Bright
FEAST FROM THE EAST
Bright has announced they are permanently closed for business 17/03/23
With a family birthday to celebrate, our day started early enjoying the West London buzz of Notting Hill and the Portobello Road market. It ends here, in East London with us having racked up 22,000 steps.
Mare Street Market
Despite temperatures still in the late twenties, we’re an hour early, so head into the neighbouring Mare Street Market. It’s a ‘hip, leafy market by day’ and a ‘bustling bar and restaurant by night’, so it’s a perfect spot to rehydrate with large G & Ts.
Bright (interior)
We’re further lifted, walking into Bright, with its Scandi styling and high ceiling that can’t even come close to softening the happy energy of the room. Hardly surprising, given the menu is a celebration of seasonal produce with the sorts of Mediterranean influences that conjure feel good holiday memories. There’s also a substantial list of low intervention wines that demand my immediate priority for now.
Menu of dreams
Now, with hunger focusing the mind, we opt for a mostly vegetarian and pescatarian sharing plates selection between the three of us. We kick things off with textbook wholemeal sourdough bread and tomato and white peach gazpachos that promise and fully deliver a ballerina’s balance of fresh, delicate sweet and savoury flavours.
Tomato & white peach gazpacho
A plate of thin slices of raw grey mullet, covered in a briny seaweed laden oil, tempered by lemon zest provides a boost to the fresh delicacy of fish that’s genuinely melt in the mouth. It’s gone quicker than a tray of free Jägerbombs in Fresher’s week, but I refuse to entertain even a glimmer of disappointment and order another straight away.
Raw mullet, seaweed, lemon
Before we can even contemplate the idea of a third, the pizza fritta arrives; fried dough, with a crispy edge and airy centre, like the best pizza cornicione, topped with melting fior di latte, grilled courgette, mint leaves and Pecorino for a final salty hit.
Pizza fritta
It’s unfair to judge the next dish by the picture, as I asked for the meat on the side to accommodate the pescatarian. As well as the crunch and fresh green flavours of the beans and a mix of leaves, the creamy fior di latte combines with a sweet fig dressing working in harmony with the delicate flavour of the pancetta.
Summer salad of fine beans, leaves, fior di latte, figs, pancetta cotta
A quick loo break has me enthusing with a fellow diner and whilst he’s in full agreement about the food, he’s a bit sniffy about the price of the wines. But, our skin contact, single terroir Riesling is wonderfully lightly spiced and floral whilst offering sublime minerality and at £50 a bottle, there’s no complaint from me; confirmed by ordering another.
Domaine Durrmann Riesling de Grès
It arrives with the ricotta and spinach pansotti; triangular ravioli with it’s filling dominated by the rich grassy flavour of spinach, perfect for the earthy, nuttiness of a walnut sauce, under a heavy sprinkle of Parmesan.
Ricotta & spinach pansotti, walnut, Parmesan
Ricotta & spinach pansotti, walnut, Parmesan
The spaghetti al tonno is pure Sicily, offering huge curls of tuna, salinity from black olives, lemony-spike from capers and sweetness from datterini tomatoes that brings to mind a light puttanesca with all the lightness of summer breeze.
Spaghetti al tonno
I’m full, but feel cleansed by flavours that have been reasonably restrained, but optimally balanced and exquisitely combined. It’s clearly a kitchen that has total faith in the quality of the produce, allowing each ingredient to shine.
We decide to take a break from food until there’s any possibility of dessert. bridging the gap with an assault on the digestifs menu. After forty minutes, we’ve had a Laurent Cazottes guignes et guins… a sweet, wild cherry eau de vie liquer, two of the cedrat (lemon) version, a Partida Creus MUZ natural vermouth and a truly sublime, herb and botanical loaded Moscato d’Asti Chinato.
Ricotta ice cream, cherry sorbet
We’ve got one abstainer, so it’s two spoons and a ricotta ice cream and cherry sorbet; it’s a dream combination of creamy, savoury ricotta ice cream and a sweet, cherry jammy ‘Slush Puppy’ like sorbet, that glides over the taste buds like Torvill and Dean. If you think we let the abstainer have any, you’re so, so wrong.
We’re all marveling at the genuinely first class service from all staff we’ve encountered, that’s been every bit as wonderful as the drinks and the food. With a single espresso and endless flow of free sparkling water I’ve got a well deserved bill of £249 plus tip (£111 food / £138 drink).
By the time we leave, I can barely make the final few steps of the day to our taxi, utterly exhausted and marginally worse for wear, but with a birthday celebrated in style.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
1 Westgate Street, Hackney, London E8 3RL
