Bar snacks are the life raft of the Great British Friday Night out, doggedly keeping the session afloat. But this country was not built on pork scratchings and peanut dust alone. Put down the packet of Nobby’s Nuts and scoff a new selection of stomach liners.
At Prawn on the Lawn, the Highbury-based fishmonger/seafood bar, prop up a medium glass of primo brut with a round of Mylor prawns from the Cornish enclave of the same name. They come whole and deep-fried.
In fact, prawn stars are a hit du jour: KOYA, the noodle bar empire, serves whole fried prawn heads with sesame salt as a bar bite, while Sabor in Mayfair is also doing camarones fritos (fried prawns, to you and me).
A few lagers down and you’re craving chips. The Insta-famous Comté fries at Peckham’s Levan are a cheese-infused bulwark to soak up the pints, while the Wigmore in Marylebone does its thick fries with Bloody Mary salt. Le Bab in Soho’s chips come with a pan of molten cheese. Lahpet’s Mandalay fritters will soak up the hops.
Hackney wine joint The Laughing Heart is raising the bar snacks game: olives stuffed with laab-like fragrant minced pork. As is Gemma Ellis, star chef at Clifford’s in Fetter Lane, Holborn, whose bar-snack menu includes venison gyoza, pickled walnut filled with braised off-cuts, and partridge and pear sausage roll available by the inch.
At Plaquemine Lock, the new bar-snack menu includes moreish house pickles with green beans and okra, and oysters with lime and green tabasco, and Bun House’s mushroom skewers taste delicious with a Baiju cocktail.
Finally, Soho’s soju cocktail den Jinjuu does a signature Korean fried chicken that has saved many on a marathon session. Boneless chicken thighs are fried to a crisp and served up with pickled white radish on the side. By all means leave the house on an empty stomach — and head straight for the bar.
