REVIEW: VOC, Varnishers Yard, King’s Cross, London

The King’s Cross area is completely unrecognisable to how it was a few years back. The whole station has been redeveloped. Fried chicken shops are being replaced by trendy restaurants, along with luxury hotels popping up and a wealth of cocktails & wine bars have opened their doors. VOC, located in the gorgeous Varnishers Yard was one of the first to jump onto the trend here and I remember attending the launch a few years back when I wrote for another publication. It was buzzing, the cocktails were fab and the food not bad. A few years on and it still retains a lot of the same. The cocktails are still very good, in fact better. The place has a fantastic atmosphere in the bar area and overall it looks great. But at the back, up the stairs hiding away is VOC Grill – the restaurant arm of this venue and right now it for me feels a little lost.

The first what I will say is that the music here in the restaurant is incredibly loud and for clarification I’m no old man. I half expected everyone to get up on tables and start swinging round the leg poles. Thankfully it was much more civilised than that. Service wise I couldn’t fault it. Very attentive, the staff couldn’t have done enough and everyone knew exactly what they’re talking about. Cocktails were excellent too. They’ve improved a lot since I came here all those years ago and even then they were fantastic. Still very playful and very well priced with all things considering. The Dirk Hartog Decanter – Smoked captain’s decanter of Ron Zacapa 23 with Pedro Ximinez sherry & honey was fantastic. The decanter was served on the side with the smokey fragrance which leaped out of the glass and left a subtle cloud over the cocktail. The Standoff No.2 with Jack Daniels, root beer, fig and applewood smoke didn’t disappoint either.

Food wise it was OK, but for me I just didn’t really understand what they were trying to offer. It felt very ‘pub food’ in its style and nothing really jumped out. Perhaps casual pub food is what this place is aiming to serve and if so that’s perfectly fine – but the quality on some dishes needs more excitement, especially considering the quality of the cocktails. Both together are a stark contrast from one another. We started with some panko fried squid rings. They were nice and well seasoned, but for me the squid a little too overcooked. On the flip side the nachos, which I was expecting very little from were the best thing we ate here at VOC. Absolutely stunning home-made tortilla chips with a fresh salsa, perfect guacamole, sour cream and a few shavings of jalapeno for heat.

If you know me well, you’ll know I’m a huge steak fan so naturally I couldn’t help ordering the offering here at VOC Grill. Steak here are sourced from butchers Allens of Mayfair so I had high hopes and it was good, but it could have been so much better. This 28-day dry aged sirloin was begging for some extra seasoning – a little bit more salt & pepper would have taken it to new heights. I can’t say I’m often served a selection of veg with my steak like they have here either, but I was pleasantly surprised. All were very well cooked and had tons of flavour. A side of fries were beautifully cooked too – very crunchy and full of flavour. I also ordered a blue cheese sauce, very rustic in its appearance but the flavour was there. Less succesful was the side of frickles – pickled cucumbers fried in batter. The pickles inside were too small and the batter too thick. I advise VOC to head on down to Meat Liquor because those guys have these spot on.

Dessert. Well I’ve got a sneaky suspicion it may have been brought in, but if not hats off to the chef because it was excellent either way. Full to the brim of succulent and sweet apple, a few raisins for sweetness, a nice mixture of spice and a lovely buttery pastry. It looked good too. Other desserts on the menu such as baked cheesecake and chocolate brownie from our neighboring table also looked fantastic.

So what did I think of VOC? Well honestly I found it a bit of a mixed bag. The bar/cocktail side of the business doesn’t need any changing but the food seems confused. The menu is such an eclectic selection of rather ordinary dishes and with the cocktails as playful and intriguing as they are – I’m kind of begging for the food to have been the same. I’d certainly come back for drinks – no in fact I will. But for now I’ll give the food a miss. Small plates would work well here and the kitchen team can cook, but perhaps their talents lie somewhere else and right now they need to work on that and discover exactly what that is, because this food is lacking in personality.

6/10