Islington
The Seagrass is part of a new cool generation movement of ‘squatter restaurants’. To explain the concept, a squatter restaurant is literally a restaurant which ‘squats’ in another restaurant once the original restaurant has closed for the evening. In the case of The Seagrass, it finds itself ‘squatting’ from Thursday evening through to Saturday evening in Manzes - the traditional historic London pie and mash shop located on Chapel Market near Angel Tube. This concept of squatting is sure to be the next step up from pop-up. A restaurant within a restaurant seams a novel idea.
We arrived at The Seagrass armed with booze (purchased at the nearby conveniently located Sainsbury’s - worth noting). One of the greatest things about this experience is that it there is only a BYOB option (no corkage) meaning that not only can you save on the usually hefty marked-up restaurant wines, but you can also drink exactly what you like. Another plus point has to go to the simple three courses for £30 menu: there is no a la carte as The Seagrass likes to keep it simple.
During our visit we chose the duck breast starter; beautifully cooked pink and served with a delicious reduction, and for the main we enjoyed beef steak with chunky fries, which two of us opted for whilst the other chose the deliciously fresh nicoise option. Both were substantially portioned, however the only negative would be that the beef was slightly overdone instead of rare (as we had requested). All in all though still an enjoyable main course.
The atmosphere at The Seagrass is something rather special. Diners are a mix of North/East London trendies and West London cool who later in the evening seem to mix groups and share conversations with each other: something that perhaps isn’t the norm within the usual London restaurant scene.After copious amounts of red, white and rosé (well who says you can’t mix your drinks when it’s BYOB!) we could only manage to share a dessert, which of course, had to be the brownie jazzed up with some sea salted caramel sauce. The brownie is served warm, as it should be, but the greedy guts in us would have liked a scoop of cool ice cream. This is of course just a minor point which our waistlines probably wouldn’t agree with.
We absolutely recommend making a booking (essential) and checking out the rather fantastic The Seagrass for something different but also something really fun. Just don’t tell your parents you’ve taken up squatting!
74 Chapel Market Burlington Gardens, N1 9ER
Average price: Three courses for £30
Average price for drinks: BYOB
Food/Drink: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Value: 5/5
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