After a successful launch earlier this summer, Night Tales has popped a roof on for winter, installed some heaters, and officially opened Fat Baby, its in-house Japanese restaurant. Run by Greg Round (formerly of Umu in Mayfair), Fat Baby is inspired by backstreet Tokyo izakayas and the high benches, neon lighting, and open feel of the space (the bar is sectioned off on Thursdays and Fridays, with the whole area open on Saturdays) does give it that feeling.
Fat Baby did offer a small street food menu over the summer when Night Tales itself swung open the doors but now they’ve expanded to include snacks, vegetable side dishes and charcoal grill plates. It’s a tight menu (and the plates are on the small side) so you can easily hit all of the sections and get in on the specials too – we had a great mackerel sashimi on our visit – but it will change often.
The pork belly and mustard green gyoza, the grilled sweetcorn with miso butter and lemon (they cut the cobs in half for you to make for easy sharing), and the juicy quail kushiyaki with sweet soy and shichimi pepper were our faves from the night. And you might have thought the katsu sando craze was over but Fat Baby might just be bringing it back with their excellent version… don’t skip it.
[easy-image-collage id=122659]To complement the restaurant, the Night Tales bar has a short list of Asian-inspired cocktails as well as sake and Asahi beer on offer, and we think that Fat Baby works best if you’re looking to have food to snack on whilst you drink, so round up your mates and get the bevs in.
Arches 14 & 15, Bohemia Place, London, E8 1DU
fatbabylondon.com