London Food & Culture

MUST DO: Scotch eggs at the Hawley Arms

They're cheap and moreish. Sod whatever it is you've given up in January and get your lips round one of these instead

The best the author's tried in all his 20 years. Photo: Brendan Hodrien
The best the author’s tried in all his 20 years. Photo: Brendan Hodrien

If, during the sales, you find yourself battling the tourist throngs making a beeline for Camden Market, then you’ll be yards away from The Hawley Arms, tucked away on Castlehaven Road by the canalside redevelopment.

The traditional pub serves one of the best Sunday lunches in the capital, dishing up ethically sourced plates with gargantuan portions. I first sampled their roast beef on a sunny afternoon back in March and – as delicious as it is – I still haven’t gotten round to finishing it. Let’s just say they leave you well fed.

For me, the Hawley is a pilgrimage that I will make wherever I find myself living in London; that’s down to their signature bar snack, the Scotch egg (£4).

I like to consider myself a connoisseur of the highland cholesterol-clogger, bravely going out of my way to sample a new attempt wherever I can. I can confidently say that the Hawley Arms have achieved the best Scotch egg I have ever sampled in all my…20 years. (I still can’t work out if that sounds like a long time or not.)


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Their breadcrumb crust has a thoughtful amount of crunch without making the shell overly dry or overpowering the texture of the egg, the sausage meat has a fantastic delicacy to it and is spotted with black pudding throughout to compound the softness of the shell; while the egg itself is a triumph, prepared with precision, the yolk neither cooked through nor runny, leaving it in the nirvana of gooey yolk.

In short, the three elements have combined beautifully here to create a bar snack that is worth a journey to sample – be it from King’s Cross, Clapham or Timbuktu.

The Hawley Arms is open daily at 2 Castlehaven Road NW1

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