Denim n Dine, Pedro Passinhas Pop Up

On Thursday evening I went to a pop up dinner at Blackhorse Atelier, Walthamstow. It is a pop up run by Pedro Passinhas who has worked at The Fat Duck and La Gavroche.

It is in a factory building close to Blackhorse Road tube station, so we had dinner surrounded by sewing machines and rolls of denim, hence the name.

The kitchen was off to one side so you could see the chefs preparing the dishes as we ate.

We were welcomed with a cocktail. The we sat down at a communal table for the first course, Pain D'epices with local Walthamstow honey butter. This was delicious.

Then came Prawn with Dulce Seaweed and Peas, the prawns had been flattened out into a kind of dumpling skin and the crispy seaweed was the perfect complimentary texture.

We then had Carrot Bark with Stracciatella and Pistacio. This again was a lovely combination of textures and flavours. Stracciatella is the creamy middle bit of buffalo mozzarella and was just sublime.

The final main course was, I think, my favourite. Squid Tagliatelle with Ceps and Nougatine. So there was no pasta involved, the squid had been cut into thin strips to form the tagliatelle. This was served with crunchy quinoa, which again was just the perfect texture to go with the soft squid and mushrooms. Sublime.

We then had a pre-dessert. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Jelly, Goat's Cheese and White Chocolate rolled in Hazlenuts and then Honey Water over a kind of Creme Caramel.

The last course was Almond Vanilla Rice Pudding with Cardamom Ice Cream and a Coconut and Rum Sauce. Now, I don't like rice pudding, it reminds me too much of schools dinners and its a texture that I just can't get on with and this didn't convert me. Having said that the cardamom ice cream was really good. I loved the flavour of that.

All in all this was a lovely decadent meal. I don't often have haute cuisine and it was lovely to be treated, the squid was just out of this world, and the simpleness of the bread and honey butter to start was fantastic. The waitress was really friendly and personable which helped the experience and as the menu changes with the seasons I may well take a trip back in the Autumn. I would definitely recommend you take those 4 stops north of Highbury and Islington and try out Denim n Dine, which is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and is BYOB.