Look, I’ll level with you. Where I really wanted to go this week was Sheesh, the Chigwell import that’s opened opposite the Wolseley and has a perma-queue of vajazzled Lambos outside. It’s getting rave reviews from the likes of, er, Ollie Murs, but I’ve fielded accusations of shooting fish in a barrel before and besides, what I suspect is spray tan in restaurant form hardly needs the publicity. And so instead, I found myself in Battersea, wondering who in their right mind would open a restaurant somewhere that by all rights should be selling second hand rugs.
In SW8, not N19, Archway is named for its vault under the Overground, which feels something of a last resort rather than a choice, but apparently isn’t, being the restaurant front for long-standing catering company Spook. Spook’s Emily Few Brown has drafted in Alex Owens to head the kitchen, who trained at The Ledbury and the Harwood Arms before putting in a four-year shift at the River Café, which means her boss is offering something of a novel proposition — might Battersea finally have a new opening that’s any good? Don’t even try it with the phone-it-in places at the Power Station.
