I can think of that time when I have starved for two days during a youthful poorly planned camping trip. When I emerged out of the wild, instant noodles were like ambrosia to me. On the other hand, during my days in Japan, a quick visit back to London would find me turning up my noses at many places that I now heartily enjoy. Works both ways…
Great menu. We ordered the crab to share and it was delicious and fresh. Atmosphere was light and warm. The staff where polite and attentive staff. Will eat here again
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
I came to Brawn for the first time a little over a week ago. Wow! I had one of the best meals of my life here. Incredible food, charming atmosphere, and attentive service. For a starter, my girlfriend and I split the burrata with braised runner beans and mint. Again, wow. My previous experiences with burrata were good, but this was another level. It was perfect from the first cut of the outer layer. The beans and mint complimented the flavour perfectly. For entree, I had the cod with coco beans, artichokes, and tarragon. The fish was cooked to perfection - it melted in my mouth. My girlfriend had the black pudding with squid and padron peppers. It, too, was amazing. The flavours all worked extremely well together without any one overpowering another. For dessert, I had the three cheese selection that included: saint nectaire, bleu de basque, and l'arpitan. I had never tried, or heard of, these cheeses before. I was very pleasantly surprised! A nice selection of mild yet flavourful cheeses to finish off a lovely meal. My girlfriend had the fig leaf panna cotta with blackberries and was not disappointed. Everything at Brawn met or exceeded our expectations and was overall a fantastic experience that I would recommended whole-heartedly to anyone!
Sitting snugly on a corner of Columbia Road this unassuming restaurant is sibling to perennial fine dining favourite “Terroirs”. Despite spending an absurd amount of time walking up and down Kingsland Road and Regent’s Canal area a few years ago I had never actually walked past this place. And yes to all those out there asking the question, neither have I ever been to Columbia Road Flower Market! Anyway, the restaurant has a simple whitewashed decor, with a lean towards the “trendy-hip-east-end” vibe about it.
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
My expectations were high because Brawn is the favorite restaurant of a foodie mate of mine.
The space is charming and we had a lovely convivial waiter. Wine list is extensive. But we are cheap and not so picky where wine is concerned and just went for a bottle of the cheapest red, which was very nice actually.
We were brought complimentary sparkling water and rather a large quantity of good spongy sour dough with butter first.
My companion's starter of mixed salad leaves was very simple but tasty. Nothing but a selection of greens and some good, very slightly sweetened vinaigrette. My starter of char grilled duck hearts with pak choi and XO sauce smelled great (lots of garlic) but was a bit confusing. I wasn't convinced by the mix of temperatures. Cold cooked pak choi with warm duck hearts and untoasted peanuts on a cold plate. I wish the pak choi had been at least lukwarm. The XO sauce was totally overpowering. The waiter explained that it was a new dish, maybe still in development. I think the dish would have been better with a simpler sauce (say brandy, soy and port if we stick to the Asian theme), or no sauce at all.
My main was brilliant though. A slice of fluffy but crisp boudin accompanied by very tender pan fried squid. Nice combination served without sauce but a few bits of wilted greens and a little puddle of melted butter instead. My companion's lambs neck with borlotti beans was nicely cooked. However I found the tomato and rosemary sauce it came with cloyingly sweet.
It was pleasant meal, but I didn't really care for any of the sauces. Also the food was confusing in that the flavors were all big and hearty but the portions quite small. We actually finished the rather enormous basket of bread brought to the table at the beginning of the meal.
Perhaps we would have been more impressed if we had ordered differently. Brawn has a reputation for impeccable sourcing. So maybe a meal of bread, charcuterie and cheese would have shown this off best.
Simply where food should be. Loved the juxtaposition between perfectly made preserved meats such as the brawn and pork rilletes, and the chopped raw beef. Lamb hearts and pig trotters were gutsy. Great wine and friendly service. Being this idea to Perth!
Went for lunch for a friends birthday and stayed for almost four hours ordering platters to share. Lovely service and well seasoned foodie fare. Quails eggs w celery salt, asparagus w hollandaise, artichoke with mustard Mayo were all excellen as were the cheese and charcuterie boards. But the exceptional red mullet fillets in a yolky butter and caper sauce was something else. Check it out
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Foodie heaven. Their website says they serve honest, simple food, and while that's true, it's also an understatement. There's a depth and expertise that makes it really very special. If you enjoy food you're not going to be disappointed at Brawn.
