Restaurants

By Jenni Muir

Forget the fair-to-middling cafés around Swains Lane – the south-eastern side of Hampstead Heath at last has a genuine destination for seriously good, yet informal, cooking.

The new version of the Bull & Last is run by the team behind the admirable Prince of Wales in Putney. A prime destination for a pint after shopping at the new Saturday farmers’ market opposite, it offers a good range of draught ales that includes Spitfire, Cocker Hoop pale ale from the Lake District and Hooky Bitter – a guest ale
so popular they’ve decided to keep it on. One corner of the welcoming bar holds the fixings of a mighty Bloody Mary and a big pumpkin; while a blackboard above emphasises a concern for ingredient provenance, listing suppliers such as Mary Holbrook (for cheese, kid and British Lop pigs), Colchester Oyster fishery in East Mersea and Rushbury House Farm in Gloucestershire (a bull from here lasts a month, apparently).

We’ve visited the Bull & Last on several occasions since it reopened, and enjoyed hearty braised ox cheek with parsley risotto and roast marrow and cassoulet – the latter dish is for two officially, but, like all good cassoulets, it felt like it could feed the 5,000. Lighter options such as Cornish hake served with broad bean, shallot and potato salad showed judicious hands at work in the kitchen.

The own-made charcuterie is an impressive turn of rillettes and offally bits (duck liver parfait and more) and worth ordering to share – the fact is, all portion sizes are so huge that attempting a three-course meal here is almost futile. So we’ve still not managed to try the likes of buttermilk pudding with wild blackberries and shortbread, or caramelised bananas with rum-and-raisin ice cream. Yet even bar snacks – sausage roll with black pudding, Scotch eggs and for Saturday lunch a melting slab of croque monsieur or steak sandwich – are firmly in the gourmet bracket, and the fat triple-cooked chips could very well be the capital’s best.

Kids are welcome (children’s portions cost £6), as are dogs, who are offered bowls of water and pigs’ ears. Bookings are only taken for Friday and Saturday nights, Sunday lunch and groups of more than six people, but the revamped Bull & Last has proved so popular with Parliament Hill Fields locals (and their Bernese mountain dogs) that trying to secure your table, especially on Sundays, is the smart move.

Time Out Issue1992: October 23-29