The Kimchi Fritters of Delight

One of the best meals we've had in London in a long time, and it started with a small act of pleasant surprise. When the kimchi fritters appeared on the menu at seven quid, I'd mentally braced myself for a single sad fritter on a plate. What arrived instead was a generous stack of four — properly sized, properly crispy, with a good kick of spice from the kimchi. An excellent opener. Nathan went for a fiano, a very fruity one that suited the food perfectly. I had an orange wine, also a fiano as it turned out, though perhaps a touch too tannic up against the kimchi's heat. A minor miscalculation, easily forgiven.

The chalk stream trout followed — a lovely dish, with a small green leaf we couldn't identify but didn't need to. Then came the manto in a spicy broth, which was genuinely warming and well-balanced, and then the manto with lamb (the accompaniment escapes me now), alongside a rice dish with mushrooms that was deeply umami. We matched the mains with a Spanish red — a blend of garnacha and cabernet sauvignon — which turned out to be fuller and darker than we'd expected for something described as garnacha-forward. Not quite what we'd anticipated, but a very good wine all the same.

The service was genuinely warm and attentive. Our waiter clearly knew his spiel about the wines — which, honestly, puts Calong ahead of most restaurants even if the deeper tasting knowledge wasn't quite there. As for the baked Alaska on the dessert menu: we watched one arrive at the table next to us, and after years in Australia where a baked Alaska is expected to arrive as a proper theatrical mound of meringue, the rather modest little pile that appeared wasn't quite calling our names. We skipped it without regret.

A really excellent evening. Calong is doing something interesting — the food has range and confidence, the wine list rewards curiosity, and the room felt genuinely welcoming rather than performatively cool. We'll be back.