Just a few minutes’ walk along the noisy Euston Road from King’s Cross is a W1 neighbourhood that many visitors – and locals – don’t even know exists. And yet the Warren Street area, including the eponymous thoroughfare itself, is an epicentre of new food openings, a chilled alternative to Soho: some of our favourites are Middle Eastern diner Honey & Co, esoteric wine bar The Remedy, and stylish bean merchants Tapped & Packed.
And so to the Smugglers Tavern, an 18th century sliver of a boozer owned by the Colonel Fawcett team, the award-winning Camden backstreet boozer that’s just off St Pancras Way. Step inside after work and it’s rammed, even on a freezing Wednesday in February: eight deep at the bar, it’s all local meeja bigwigs and braying twentysomethings in gangs.
That’s fine, of course. But don’t expect the upstairs – all high ceilings and Georgian windows – to be any less hectic either, although it’s arguably more suited to dining, without being that ghostly pub staple, the “upstairs dining room”.
With head chef Rupert Davis, who helped set up the Fawcett’s kitchen back in 2011, punters can rest assured that food is no afterthought. But before that, we sharpened our palates with two rum cocktails, the speciality of the house: an Old Fashioned oozed smokiness, tinged with citrus on account of orange bitters, while a Duppy was a zingy blend of two types of rum with Angostura, nutmeg and lime.
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We were invited to try the new menu, which this year has been rebooted, but still features a list of interesting burgers (like this mackerel tempura one). A starter of mushrooms with exploding crispy poached egg yielded the aniseedy warmth of tarragon, its toasted sourdough light as air. Salmon, meanwhile, cooked just opaque, had a chargrilled edge, and came armed with al dente sprouting broccoli, the bite of salsa verde and crispy capers sprinkled around the plate: moreish treats indeed.
The burger – made from superior Dexter beef, the smallest native breed in the UK – arrived juicily pink: the only thing we regretted was slicing it in two, as the shiny brioche lost its shape a little. This, we decided, is one to hold with both hands and devour whole. But dill pickles? Smoked cheddar? Mustard mayo? Tick. In fact, everything motored nicely between the bun to up that umami factor.
Our favourite dish, however – and perfect with the decent Malbec – was tender braised Hereford beef, chestnut mushroom and crunchy parsley crumb: pretty as a picture (see main image, above), the meat possessed a deep richness from being slow-cooked overnight, while the season’s ugliest root vegetable – celeriac – always makes the most velvety of purées. The whole lot was pooled by a moat of red wine jus: delicious. And just £11.
A recent Observer Food Monthly award for Best Sunday Lunch in the UK means that the Colonel Fawcett boys know how to please punters in a fairly top-end way – and at pretty competitive prices too for central London. So if you’re a fan of their flagship, make sure you give this newer place a whirl. And if, like us, you like to walk off your calories, why not do a starter at one this weekend, and a main at the other?