I try to order something different each time I go but it's hard to give up my favourites. I have to have the pork rillettes, which are beautifully spiced and go well with the soft chewy sourdough bread. The charcuterie is always interesting and well-presented. On my last visit, the fried artichokes with a rich garlicky aioli were excellent, as were the "cervelles" - a jokey name for soft white cheese flavoured with walnut oil and served with toast "soldiers" to dip in.
You can get a feel for the way the menu works from their website. What I really like is that it's totally unpretentious - you can pick and mix as you please, and order as much or as little as you like, and the bill always seems a nice surprise - maybe because the lovely bread is unlimited and free, but perhaps also because it's such good value for what it is.
I'm less familiar with the wine list; I've been happy to let the staff decide - they seem to know their stuff, and it's worth trying a few different glasses - but it's also a good idea to go off-piste occasionally and try the dry, salty manzanilla or one of the ciders.
The staff have always been charming and helpful, and it's relaxed enough to be able to sit at the bar and read a paper if you get there early.
Brawn identity. A little gastronomic gem in Bethnal Green, Brawn is all about provenance. Excellent sour dough bread accompanied the well sourced and made charcuterie, juicy mussels spiked with thyme were cooked in a broth of French artisan cider, red mullet its skin crisped on the plancha was served with tiny chanterelles and a dense, beautifully seasoned Caillette (a sort of faggot wrapped in pork caul) sat atop a bed of nice mash and carrots. Wine list is as good as you might expect from the people who brought you Terroirs. The atmosphere when I went was nice and buzzy, full of young locals and lots of (famous) restaurateurs.
Brawn is a homely small restaurant located in the heart of Columbia road which transforms to a busy flower market every Sunday. The location cannot suit better for this rustic neighbourhood restaurant much similar in style to St. JOHN Bar and Restaurant . Making a booking can be a good idea, especially around lunch time. It filled up fairly quickly after we arrived early afternoon. It’s a sibling of wine bar/restaurant Terroirs which is known for its organic wine list so naturally you’ll find a few quirky bottles at Brawn as well. This was the first time I came here on a Sunday afternoon. They only offer a set menu with starters, main and dessert on Sundays. In lack of other options both of us went for the set menu. The three starters were served about the same time before progressing to the main and finally the dessert. Bread from E5 Bakehouse The sourdough bread, supplied by E5 Bakehouse, was a nice start of the meal. E5 Bakehouse has been my go-to place for bread in East London unti
London’s trendy lefty community has moved east to Shoreditch and Hackney. With the organic market on Broadway and the Columbia market, it’s easy to see why they have made this part of London home. These new residents are pleased as well with a collection of businesses focus on the origins of their products, with Brawn as a good example.
Brawn is one of our all time favourite restaurants in London. The setting is brilliant, the ambiance cosy and perfect for a weekend lunch and the food is stunning. Without a doubt a great dining venue and they deserve all the praise they get.
The Dorset clams were ok they were swimming in olive oil and that’s all you could taste, it was an amazing olive oil but the accompanying clams, chilli and ham were tasteless.
Brawn is one of those places. I have been meaning to go for literally years but always seem to get distracted. And so, with it being the Fashionista's birthday, I decided that a dinner at Brawn was on the cards.
the dish that got me most excited: hand chopped Tuscan style beef.
Bread, butter and a few plates of surf-and-turf starters were good. They were the nothing-too-labourous of Cervelle de Canut, Atlantic Prawns & Mayo, and Jambon Persille & Sauce Gribiche, all cold. Yes, I read prawns & mayo. As for the rest, un dictionnaire, s’il vous plait!?
Brawn doesn’t have a sign outside – luckily we had taken note of the building number before we left. The decor is different to Terroirs – Brawn is very East London with cool, vintage/reclaimed furniture and the inside is white, much brighter than Terroirs. The tables are white with old reclaimed wooden chairs, good quality cutlery and very thin glass beakers, which I LOVE.
Brawn is, basically, brilliant; reliving the experience in prose has been almost as much fun as the fabulous meal itself.
