James Cochran is back with a new venture in Islington after the closure of his restaurant 12:51 last summer
The Brave, a bistro pub where food undoubtedly takes priority over drinking, offers up pub classics that are elevated by Cochran’s Scottish and Caribbean heritage. Here he’s serving both chip shop-reminiscent scran and a posh pub-style truffle foam in one swoop.
Eat This
The bar snacks will get you hooked on this place. We started off with chip shop hash browns, which come presented with curry sauce to dip in before plunging into crispy salt and vinegar scraps. Chips and curry sauce is flavour combo we all know and love, and the vinegary scraps were the cherry on top. The sourdough & Guinness rarebit with bread and butter pickles didn’t disappoint either.
From the menu proper, we went for one more starter, the crispy prawn toast with sesame and green onion, which one of the best prawn toasts we’ve had. The main, Brixham hake with confit leeks, roast artichoke and Cullen Skink (a Scottish soup made from haddock, potato and onion), was just as good, with the richness from the veggies suiting the fish down to the ground.
No amount of potato is ever truly enough, so of course we ordered another round of hash browns, this time with truffle foam. Although a more unusual texture to pair with the crispy potato compared to the curry sauce, the foam certainly wasn’t lacking in truffle flavour.
You definitely don’t want to miss desserts at The Brave. The treacle tart with malt ice cream was so moreish with just the right amount of sweetness, and the Jamaican gingerbread with banana ice cream was like an out of this world sticky toffee pudding.
Drink This
Though The Brave is a pub where eating is the main focus, it doesn’t mean the drinks selection here is lacking. The Brave has a punchy range of cocktails, like the rum, cognac, lemon and ginger Braveheart and the Scotch Bonnet Bloody Mary (which goes down a treat with the scotch egg). We loved the passionfruit notes of the Satellite Sauvignon Blanc, which saw us through from our first bar bite to our final spoon of treacle tart.
Why Go
If you’re craving comforting pub grub, but still want a touch of luxury, this is the spot. Go for the chip shop hash browns, stay for literally everything else.
Key Information
Address | 340-342 Essex Road, London N1 3PB
For more information | thebravelondon.co.uk