Prawn on the Lawn

POTL, apparently. I prefer Prawn on’t Lawn with its suitably N1 northern twang. Or maybe Crevettes sur l’Herbe with fin de siècle, Manet credentials and the suggestion of naked, seafood picnics c. 1860. Either way, this is my first time at Prawn on the Lawn in Islington. And my, how Highbury banlieue has come on since I last clutched my cloak about me and hurried through on the way to somewhere nicer! Some rather chic-looking restos now: Trullo seemed promising and I found the husband having a pre-dinner snifter in the very pleasant Yield N1 across a busy St Paul’s Rd.

POTL was itself a great mix of seafood bar and fishmongery, scrubbed-table wonderfulness. Fantastic raw carabineros with ailo blanco, hake with truffle and porcini, deep-fried oysters with garlic crème fraîche, whole gurnard stuffed with chilli and herbs, deeply smoky taramasalata and the like. And everything looked tip-top fresh and clear-eyed (baring us of course) as it should being shipped daily from the south-west (they have another place in Padstow, too).

Quite a lot of Pet Nat, No&low, Session IPA tomfoolery which you can ignore. Head for the goodly list of fish-friendly whites and reds (nice touch): Tempranillo, PNs, Dolcetto. Unusually, also a dark ‘n dangerous Puglian Negroamaro … wonder if anyone orders that with their prawns! Surely its rosé incarnation would be a better bet? We ignored it anyway and plumped for the reasonably priced Verdicchio (di Jesi) which flowed nicely to the accompaniment of wild hipster chefs wrestling whole John Dory at the pass. Kitchen theatre at its finest. A good time was had by all (except, I suspect, the John Dory).

Good fishiness for when you wash up on Islington shores.