By Esin Huseyin

The Grill Market might envoke feelings of a greasy air streamer that serves dripping burgers – you’ll be glad to know that this isn’t another burger review. Grill Market was reopened recently, after a month of renovation, so I decided that it was the perfect time to head on down to Holborn and see what all the fuss was about.

It caused a bit of debate between myself and Koray, as although the location was a “handful”, the food to us justified more of a restaurant vibe, and you’ll find out why.

Now, I genuinely walked past this place, quite possibly because I’m not normally a Holborn girl, but I think mainly because Grill Market is very subdued with it’s shopfront and colour palette used. Large windows on both sides of the building to create a lot of natural light, as well as the use of wood, metal, and greys – it created a clean and friendly environment. The open plan kitchen, and seating, created a warmer environment, and even allows you to be a bit more involved in the food – you can see what’s being prepared, and the smells from the kitchen entice you in. Like I said before, it’s all pretty neutral – but the fun and colour is injected through their food.

One thing I will say is that in the hour or so that I was here, this place had a constant flow of people, and even had a queue at most parts of my time there. It may have been because I attended during lunch hours, but either way, it was a good sign – there were even exclamations from people coming in “Oh, it’s changed in here…” As far as I’m concerned, if you can keep regular customers in a city that is constantly growing and expanding, you my friend, deserve a medal.

Grill Market has a few menus to choose from; Breakfast, Lunch, and Salads. I of course opted for the lunch menu, and decided to go a little light with a mixed salad and fresh hot halloumi from the grill. Now, before I ordered, my exact words were “I’m not much of a salad person…” – I was wrong, so wrong that I’ll eat my hat halloumi.

Now a little more about the salads, here were the selections I had to choose from:

- Tomato, bread, red onion, capers, roasted peppers & basil.

- Chickpeas, corn, corriander, spring onions & harissa dressing.

- Cous Cous, quinoa, bulgar wheat, roasted courgette, mint, feta & pint nuts.

- Kale, beans, hazlenuts, with an orange & ginger dressing.

- Carrots, white & red cabbage, green peppers, & vinagerette

I also believe there was a mixed leaf salad as well. I would be here for ages if I went in to detail about every single salad – but there were some I loved more than others. The Cous Cous one was my favourite; the hint of feta and mint coming through were amazing, and super refreshing. The salad which actually had bread was actually incredible – now, this bread was actually wet from the dressing used, and wet bread is normally a huge faux pas. In the word’s of Destiny Child; it wasn’t a “no no no no no no”, but it was a huge “yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah” moment. If you don’t know that reference, then I’m old…

The contrast between the hot food from the grill, and the cold salad – just worked. They’re not the first to do this, but I feel that the choice of salads they used was not only original, but honestly, there would be something for everyone. If you’re in a bit of a rush you can also take it away in a box, which is good for the location, as it’s mainly office space around Holborn.

The salads were all freshly made that day, and you could taste that, the salads were still crunchy! Salad tends to go a bit meh once it’s been sitting in it’s dressing for a while. And the one thing to mention is that the salads do change every once in a while, so you’ll never get bored – we’re quite tempted to go back in a couple of weeks to see what they’ve come up with next! If you can’t wait a couple of weeks to see the change, then just pop in and see their weekly specials – yes, weekly. This week it was a Persian Lamb flat-bread. NOM.

There are many reasons why I enjoyed my visit and would go back; the friendly vibe of the place (they were even playing Alt-J, I know I said this in another review the other day, but come on…), friendly staff (who even knew their regulars well), good food, but also the fact that they don’t rely solely on their food because it changes regularly. That to me, is success. Not to mention, if you can get me to eat a plate of salad and be full from it, it’s review worthy.

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It's a little pricey, but amazing quality food. Pork belly salad box us the way to go. 😃

Great salads and meat plates. The "tumeric coconut latte" is amazing!