Review: The Dairy, Clapham

Why is flat-hunting so tiring? You’re just spending a day trotting from place to place, being shown around a variety of living spaces ranging from stunning to sadly dilapidated by a variety of letting agents ranging from tooth-jarringly perky to pinstripe sleazily urbane. By the end of it you feel like you’ve done a marathon. I think it’s all the thinking. We spent hours weighing up the pros and cons of each place, and each location, in minute detail. Dinner at The Dairy was a very welcome distraction (although it had the sad side-effect of waking us to the possibility of Clapham as another cool place to live!).

It’s a cool space, a fine example of stripped-back industrial chic. Service is friendly. There’s a good drinks list and we have a couple of fine glasses of wine. The menu is one of those odd tasting plate experiences; it’s definitely not a “3 course meal” and yet the tasting plates are divided into 3 sections and you’re recommended to pick one from each section. So…? I don’t mind. At the end of the day we tend to find that if you follow the waiter’s instructions you end up with a right-size meal. The tableware is all of solid, heavy, heat-conserving, carved stone with plenty of wabi sabi chips out of it. That was noteworthy and splendid.

Maureen picked a slice of truffled Baron Bigod cheese to start, served on a slice of toasted sourdough it was a perfectly gnarly pleasure. My start was pollock cheek gougeres; satisfying mouthfuls of cheesy puff with a friendly blob of fish inside. Good start. To follow I had bone marrow agnolotti. These little pasta parcels literally exploded in the mouth. Having bone marrow jus dribble down your chin is a wicked sensation. Mmmm. Filth. The jerusalem artichoke crisps and little chunks were just the right accompaniment. Maureen’s fillet of mackerel was a splendid piece of fish but I definitely scored on this course.

Our main courses… sorry, third small plates… were just a tad below par by comparison. My sturdy tranche of middlewhite pork was very well cooked, still on the juicy side, and served with some decent cavalo nero, red cabbage and swede puree. So, yeah, kindof a decent pub main. And Maureen’s lovely pink piece of lamb with a bean stew was also another perfectly decent pub main. I may be being unfair, but that’s the thing about small plate cooking: you expect every plate to have some pizazz.

No room for pud, but the little petit four of sticky fudge with tiny pieces of caramelised jerusalem artichoke inside was veeeeeery lovely. At about £32 for three dishes I’d happily give The Dairy a thumbs up. If we end up living near Clapham then I think it’ll easily become a local favourite. Otherwise, I’m not sure if I’m likely to bother making a special trip here; it’s good, but not memorable.