If there was one area of London I really don’t know very well when it comes to restaurants, it’s Shoreditch. Living in west London and Shoreditch being east, not only can I be a bit lazy leaving what is close to me, but the restaurant scene east has exploded to the point that I can’t keep up with who and what has opened where. Not to mention I still don’t feel cool enough when I come to Shoreditch in my chinos, tan brown loafers and wait for it – socks. People don’t wear these anymore apparently.
Jokes aside, Shoreditch is a fantastic area for more than just food and Wilder, a new restaurant at the Boundary Hotel by chef Richard McLellan who has partnered with Sir Terence Conran – is absolutely fantastic. It feels very at home here in its new space. Taking over the basement dining room of the hotel, chef Richard McLellan hails from some very praised restaurants, notably Typing Room and Alyn Williams at The Westbury. It’s a slick operation and inside it’s looking fantastic thanks to designers Kirkwood and McCarthy. Industrial, very chic and dare I say – wild. It’s a bit hard to find, but well worth seeking out we discovered.
As we looked over the menus and with the daily dilemma of not being able to eat everything, we fuelled our brains with a couple of cocktails at the bar. A Tropical Martini and a Mandarin Old Fashioned. Both very simple and understated visually, but don’t let that fool you. The cocktails here are pure, very heady and perfectly perfected – plus they’re only £10 a pop. Whoever they have behind the bar here really knows how to handle their spirits.
We started with a few nibbles as we sipped on our cocktails and they were absolutely stellar. A single nettle leaf, deep-fried, with a dollop of smoked cod’s roe purée and shaved scallop roe. It was simply beautiful and probably one of the nicest things I’ve eaten in while. Equally as stunning and another nibble was the pig’s head on toast. It melted in the mouth, was as rich as could possibly be and had us salivating at the table. If you’re not planning to dine here, then at least come for a drink and few too many nibbles at the bar.
With all this talk of being better eaters and cutting out meat, if anything was going to turn me vegetarian – it would be this plate of the most juiciest leeks known to the restaurant scene. But it wasn’t just leeks making up this masterful plate of food, there was Lancashire Bomb cheese (lots of it too) and three-cornered garlic. The balance of this dish was just superb and I’m already wishing I was eating it all over again.
Everything here was simply stunning, but if I had to pick just one dish which lost itself a bit amongst the rest it would probably be this venison tartare with wild beets, brambles and rye crisp. It felt to have equal parts venison and wild beets, but personally I wanted more meat for texture. Flavour wise however, it couldn’t be faulted. I think just a little more meat (and also to see it visually) then this could be as great as everything else we ate was.
This is was one of those meals where both me and my partner sat in silence most of the time, enjoying every bite so much we didn’t need to speak. The look on our faces said it all. One dish which really stood out for us was this pork jowl with celeriac and mead. I’m lost for words to describe the pork to be quite honest, but it was such a delight and the mead jus and those little dollops of celeriac were just so refined and well executed. It wasn’t a particularly big dish, but it didn’t need to be given how rich it was.
Now I know I said the pork was great and it was as a savoury dish, but as a sweet course the winner would have to be this dessert of apple, soured cream, lemon thyme and oats. It was like a tarte tatin, crossed with a cheesecake and then totally deconstructed. The apple was prepared in a sort of yoyo shape and was so soft, sugary and sweet that for a moment I thought I’d died and gone to dessert heaven. The cream was fluffy, the thyme really soaked into that apple yoyo and the oats added a lovely bit of texture. Beautiful and very clever.
I’m definitely running out of words to use to describe this meal, but even the cheese course was something to behold. Simple, yes – but just perfect and the quality of it really shone through. Oozy Tamworth cheese served at perfect room temperature, with millet crackers and rowan jelly. Who needs a cheese trolley when you have a plate of cheese like this?
To finish what was an incredible meal, some pieces of smoked pork fat and parsley root fudge. It melted in the fingers and it melted in the mouth. You could taste the slight meatiness to it which I wasn’t sure about at first, but then ended up after wondering where could I get more.
As I’m sure you can already tell, I fell completely in love with Wilder Shoredicth and I really didn’t expect too. I loved it when we dined, but I actually fell in love with it after writing this article as looking back at it all got me so excited and brought all those clever dishes and flavours back to me. The food is perhaps slightly experimental and of course very wild with some of its ingredients, but for me that’s what sets Wilder apart from the rest. Will it get a Michelin star? I hope so. Would I come back? Absolutely.
Wow it sounds like a fantastic meal.