LOTI EATS | SPIRITLAND ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

They’ve got a cafe/studio/listening lounge in King’s Cross and a headphone shop in Mayfair, and now the Spiritland team have opened their largest location yet, at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank. It’s not actually inside the hall, rather it’s outside at back (so not facing the river)… yes we may have had a bit of trouble finding it.

Once you do get inside, there’s a whole lot to like. Not only has the space been designed to offer a great listening experience, complete with its Living Voice sound system, it looks the part too, with velvet curtains, burgundy leather booths and modernist details. Very Mad Men, very cool.

Thanks to a mix of Asian and Middle Eastern influences, there are shades of Caravan – no bad thing at all in our books – across the menus. From the dinner offering, we loved the starters of biber salçasi spiced cauliflower with kale saag (go for the bigger size here because it’ll be gone in a flash) and the galotiri with friorelli, dates and almond. We’ll save you some googling; it’s a delicate cream cheese topped with greens and given some lovely sweetness from the dates.

The mains are much simpler, with a changing selection of meat cuts and a whole fish of the day available, plus sauces and sides. We went for the whole sea bream, crispy skin on the outside and soft flesh on the inside, with roasted spuds and broccoli, and though it’s meant for the meat, a pot of the tarragon chimichurri to add some sauciness. You’ll want to save room for dessert too; the rosemary buttermilk panna cotta topped with rhubarb was so good it disappeared in no time and had us scraping the glass for more.

Just like in King’s Cross, this Spiritland will also play host to a range of dinner talks, salons, and residencies, with guest DJs spinning their record collections from Thursdays – Saturdays. And they’ve got a 2am licence, so you can hang out until late.

Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
spiritland.com

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