Shane’s on Chatsworth

I went with a friend and my sister. My sister dines out A LOT asks a lot of questions about the food and wine and ended up sending a bottle back. A lot of things went wrong and we both received starters instead of mains. The mains and starter had similar ingrediants but instead of a warm main pigeon I got a cold pigeon pâté. It was after 22.00 and we considered just eating it but instead asked for it to be corrected. I’m glad we did as all three dishes tasted great, by far the best meal I’ve had in Hackney for years and the wine was great.
The place has a nice décor, nothing extravagant or fussy but just really toned down and cosy.
I always check how clean a place is before ordering and even though I can’t go into the kitchen I do check food hygien rating with the council. So it wasn’t very pleasant when I walked past Shanes this week to see a staff member flat ironing her hair in the restaurant above the set tables, 30 min before the restaurant is to open for dinner. Walked past 10 minutes later and she is brushing her hair standing next to a kitted out table! I mean how gross is that?! She even had a little desk with all her hair appliances, brushes etc as if it was a hairdresser. No need to say we cancelled our reservation for that weekend. 4 star for food, would have been 5 if the service wasn’t so patchy. This makes it very difficult as I’m now worried about the hygien and don’t feel I can go back.

Me and my friend were going to try Eat 17 above the Sparr, but instead chose this place as it was closer to her house and we were a bit too cold and drunk to walk the extra 5 minutes down Chatsworth Road. It was a good choice. First off the place is small, so I can imagine that if you visit on a weekend then you’ll probably have to wait fucking ages for a table. A Tuesday evening around 9pm wasn’t a problem to get a table, but it was still fairly busy which I can only assume means that this place is hot shit and on the tip of many gastronomical tongues. The atmosphere was mellow and the ambience was nice. It made my brain scream to me «I need to drink as much good quality red wine as I can, and as soon as possible», so with that we ordered a carafe of the wine of the day. Now you’ll have to forgive me here because I can’t quite remember what sort of wine it was exactly, but it was full bodied and smelt of blackberries — very nice. I enjoyed sloshing it around my glass and putting my nose in for a good sniff, giving the impression I knew EXACTLY what I was doing. The menu was fairly simple and didn’t really reveal too many surprises. The appearance of things like beef rib with mash, panfried hake, goats cheese and spinach parcel and venison, suggested that this place wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel but keep things fairly simple whilst giving an impression that everything was of decent quality. Apart from «hogget shoulder & hogget heart» which I have to admit left me completely lost, having to resort to a post-​meal Google search in order to find out what it was exactly. We both went for the steak and fries, plus a side of parsnip crisps which we requested as a starter because the steaks apparently took 20 mins to prepare and we were fucking hungry. The crisps were interesting — they were shaped more like ribbons than traditional crisps so didn’t make for very elegant eating, but quite tasty (lightly salted) and moorish all the same. They also looked a bit like pot pourri but smelt and tasted far superior to what I imagine a bowl of dried and fragrant plant material to be like. The steaks arrived and looked like they were cooked to how we asked — mine medium rare and my friend’s with ‘as much blood as possible’. It was like a fillet steak, but sliced so didn’t give the perception that you were eating a heavy piece of meat which I fully appreciated. The Fries were classic, crispy and thin in a French style. I kept dipping them in the Bernaise sauce which I understand may be a bit uncouth as its purpose is to compliment the meat, but after three pints and two carafes of wine I could not give a fuck quite frankly. There was also a salad. A light salad, comprised of rocket, fennel and capers. Dressed modestly. I enjoyed this immensely, though ate it like a wild animal with rocket springing out of my mouth. The bill was reasonable too. I look forward to returning again and engaging with this place whilst not in beast mode; exploring the menu a little more and trying a different wine maybe. Respect.

It is a travesty that this is the first review for this place.
The quiet casual demeanour of Shane’s hides a masterful menu. The décor is casual: benches and chairs, older furniture and light fittings made of clothes pegs (which I thought was a delightfully subtle touch).
I had the duck egg, bacon, sausage and toast with a flat white and although the dish was simple, the food itself was incredible. That sausage — fat, juicy — was an unexpected delight in a country that sometimes tends to phone that part of the dish in.
I was so impressed that I decided to stay longer and order another dish. I ordered the whitebait with wild garlic pesto; something to snack on while reading. It was delicious and tender and just the right amount of fishy.
What came as no surprise to me is that this place is run by a Kiwi (New Zealander). Antipodeans just know how to run a great casual restaurant and this place fails to disappoint.