Dining Beyond Zone 1: Nineteen, Streatham

Ben O' Norum
By Ben O' Norum Last edited 166 months ago
Dining Beyond Zone 1: Nineteen, Streatham

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Nineteen, Streatham.
Welcome to Dining Beyond Zone 1, our series of restaurant reviews dedicated to seeking out quality local places to dine beyond the frenzy of Central London!

If you Google underrated restaurants, Streatham’s Nineteen really ought to come up top. Of course, it doesn’t. That’s the problem. We hadn’t even heard of it until a week ago.

On a bit of a well-why-shouldn't-we-have-a-three-course-lunch-and-quite-a-lot-of-wine-on-a-tuesday whim, we wrote off the afternoon in the name of exploration and left amazed (and slightly tipsy) at the quality of food being served at what would surely be a very well known restaurant were it in W1.

Our feast kicked off with seared scallops dusted with white pepper and served with curried mango - a dish as eclectic as would be expected of a head chef who’s come to London from Mexico via The Netherlands. Next up is minted lamb with a medley of broad beans and white asparagus. It’s so good we overlook the imported asparagus at a time when it really should be British and lick the plate clean.

Onto dessert and our expectations are fairly high. A chocolate fondant exceeds them. It’s just the right amount of gooey. Not sponge. Not soup. Just gooey. It’s studded with roasted pecans and even comes on a plate which has the restaurant’s name (in full letters, not digits) written on it in chocolate. We knew there and then that we’ll be back. With 2 courses for £14 and 3 for £17, why not?

Honourable mention also goes to the wine we had with our dessert - a recommended number from a local importer Hix & Buck which is 99% sparkling chardonnay but 1% XO cognac. Yep. It was that kind of a lunch.

Nineteen is at 19 The High Parade, Streatham High Road, SW16 1EX, right next door to Chilli Chutney which we also recently featured in this series. See their website for details and directions.

Last Updated 07 May 2010