh fruit or even, nowhere conceded on this formidable menu, a simple salad.

You could, with restraint, eat less excessively and quite cheaply here at the moment. On the menu, which changes daily, there was lasagne tradizionale, which would undoubtedly be very correctly prepared, for £12, for example. Pleasant house wines (a Fiano from Puglia, a merlot from the Veneto) begin at £4.75 a glass and there’s a long, intriguing, mainly Italian list.

So Ramsay has given Degiovanni full rein: a café this isn’t, or even a trattoria, but an ambitious ristorante in street disguise. Borough certainly is changing. Scorfano, by the way, is red scorpionfish, possibly a bit of a newcomer to the area too.

47-51 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 (020 7592 7977 0BS, gordonramsay.com/unionstreetcafe). Mon-Fri 12pm-3pm, 6pm-11pm. Sat-Sun 12pm-4pm, 6pm-11pm. Around £100-£120 for two

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