Wandsworth has recently ascended its culinary credentials. A foundation laid with the legacy of two Michelin-starred restaurants Umu and Dinner by Heston and one-starred restaurants Nobu, Pollen Street, and Hind’s Head – London Stock is a new restaurant that has all the ingredients to become one of south-west London’s most popular fine-dining destinations.
London Stock took a brave decision to open in January this year, a time where Londoners hibernate following glutenous festivities. Since then they have been welcoming diners to sample their fine-dining concept with a twist: where elegant and modern British fine dining meets with innovative Asian cooking techniques set in the historic heart of Wandsworth which recently has seen huge regeneration.
Situated within a fully resorted former brewery and facing onto Ram Quarter’s Bubbling Well Square and Wandsworth High Street entrance, London Stock aims to bring a new type of dining to Wandsworth’s locals – predominantly made up of affluent families and young professionals with high spending power. ‘British kimchi’ epitomises London Stock’s culinary concept. Championing the best of British ingredients with a modern international twist, speciality suppliers include Exmoor caviar and the Wiltshire truffle company to name but a few.
Sat either in the main dining room of at the intimate chef’s table, the seasonally sensitive menu highlights dishes such as fresh oysters, venison wellington and monkfish shijo koji. At £45 for a seven-course tasting menu, on our visit, London Stock’s menu clearly illustrated its locally sourced produce prepared and finished with an Asian influence. Focaccia with crab bisque, lemon puree and sourdough tuile to commence, followed by a small portion of quail with onion puree and cured beetroot served centrally within a large black plate. Cauliflower has made a resurgence within today’s modern plant-based lifestyle, and this is certainly true a London Stock with the third dish of this seven-course tasting menu. Cauliflower with garlic and beetroot puree let the ingredients speak for themselves, however, seemed unfinished in appearance and flavour.
The two ‘main courses’ sat in the midst of this tasting menu deviated between land and sea. Wild seabass with broccoli, broccoli puree, pickled turnips and radicchio tardive with dried shiso up first, followed by wonderfully cooked and layered pork belly with British kimchi, swede and swede purée. As the tasting menu approached its finish mark came yuzu with Delicia squash, shiso and hazelnut praline before tying up with a sticky toffee pudding, topped uniquely with a lemon toffee sauce.
Their restaurant debut, chefs and restaurateurs Assem Abdel Hady and Andres Bernal have taken a 15-year lease on the 2,333 square foot site offering 80 covers. Originally from Egypt, Hady graduated in 2017 with a Grand Diplôme with Culinary Management from Le Cordon Bleu London which set him up to be able to open his very own venture realised this year as London Stock. The kitchen is headed by executive chef Alessandro Frau, who led the Sheraton Grande Laguna in Phuket and which is seemingly where the Asian influence of London Stock originates, with head chef Jose Fernandes and pastry chef Nico Fitzgerald assisting him.
Factbox
Address: London Stock, 2 Bubbling Well Square, Ram Quarter, Wandsworth, London SW18 1UQ
Phone: 0208 075 3877
Website: londonstockrestaurant.co.uk