Brawn is the much anticipated new offshoot of Terroirs in the East of London, on trendy Columbia Road, E2. Terroirs has become a regular haunt (reviewed it here) for its great quality and excellent value cooking in the West End. So I
Remember back in 2008 , there was a little known wine bar, in Charing Cross called Terroirs, that garnered gushing reviews from all four corners. Everybody showed up to the party, and we all thought it was amazing. Well, get ready for the second coming, the people behind Terroirs recently extended their operations, this time into East London. Opened - by my best guesstimations - in Nov/Dec 2010, it has already been lauded by our capital's favourite critics and blogs (scroll down for the usual links); Needless to say, the reports are largely positive, but perhaps it is a resolution of sorts for the food media, as it appears the hype machine has been spinning a much more reserved message about Brawn (the "good but not great" line); Rather than an emotive, balls out love fest. On the other hand, yours truly is more than happy to hype it up. I loved my visit. It was fabulous, it is fabulous, it definitely shares DNA with the older sibling, Terroirs, a good thing of course, and I think I pr
I wasn't the biggest fan of Terroirs, in Covent Garden. Most of the food I ate, while perfectly fine, was slightly on the safe side (terrines, saucisson, polenta, snore), and the experience of sitting at a wobbly table in that huge, noisy subterranean room was quite uncomfortable. Perhaps if I was a fan of natural wines I would have been able to get more out of it, but I could no more get excited about a well-chosen wine list as I could about the brand of soap used in the loos, and so even a very nice bott
Fantastic food in a very relaxing laid back setting this place makes for the perfect lunch spot.
The interior is really cool with eclectic furniture and old school chairs, the art on the wall worth a good stare and the staff really nice.
We came here and just shared a selection of the charcuterie options which made for the perfect long lunch. Everything on it was delicious.
Reasonably well priced as well with mains from £12.
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
For my first review I thought it fitting to start with one of my favourites, that has so far never disappointed. I like trying new places, and there are very few I keep coming back to, so this outlines my general feeling towards the place.
Generally speaking, Brawn serves brilliant, simple French food, that could be described as rustic. The wine list is also very French, and sizeable.
The venue is homely. No frills wooden tables, a bar that looks a little deshevelled with books on the shelves alongside a hotchpotch selection of bottles, exposed bits of functional piping and electrics. In the back room you can nosey at the chefs. Tables are quite close together but the ceiling is a decent height so you don't feel claustrophobic even when the place is packed, which it is on our Wednesday night in the prime slot.
The staff are friendly, knowledgable, and unpretentious, who will happily volunteer that you're making the wrong choice with something or ordering too much.
Water is provided free of charge, still or sparking, as is the excellent bread from the e5 bakehouse up the road. All as it should be.
Tonight we had a mix and match of small plates, starting with the best pork scratchings one could dream of, a menu regular. The charcuterie platter with signature brawn is hearty, a good mixture, and delicious. The menu is ostensibly meat-focused, so veggies should forget it, but the limited shellfish and veg/salad dishes are exemplary - courgette flower on goat curd, portion a little small but sweet and crispy; and the clams, simple, fresh, and garlicky (very). Continuing with snails & pancetta (the weakest of all the dishes, too salty, and on more bread, where I can't help thinking something more interesting and lighter could have been substituted), and finally grilled duck hearts on celeriac purée, perfectly cooked, tender, satisfying and moreish. Ordered a bottle of the house red with that lot, which is as ever perfectly quaffable, and less than 20 quid a pop (carafes are available for the lesser drunks).
We followed with desserts, a cheesecake of perfect structure and consistency, if a little unexciting and missing some final touch of freshness; and the most delightful panna cotta I've ever eaten, which I wouldn't normally go for if I hadn't been enticed by the griottines (I had to ask, cherries in liqueur).
All of the above, a coffee, and a beer, set us back £90 including service for two.
Yum.
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Brawn is a homely small restaurant located in the heart of Columbia road which transforms to a busy flower market every Sunday. The location cannot suit better for this rustic neighbourhood restaurant much similar in style to St. JOHN Bar and Restaurant. Making a booking can be a good idea, especially around lunch time. It filled up fairly quickly after we arrived early afternoon. It’s a sibling of wine bar/restaurant Terroirs which is known for its organic wine list so naturally you’ll find a few quirky bottles at Brawn as well.
This was the first time I came here on a Sunday afternoon. They only offer a set menu with starters, main and dessert on Sundays. In lack of other options both of us went for the set menu. The three starters were served about the same time before progressing to the main and finally the dessert.
The sourdough bread, supplied by E5 Bakehouse, was a nice start of the meal. E5 Bakehouse has been my go-to place for bread in East London until Fabrique in Hoxton opened up in November 2012 as an alternative.
