Counter culture: The best counter dining in London
Chairs with backs are nice and all, but sometimes the best meal is eaten on high – stool-high, writes Carys Sharkey
A recent trip to New York has got me thinking about counters. I don’t think there’s loads New York does better than London, but counters are one. Counter seating is reflective of the city itself, shocking verticals all pushed up and rubbing against one another. It also suits some of the foods New York is simply better at: sandwiches, breakfasts, omakase, pizza etc.
Counter culture works perfectly for one, intimately for two, convivially if challenging for three and is entirely pointless for four. London restaurants – not exactly spoiled for space – have carefully crafted their spaces and service around slabs of wood and stools to varying success. But when done right, it can be one of the best ways to eat a meal, whatever the bad back doomsters say.
These are the best counter dining spots in the capital.
Dover Street Counter
Perhaps the biggest New York-influenced counter in London. Opened at the end of last year to much swooning by hospitality kingpin Martin Kuczmarski (behind The Dover and Martino’s, formerly of Soho House), it’s the perfect place to cosplay Upper East Siders. Known for its martinis and loyally replicating New Yorkers’ penchant for branzino, burgers and long menus, it’s a fun and very sexy spot in Mayfair. A similar opening in terms of slightly louche, New Yorker spirit can also be found at the counter of One Club Row in Shoreditch. It’s less slick, less Mayfair but just as fun with slightly more French-accented food.
Dover Street Counter, Dover Street
Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill
From a new Mayfair hotspot to an established icon. Bentley’s is not cheap but there’s also nowhere better in London to eat oysters. Or whelks or crevettes or cockles. It’s British, knotty, creature-style seafood that will never be as glamorous as tuna from Japan or lobster from Maine. It is, however, perfect counter food. Also, if you go between 9.15pm and 10.30pm (Thurs-Sat) you can get a ‘trio of oysters and a glass of bubbles’ for £15. Not bad for Mayfair. Honourable mention here to City staple Sweetings. Counters hug around the restaurant creating an incredible sense of midday intimacy in the Square Mile. Nothing better than suit on suit action over a prawn cocktail.
Bentley’s, Swallow Street
BiBi
Emotionally nailing a sense of time and place is what elevates Chet Sharma’s cooking at BiBi. The train-like dining space is long and intimate, with only enough space for 30 or so. It’s bathed in golden light fittings from Calcutta and chairs are embroidered with patterns from his grandma’s pashmina. Family ties wrap around the whole restaurant: ‘bibi’ is an affectionate Punjabi term for ‘grandmother’. The best spot is on the counter watching the chefs char lamb and flatbreads on the fire, or tweeze a botanical garden of herbs onto cured hamachi. Indian food here is celebrated – as Sharma once said – as a universe.
BiBi, North Audley Street
40 Maltby Street
Tucked under a railway arch in Bermondsey, 40 Maltby Street has consistently been one of London’s best restaurants over the last 15 years (how time flies!). It’s the gentle cooking of quiches and stewed beans, chilled soups and warmed salt beef. The wine list is a tour de force of low intervention and natural wines. This is the template for London restaurants and will continue to be so for the next 15 years. Knees pressed together under a corrugated roof, Maltby Street fosters an intimacy of shared knowledge: This was, is and always will be the coolest and warmest counter in London.
40 Maltby Street, Maltby Street
Kiln
The food at Kiln is heavy metal, intensity dialled up Thai cooking. It’s run by Meedu Saad – who this year opened Soho’s Impala – and is part of the Super 8 popular clique restaurant group that rarely puts a foot wrong. Spicy, sour, hot, sweet, sweaty, frantic, fresh, cramped, queue-y. Crab-sweetened clay pot glass noodles and hunks of gelatinous pork jowl are two dishes I always order and always think about. The upstairs counter is the perfect place to sweat while watching obsidian woks glow.
Kiln, Brewer Street
Koya
This list consciously does not include omakase counters because they are a whole breed of counter dining unto themselves. But Japan is a nation of counters, and solo dining is rewarded with a quicker seat at ramen and udon spots across the country. The counter is the ultimate efficiency of eating and service. Koya’s original Soho branch opened in the same year as Maltby St, and has had a similarly outsized influence on London’s dining scene. It will always be a solid Soho lunch option when you can’t face the queue for Kiln.
Koya, Frith Street
Tiella
And finally the newest of the bunch. Tiny, little Tiella is Dara Klein’s ode to a trattoria on Columbia Road. It feels much older than it is. A lived- and loved-in trick of the light, of heavy wood panelling, dripping candle wax and a tobacco-stained off-white paintjob. It’s always buzzy and is a great pick for colder months as the stodge of Italian food comes into its own (which I think is a hard and fast rule for trattorias). Pressed into the counter that slings across the commemorative plate-laden wall, or at the perfect two-top by the pass, this is a place to gorge on polenta.
Tiella, Columbia Road