The game restaurant revisited

In a game restaurant, you can eat seasonal dishes featuring wild-caught deer, roe deer and game birds. Right? Native, opening in London this month, takes things a few steps further. There, essentially all the food that reaches the table is foraged, picked, fished, shot or caught in the wild.

London is the New New York. If you want to know what’s happening in food, particularly in hospitality, you no longer have to cross the ocean to the trendsetting city on North America’s east coast. A quick channel hop is enough to be completely up to date again.

And what’s happening foodwise in London? The restaurant Native, opening this month. The name already gives away that only British ingredients end up on the plates here.

Foraged

But that’s not all. The native products aren’t bought from smallholders, family farms and other small-scale businesses. At Native, only what has been picked, foraged, fished, shot or caught in the British wild makes it to the table. The lesser-known wild plant and meat varieties are given a leading role here.

Native mainly serves lesser-known wild plant and meat varieties

Founders Imogen Davis and self-taught chef Ivan Tisdall-Downes met at university, ran several supper clubs together and gained further hospitality experience at, among others, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage HQ. Their fascination with wild food began in childhood.

Stem-to-root

As fervent supporters of the ‘nose-to-tail’ and ‘stem-to-root’ movements, in the two-storey, thirty-cover, newly rugged Native the duo wants to change guests’ perception of wild food. Their aim is to make wild and unfamiliar plant species accessible and affordable to a broad audience using innovative techniques, bold flavours and inspiration drawn from street food. And not somewhere in the romantic countryside, but in the heart of London.

With seasonal dishes such as venison tartare, duck egg & hayonnaise (venison tartare, duck egg and ‘hayonnaise’; see photo) or pigeon breast, sweet brambles & pickled cabbage, guests wash down strictly British wines, beers, ciders and seasonal cocktails. Naturally with bread made from native sourdough on the side.

Restaurant Native
3 Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden
WC2H 9DP, London

Text: Marjan Ippel
Image: Restaurant Native