The first starter was Spanish ham from Teruel. Spanish Jamon can’t go wrong and again I couldn’t prove the opposite. Served plain on a wood board the nutty ham did well on its own.
Next on the table was cured salmon with orange dressing. There was a faint hint of orange in the dressing but the salmon was good.
Buffalo Mozzarella from Pasquale Vito was the best of the starters without doubt. The mozzarella had a bouncy texture and was very flavourful. I guess the use of unpasteurized milk at Pasquale Vito contributes to the flavours. The other elements of the dish olive oil and lemon complemented the mozzarella very well.
Next up was the roast chicken. The chicken was juicy and tender. Flavouring was light which let the natural flavours of the ingredients come out. Accompanied by crisp green beans and plain Jersey potatoes the dish was both simple and good.
The previous dishes did well in filling me up to the point of almost forgetting about the dessert. The chocolate pudding was very rich. It was served with a light cream, hazelnuts and crunchy sprinkle on the side. I would prefer to have it slightly less baked but otherwise it was very nice.
As usual I knew what to expect at Brawn. I normally come here for dinner and each time manage to find something interesting accompanied with a wine I’ve never tried before. This time the set menu was less exciting but nevertheless well done and since it was an early Sunday afternoon I decided to stay away from the wine list. For a few dishes it was definitely more about the ingredients than what was done with them like the mozzarella and jamon. I also really enjoyed the roasted chicken. Compared to Beagle in the neighbourhood Brawn is more laid back and so is the food. It remains one of my favourites in the area but I think I prefer it on a weekday evening when Columbia road is less busy and à la carte is available.
For full review and photos visit http://driftingepicure.com/2013/07/02/brawn/
Second time here (one year later than the first) and it was even better. Well executed dishes bursting with flavor in a great ambience. I’m not a big natty wine fan but the servers were quick to oblige with any other spirit. Service was great and the ambience is wonderful.
Definitely a must try! Each dish was cooked to perfection. We celebrated a friends 40th birthday there and we really enjoyed our time. The waitress recommended a nice wine for the occasion. Overall lovely experience.
Wonderful dinner. The service was on point. Great explanation of the dishes. Atmosphere was super nice especially if you are sitting near the kitchen where you can see the chefs cook. Beautiful flavors. Our favorite dishes in May menu were the fasolakia and the peas pasta. Portions are on the smaller side so you may need to order more to feel full. Would come again :)
Rustic nook for modern European food
Perfect for a date night if you can get a table along the wall. We got a table right at the corner above the stairs and loved how isolated it was from everyone else.
Food wise, I loved every single dish. It's rare when I can say that, but each one's flavors excelled in their own ways. From the salty anchovies to our not too sweet dessert, each dish was like a little adventure. I particularly loved the scallops with the peas. One dish I was very surprised by was their side of greens. It didn't seem special, but our waitress highly suggested it. The dressing was light and let the greens shine. Other salads get dosed in dressing and you can't taste the greens at all. This one was perfect.
The service was spectacular. Our waitress was so kind and gave us great recommendations for the whole meal.
I can't wait to come again!
Small plates. Classic. No fuss and food wine and cocktails. Have to try the white port spritz! Oh and if you call ahead you might be able to bring a well behaved dog ;)
I've been wanting to come here for ages and finally got to go - it did not disappoint. Food and drink were amazing and service was good most of the time. Where possible/practical the kitchen actually split portions into two for us to share. They were a bit slow getting drinks to the table (esp when it's just a bottle of wine) but we had such a good meal that it doesn't matter. I'll be back for sure.
Excellent food and service. Fresh, healthy, and lovely selection of options - I had a great seafood dish and they were quite accommodating with gf options. The restaurant itself has beautiful big windows looking onto trees and it is a great option if you want to have a romantic date or a small group and actually be able to hear each other. Not great for kiddos.
Definitely make a reservation - enjoy!
Top shelf quality - well thought out dishes that are delicious without being overengineered. Alex my server was also excellent. Would come back again.
Cuttlefish ragu was pretty delicious with its umami seafood broth and pieces of tender cuttlefish and mussels. The Guinea fowl was really good; tender, without a strong gamey taste. The accompanying in-house sausage and potato mash was good too. Oysters were fresh but a bit of a letdown as they quite small and pricey. The almond tart was excellent and service was great too!
It was our last day in London and so glad we booked this place for our last meal. Amazing food. How did you guys cook such perfect duck! And other dishes such as the pork and snails were outstanding too. Lovely experience.
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes