Sparrow

Dinner at Sparrow – London

ClaireLeave a comment

Following our brunch at Sparrow, today I am finally sharing my dinner experience at Sparrow!

A little background story for this post; Andrew and I have had dinner at Sparrow before, very shortly after they opened. However, we had the ‘excellent’ idea of going the day after we came back from Japan, thinking it would be a great way to fight the jet-lag. We did stay awake the entire time, but it felt like a very vague dream the morning after, so our first impression was a little too blurry for me to share it on the blog. I knew I had eaten well but that was pretty much it.

So using the excuse of Mummy Imaginarium’s visit to town, we booked a table at Sparrow for an overdue evening visit.

The day was grim, rainy and cold, and we were very tempted to skip the reservation for a soup and movie night in. Thank god we didn’t!

Sparrow Lewisham London

We were greeted on arrival by the most lovely manager! I wish I would have asked for his name (as well as our waiters’) because they were all just so nice! The walk in the rain was worth it just for the warm welcome alone.

Sparrow Lewisham kitchen

We opted out of the aperitifs and went straight for a ‘warming’ bottle of Portuguese red wine (which was excellent). All their drinks sounded great and I would have definitely tried one of their homemade bellinis on a warmer day!

Douro Portuguese wine in Sparrow

Following the waitress’s recommendation, we ordered two dishes per person and shared everything.

Sparrow Spring 2018 menu

Spoiler alert – because I just cannot wait to tell you anymore – it was DE-LI-CIOUS! Seriously one of the best meals we had in a while! Sorry, I just couldn’t contain myself until the end of the post to share it with you! Now that have that out of my system let’s review all the details so you can order the same when you are going (because you absolutely have to, and will go to Sparrow). Just note that the menu may change with the seasons.

We started with the focaccia which was light, yet filling, with strong flavours of olive oil, yet not too oily. Delightful!

Focaccia in Sparrow

We ordered one of the specials of the day, a fried chicken tight with peanut satay sauce. Again, really good and not too greasy for a fried dish, and the sauce was delicious.

Fried chicken in Sparrow

Bear with me for the next dish, I just need a minute of contemplation… These roasted Jerusalem artichokes with hazelnut pesto and bitter leaves were by far my favourite dish of the evening. They were so good that looking at the picture makes me emotional. I could eat this every day for the rest of my life!

Jerusalem artichoke in Sparrow

We followed the most epic plate of vegetables I ever had with the scallops and crab tortelli with mussels. They were good but it was hard for them to follow after the artichokes.

Crab and scallops tortelli in Sparrow

For some reason we mainly ordered vegetarian dishes that night, it wasn’t done on purpose but we were very happy we did as the meatless plates are clearly Sparrow’s forte. The grilled asparagus with lemon and parmesan are a perfect example of it, crunchy and full of Spring flavours!

Grilled asparagus in Sparrow

We ended the savoury courses with the most beautiful Puy lentils I had served with carrots and beetroots.

Puy lentils in Sparrow

We had no appetite anymore but if the desserts were as good as the mains we had to have some! So both my mum and I went for the rhubarb trifle which was rich and delicious and Andrew chose the strawberry pannacotta.

Sparrow rhubarb trifleSparrow strawberry pannacotta

We left Sparrow with the most gratifying feeling, one of having had one of the best meals of the year (so far!).

So make a booking, show up (even if it’s – 20 and snowing) and let the lovely staff take care of you! Wait, did I mention it was one of my favourite meals in a while?

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube and Trover!

Advertisements

Brunch at Sparrow – London

Claire1 Comment

I have been a Londoner for seven years now. Five of them were spent in my beloved Shepherd’s Bush and the last two have been spent in Lewisham.

If you are from out of town, you probably have never heard of Lewisham, or if you have it would probably be because of the fire station scene in Bridget Jones. If you are living in London you may probably think “Lewisham, oh dear, is that even safe?”. Lewisham has not the best reputation, I will give you that. It is still very much at the early stages of ‘up and coming’ but you cannot beat the prices when you are looking for a house to buy in London.

Slowly but surely though, there have been some nice little places opening making Lewisham city centre less gritty, one of them is Sparrow.

Sparrow Lewisham

We had been to Sparrow before, but it was for dinner straight off the plane from Japan, and with the jet-lag we weren’t really able to fully appreciate the meal. So this review is only about their brunch and I guess I will have to visit again to let you know about the dinner (life is hard).

We headed mid-morning to Lewisham roundabout where Sparrow is. The area is being fully redeveloped and you will find Sparrow squeezed between a shopping centre and a development site. It doesn’t sound great, but never judge a book by its cover!

Inside, the place is how you would expect any trendy restaurant in Shoreditch to look like. Subway tiles, open kitchen, young friendly staff, overall a very pleasant atmosphere.

Sparrow Lewisham

The menu is very interesting too, between the traditional full-English breakfast and the eggs Benedict, you will find some more surprising dishes inspired by Sri Lanka cuisine, such as poori masala and appam.

Sparrow brunch menu

We placed our order – one full-English for him, one appam for me.

The full-English was beautiful, with vibrant colours and great flavours! One very satisfying breakfast.

Sparrow full-English breakfast

I didn’t know what to expect with the appam, having never had one. It was delicious! Appam is similar to a pancake and made with fermented rice and coconut milk. Light, crispy and fluffy, with delicious flavours of coconut milk, a very nice discovery if you are not too hungry.

Sparrow appam

With that we ordered the fresh juice and smoothy of the day, which were exactly what we needed after a little too many drinks the night before.

Sparrow juice and smoothie of the day

Slowly but surely, Lewisham is finally becoming a destination Londoners go to for a good meal! We will need many more nice eateries to compete with trendy East London of course, but with places like Sparrow, I think we will be just fine!

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube and Trover!