Seldom has a new place been better named. I staggered into the Dark Horse in Camden on Good Friday after what can only be described as a challenging walk over from the nearest Tube, packed to the gunnels with people in varying degrees of sobriety and friendliness.
It’s a bit of a struggle to get to the newly opened pub-restaurant, located at the heart of the now sprawling Stables development, but when you get there, it’s well worth the effort. I’d heard surprising things about the Dark Horse – from the founders of Le Bab, London’s most upmarket kebab group, it is run by Stephen Tozer and Ed Bruner, who have worked in Michelin-starred restaurants. Yet the menu seemed to be standard pub grub – sausage rolls, fish and chips and burgers. What, exactly, was going on?
The Dark Horse is a pub in the same way that Andor is a Star Wars series. Which is to say that whether you’re sitting outside admiring the views of the Stables, or inside in the pub or the stylish, bare-bricked dining room, you’re going to be assured of pub food that really does reach near-transcendent levels of excellence, served by staff who are Camdenistas in all the best ways – in other words, hipsters without the attitude and with a sense of humour.
Everything we eat is apparently simple, but with a twist of sublime excellence. So the sausage roll is possessed of an astonishingly deep, rich flavour, with a light pastry to keep it in check, and the Welsh rarebit crumpets are every bit as good. A couple of Old Fashioneds, priced remarkably decently for the area – something, in fact, that’s reflected across the menu – make it a most pleasant opening to a lunch.
We covet the chicken pie, but it’s off, so we plump instead for the rather pedestrian-sounding options of bangers and mash and the Dark Horse burger. Well, neither’s remotely pedestrian; instead they gallop away with giddy aplomb, thanks both to the unusual and interesting ingredients used (pork belly with the burger? Yes please) and the sheer quality of everything that’s served up.
Robuchon-level mash, wonderful triple-cooked chips and even one of the nicest butted greens as a side I can remember – this is truly the stuff of kings, served with flair and priced affordably. As we drink a particularly well-chosen bottle of Rioja (our first choice, a Malbec, is rejected by the waitress “because I don’t like it”, which speaks volumes for candour), it’s all we can to raise a happy glass to a truly excellent new opening.
The Dark Horse, Camden Stables Market, 87/88 North Yard, Chalk Farm, London NW1 8AH. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.thedarkhorsecamden.com.
