The Exale brewery taproom is now home to food that, perhaps ironically, you’ll want to inhale.
Because fresh from a stellar year-long residency at The Montpelier pub in Peckham, the folks at Whole Beast have now set up shop there to supply the menu there. For those who don’t know them, Whole Beast is a live-fire-cooking concept intertwined with nose-to-tail dining. Founders Sam and Alicja Bryant (who also ran the now-closed Coal Rooms in Peckham Rye station) have been grilling their way around London’s pop-up scene for a few years now, testing the waters while filling bellies – and scoring a rave review from Jay Rayner along the way.
The Bryants serve up a highly comforting, highly nap-inducing menu where they enhance flavour to its highest degree through flame, smoke, embers and ash, while trying to make as much in-house as possible – including the sausages, the bread, the hot sauces and more. And of course, the nose-to-tail ethos means that every carcass that comes into the kitchen is treated with the utmost respect: every part finds its way, if not onto the grill, then into charcuterie, cooking fats, or preserved for future use in some way.
Frequently hailed as one of the best burgers in London – and newly crowned best in the UK just this year – Whole Beast’s award-winning aged cheeseburger rightfully steals a lot of the limelight. The lacy-edged smashed patty sits between molten cheese and a slick of tangy house-made burger sauce. The construction is simplicity itself, with a depth of flavour that’s intensely satisfying.
But really, you’ll also want to order the green chorizo tacos; the smoked potatoes with massaman curry & green sauce; and the outrageous deep fried smoked ox cheek & scamorza pot pie, which sounds like it was created by a comfort food random generator, and tastes just as good.
To cap off, there’s some real dopamine desserts on offer in the form of two ice cream sandwiches – a bourbon biscuit & malt parfait number, and one made with corn & cashew ‘ice cream’ that’s entirely vegan. In fact, believe it or not, you can have a hearty & entirely vegan meal here.
Oh, and the cherry on top is that, lest we forget, this is all a brewery taproom. So the drinks aren’t terrible.
NOTE: Whole Beast will be in resridence at the Exale taproom for the forseeable – you can book at the Exale website.
Exale | Unit 2C Uplands Business Park, E17 5QJ
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