After a day of trekking about London (this time visiting the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Modern), we met up with my sister-in-law at The Founders Arms pub, and walked to dinner at The Table café in Southwark.
The Table is a modestly sized café that focuses on making meals with as many locally sourced meats and organic produce as possible, particularly from Essex, Surrey and Mersea. They are well known for having quality meats for dinner, and supposedly for having a great breakfast as well, although I haven’t yet taken that opportunity.
I started my meal with some carpaccio, served up with a light frisee salad. The meat itself was nicely sliced and marbled, served up with a slightly Asian preparation, with a bit of soy, some ginger, and some sesame. Normally I eschew too many things added to my carpaccio, since it tends to cover up the flavor of the meat, but here it worked out quite nicely, complementing the meat in a similar manner to a nice bulgoki, and nicely dressing the frisee as well.
My main course was braised pork cheeks with pasta. Both were perfectly executed, with the pork being nicely tender and flavorful, and the pasta being al dente. For those not familiar to pork cheeks, they are actually similar to pork belly: soft and tender meat (cheeks don’t get a lot of work) with some nice fat layers, they are quite flavorful cuts of meat. Lightly sautéed and served up in a light cream sauci, this dish was quite enjoyable (and, indeed, both Carol and my brother ordered it as well).
Sophie opted for the rabbit sausage, which was also quite pleasing prepared and well received, although I didn’t try any of it (I was already somewhat overstuffed by the time I finished my own entree).
For dessert, Carol and split the white chocolate bread pudding, served up with ice cream. The bread pudding was nicely textured, with the chocolate notes from the white chocolate adding a nice flavor to the dish.
Overall, we rather enjoyed The Table, and were particularly pleased with the pork cheeks. I’m looking forward to going here for breakfast (likely on another visit)
The Table Cafe
83 Southwark Street
London, SE1
England
