Trivet is the first solo restaurant from Fat Duck alumni Jonny Lake and Isa Bal, which opened in Bermondsey back in October 2019 – yes, not long before having to close in March 2020 for (the first) lockdown. Despite this unlucky start, Trivet is back up and running in full force again, and we went by on a recent Saturday night to find it fully booked and buzzing. It’s a nice modern room on a quiet Bermondsey backstreet, with a separate bar area to the right when you come in and a main dining room with open kitchen to the left. It’s all very relaxed and welcoming.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the three Michelin-star background of Jonny and Isa, Trivet is still a fine dining restaurant at heart and will be no doubt striving for a star of their own soon. Service, led by another Fat Duck alumni, restaurant manager Melissa Fergus, is impeccable throughout.
We also loved Isa’s wine list, which is organised chronologically from the beginning of wine production history in Georgia thousands of years ago up until the present day. It’s a really interesting way of presenting wine and it’s well worth a read though the whole list (more of a book) even if you’re only having a glass or two. Whereas Jonny will have been used to sending out multi-course tasting menus at The Fat Duck, at Trivet he’s gone for a more classic a la carte offering, with your regular snacks, starters, mains and desserts, so if you’re not a fan of tasting menus you’ll be right at home here.
We love to have a snack and a glass of fizz while reading the main menu, and at Trivet you should definitely be ordering the assortment of beautiful crackers flavoured with beetroot & malt vinegar and purple cabbage & mustard, along with a glass of the Pierre Moncuit champagne.
From the starters came our favourite dish of the night – ‘Dante’s Pici’ – which was fresh pici pasta with a creamy crab sauce that had nearly had us licking the plate. We also went for ‘Mushroom and Madeira, a dish of Trivet’s own noodles cooked in a mushroom and Madeira wine stock and topped with an absolute blanket of black winter truffles and cordycep mushrooms.
“Don’t order the chicken” is an outdated rule of restaurant ordering, and Trivet has an excellent poached and roasted chicken with a tangy vinegar sauce that makes for an excellent choice from the mains, especially with a side of fries and onion ketchup. Then there’s the juicy citrus butter poached turbot with confit delica pumpkin, black radish, and Chardonnay butter sauce.
For dessert you pretty much have to order the signature pud, the beautiful Hokkaido potato, a baked potato mille feuille with a saké and white chocolate mousse, butter and saké gelato. You may well have seen on a fair few Instagram feeds already, as it looks very impressive – we can confirm it’s delish too.
36 Snowsfields, London SE1 3SU
trivetrestaurant.co.uk