Jam Delish, a glitzy independent down an Islington back street, is a noteworthy new opening for several reasons. First, it is not a vast, laughably expensive, 200-seater, all-day, mock-Mediterranean bistro, which is what just about every investor is backing these days, knowing that a fool and his £28 for substandard, citrus-doused carpaccio are easily parted. Second, it is a Jamaican vegan restaurant that serves fake goat curry, barbecue jerk plantain and saltfish that is certainly not fish. This is unusual.
Sure, Jamaican vegan food should probably be more commonplace, if one thinks about it logically. I’ll show my workings: Jamaica has the world’s largest Rastafarian community; Rastafarians follow an Ital meat-free diet; and Britain is home to many vegans, Jamaicans and Jamaican food-lovers, not to mention Rastafarians. So you’d think that, somewhere along the way, plant-based brown stew “fish” or macaroni “cheese” with fake bacon might have become mainstream. Instead, Jordan Johnson, Jam Delish’s co-founder, found it tough to find decent versions of his favourite Jamaican food, so began during lockdown as a dark delivery kitchen in Wimbledon, before appearances as a market stall and a residency in Soho’s The Sun & 13 Cantons, where the likes of Raheem Sterling, Common, Lily James and the stars of the Black Panther movie franchise reportedly enjoyed the Jam Delish experience.
Now, it has found a permanent home and is fronted by Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen alumnus Nathan Collymore. And the new place is the opposite of po-faced. It plays loud Jocelyn Brown, D Train and Nights Over Egypt by the Jones Girls. There’s a sophisticated cocktail menu serving Antiguan zombies and amaretto sours, as well as a “shooter” section including Jägerbombs and slippery nipples (AKA sambuca and Baileys) that I have not seen since a 1992 girls’ holiday to Playa de las Américas in Tenerife. They also sell Boost Energy, and one entire side of the restaurant is a “living greenery” wall made of artificial foliage. If all that makes Jam Delish sound noisy, young and slightly odd, well, it is a bit, but on a miserable Tuesday night in January, it was hectic, while many other places nearby had a graveyard feel.
And, frankly, Collymore is a vibrant talent and a gamechanger for the vegan cooking scene. Good plant-based dining is about textures, contrasts, balance, plating and, above all, making natural items such as lentils, plantains and oyster mushrooms the stars of the show. At Jam Delish, Collymore rather humiliates the likes of Mildred’s and Lewis Hamilton’s Neat Burger by serving up complex, visually lovely, yet hearty plates of “oxtail” stew brimming with jackfruit, wild mushrooms, butter beans, plantain, sweet potato and herb cassava dumplings. Or a “nibble” of grilled roti with three generous dishes of jerk baba ghanoush, plantain hummus and a wondrous burnt spring onion and chilli butter.
The cooking makes you keep asking: “But how? How is this happening without butter, cream, stock or, well, meat?” Because vegan food is so often dreary. It can be so dry, it would choke a dromedary, or, worse still, it can look utterly delicious, yet taste like polystyrene. I have eaten enough of this well-meaning but ultimately awful nonsense in my long, windy lifetime to know genius when I see it, and Jam Delish’s fried “chicken” with ackee and green lentils is just that, all sitting around a large, griddled slice of soft Caribbean squash, with a small jug of dark, intense and drinkable Jamaican gravy alongside. Callaloo and codfish comes with sticky grilled confit yams and scotch bonnet sauce made with sweetened coconut. Possibly my favourite dish, however, is the Caribbean fish tacos, which are delightful, soft-shell tortillas with lemon pepper-glazed tofu “codfish”, pickle de gallo, pineapple and mango.
In truth, haters of fake meat products such as seitan, tofu, TVP and the rest will have issues with Jam Delish, because they feature throughout the menu, but mainly to add realism rather than flavour. The real pleasure is in the glossy sauces, the heat and the crunch. It’s in the expert use of garlic, thyme, peanut and pomegranate. And in the bizarrely meaty buttermilk oyster mushrooms, deep-fried and served with sweet plantain ketchup and green avocado puree.
And lest you think pudding is just some drab vegan sorbet, no, there’s also a sumptuous chocolate ice-cream sandwich made with rich rum cake, chocolate banana ice-cream, chocolate soil and a potent Guinness punch sauce. Jam Delish won’t be to everyone’s taste, but if it’s to yours and you want the meat-free version of Montego Bay’s finest offerings, this is hearty, spicy, accomplished and memorable cooking. Save me a spot by the plastic aspidistras.
Jam Delish 1 Tolpuddle Street, London N1. Open Tues-Fri 5-10.30pm, Sat noon-10.30pm, Sun 1-7pm. From about £40 a head à la carte (three-course set menu £34), plus drinks and service.
The final episode in the fourth series of Grace’s Comfort Eating podcast is released on Tuesday 17 January. Listen to it here.
