Elliot’s in east London has many hip credentials: the blond-wood colour scheme, the off-sale natural wine bottles, LCD Soundsystem and David Byrne playing at just the right decibel. The menu also features the right buzzwords, such as “small plates” and “wood grill”.
But first comes “snacks”. There are classics: focaccia, olives, anchovies on toast. But more creative options include potato flatbreads with creme fraiche and trout roe, mangalitsa saltimbocca with quince, and what became (and has stayed) the Hackney restaurant’s signature dish since around 2012, Isle of Mull cheese puffs: plump, gooey croquettes filled with Scottish cheddar and comté, deep-fried until crisp and topped with yet more grated cheddar. Only two other dishes have never left the menu: fried potatoes with aïoli and cheesecake.
The puffs were a “happy accident”, says co-owner Samantha Lim. The head chef at the time was experimenting, and decided to chuck the cheesy balls into the deep-fryer. “They bring so much joy,” Lim says. “They’re gooey, a warm hug as soon as you open your mouth and take that first bite oozing with cheese.”
Elliot’s isn’t alone. Today, no self-respecting restaurant opens without a snack menu. Once the preserve of pubs (to keep drinkers drinking) and Michelin-starred restaurants (to show off with tweezery canapes), the modern chef is putting as much effort and creativity into a meal’s opening morsels as the main course – and going far beyond bread and olives. After all, a dinner can be love at first bite.
Carbone, a glitzy new Mayfair arrival from New York, offers bowls of bread, charcuterie and crudités. Nearby, the equally glam Lilibet’s has a snack menu featuring tuna loin gildas and anchovy eclairs. Other in Bristol makes chicken and sesame toast with brown crab and hot sour mayo. Somerset’s Da Costa has gnoccho fritto with mortadella and fresh cheese. Pip in Manchester has a dedicated snacks menu featuring cheese gougères, toasted yeast puffs and split-pea chips with mushroom ketchup. Also in Manchester, Forbici does a wide range of fried Neapolitan snacks alongside its specialty pizza. At Maré in Hove, meanwhile, you’ll find toasted brioche with liver parfait, preserved cherries and winter truffle.
For experimental psychologist Charles Spence, there are several reasons a restaurant might lean on snacks. It might be that the Ozempic generation doesn’t want full meals, but still wants to dine out. It might be a continuation of the shift towards informality. Or it might just be that fried snacks help waft delicious scents around the dining room. Salty things such as anchovies make us thirsty. Snacks can also grab attention and are associated with socialising.
“Snacks have a more informal vibe compared with starters and small plates,” says Zak Hitchman, chef and co-owner of Other. “Although the term has fallen out of fashion, they are perhaps more in line with a canapé.”
Informal, small-plates restaurants and wine bars have taken over Britain’s restaurant scene. At these spots, snacks are imperative. And they’re not merely a smaller small plate, Lim says: “In my mind, a snack is a one- or two-bite situation; you can easily pop it in and get the whole essence of it in that one bite. A small plate is a bit more of a discovery, with different components.” Another good signifier is that snacks can be handheld.
Almost every table at Elliot’s orders a snack, and Lim has noticed the trend expanding since Covid. “People are eating more in group settings, and snacks are a fun ice-breaker, particularly for groups who don’t know each other well.” Hitchman, who previously worked at now-closed Michelin-starred Bristol restaurant Casamia, witnessed a similar shift in appetite from formal to informal. As purses have tightened while appetites haven’t, “snacks exist as a way of trying lots of different, interesting flavours and textures, but are usually at the cheaper end of the scale”.
They also offer chefs another chance to show their chops. Other is more casual than Hitchman’s previous restaurant, but he believes his background creating extensive tasting menus is suited to one-bite dishes. A current favourite is tempura grey mullet with miso-cured scallop, harissa, fresh blood plum and blood-plum syrup. Certainly cheffy and, while not a typical combination, it offers contrast between crunch, smooth raw scallop, savoury miso, hot harissa and sweet-and-sour plum. Snacks have replaced starters at Other – the menu jumps straight to “bigger plates” – and, according to Hitchman, are many guests’ highlight.
Restaurants once stuck to the starter-main-dessert formula, but snacks provide flexibility. Everyone we spoke to welcomed guests just for snacks, though many said at peak times they prefer diners to eat a full meal. But at quieter times, restaurateurs would much rather have some customers enjoying a glass of wine and a couple of bites than none at all. And while the ideal guest orders a snack, starter, main, side and dessert, the reality is that many don’t. Being able to offer a range of options therefore makes sense, and can be a chance to upsell: many who order oysters or cheese puffs might still eat a full meal.
Snacks can be high margin, too, providing vital income in precarious times. That can come from using cheaper ingredients or offcuts. Elliot’s buys a pig roughly every six weeks, and cuts not used for larger dishes can go into snacks such as pork crackling. Hitchman sources whole crabs for his crab cakes, with the leftover brown meat used for the hot-and-sour brown crab mayonnaise served with the chicken and sesame toast.
Other will soon install a snack-focused bar area, while at Maré bar guests are welcome to have just snacks: “It has been a nice way for people in the neighbourhood to get a feel for us, because we’re still new in the area,” says owner Rafael Cagali. Snacks can also be great advertising. I had never eaten at Elliot’s, but after trying its cheese puffs and potato flatbread, I’ll certainly be back. Ultimately, however, snacks are designed to be fun, Hitchman says: “They can just be a great and enjoyable way of trying a restaurant’s food.”
