Bianca’s is a new, casual restaurant from the team behind Casa Fofò.
And if you’ve ever been to Casa Fofò, that’s very welcome news – because while their Michelin-Starred tasting menu is both lovely and (by Michelin standards) weirdly affordable, sometimes you just don’t want to drop £73 to be reminded what a turnip can really do.
So, head up Stoke Newington Road and look for the corner spot just south of Sonora Taquería and north of Corrochio’s. The whole place has the clean, comfortable geometry of a minimalist’s daydream: thanks to the high ceilings, it’s essentially one large cube, neatly bisected by a bar, with an open kitchen on one side and a few tightly arranged tables on the other. You could walk across it in five steps. Six if you’re trying not to interrupt someone’s date.
Thus, there’s no team of a dozen waiters – they’re a small outfit, and you’ll hear them giggle and chatter to one another, and occasionally steal a sip of wine, and then some over to talk you through the menu without patronising you. And that menu is short, in that pleasingly self-assured way that tells you the chef didn’t want to pad it out with filler.
So, as they’ll likely recommend, you should absolutely start off with the house bread. It’s such a useful yardstick for restaurant quality, simply because everyone does it, and this yardstick is bloody delicious – it’s got that malty, almost-bitter crust and a pillow-soft, cloud-like interior that make you wish you could buy a loaf. From there, they’ll likely steer you towards the ‘sprouting broccoli with pumpkin seeds’, and it might just be the best thing they do. It’s a beautiful circle of vegetables drenched in a vibrant green sauce that somehow makes broccoli seem decadent.
After that, main courses include a deeply rich Tamworth pork loin with a mustard sauce you’ll want to lick off the plate (and might), although it does come with large wedges of pork fat clinging to the meat. But save a spot on the ol’ appetite for dessert, because they do hazelnut & shiitake mushroom mille-feuille, which looks absolutely nothing like a mille-feuille and tastes like someone’s figured out how to turn umami into a pudding. Served in a bowl, topped with a soft drift of sweet foam, it’s the kind of thing that makes you rethink pastry.
It genuinely shows what a mille-feuille can really do. And it doesn’t cost £73 to find out.
NOTE: Bianca’s is open now, Wednesday to Saturday. You can find out more, and make a booking at the Bianca’s website.
Bianca’s | 175 Stoke Newington Rd, N16 8BP
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