Nest | Seasonal British small plates in an elegant Shoreditch space
The team behind Nest have flown south.
That is to say, the folks behind one of Hackney’s best restaurants have migrated to newer, bigger, and better digs in Shoreditch.
For a place named ‘Nest’, the restaurant ironically received very little stick while in its original location. In fact, the only real criticism levelled at it was that it was teeny tiny, with just seven tables. Critics fawned over their elegant & inventive British small plates though, with menus all build around a single seasonal ingredient or theme. The team even opened their own followup restaurant – St Barts – and won it a Michelin Star within 5 months of opening.
Nest’s new home sits right next to the grand old Shoreditch Town Hall, in an old-school red brick Victorian building. It’s all framed around a huge horseshoe counter, with a wine & cocktail bar at one end arcing over to an open kitchen at the other end, all clasped around the cosy little candlelit dining area in the centre. Thus, on either side of you there are drinks being shaken and chefs meticulously putting together the menu.
Speaking of which, at lunchtime it’s all a la carte. But at dinner? It’s a set-menu only affair, meaning you get the menu delivered to you in a brown envelope sealed in wax. You can either choose to tear it open and find out what you’re having, or just wait to be surprised with course after course of creative goodness.
The starting lineup of dishes is centred around game birds, meaning you can expect the likes of a ravishingly rich grouse tea; some dark soda bread with cultured butter; roast Yorkshire grouse with pressed potato & watercress; and a buttery Bakewell tart with meadowsweet. Following on, you’ll find beef season starting in November and seafood in the new year.
The wine also sticks to the whole one-at-a-time theme, with ‘one-region’ pairing (of four glasses, incl. something sparkling, red, white, and sweet) to offer unknown bottles from the same territory, kicking off with a lineup of wines from Austria for the opening game season…
…and we’re pretty game for that.
PREVIOUS PERK: Nudge Members got 50% off for 2 weeks for the relaunch of Nest.
NOTE: Nest is open now, Wednesday to Saturday. You can find out more, and book a table, right here.
Nest | 374-378 Old Street, EC1V 9LT
Who do they have for company? Just some of these excellent Shoreditch restaurants…