Dalston's eclectic mix of cuisines gets a new flavour with a Hawaiian restaurant about to be added to the mix.
Called Pond, it's focusing on the cuisine of Hawaii and the neighbouring Pacific islands.
What you need to know about Pond
It's from the person who helped launch Off Broadway, Beavertown Brewery and Duke’s Brew and Que, Byron Knight. He's working with head chef Frog Wong to pull together the menu.
Pond will blend Hawaiian food with Chinese, Japanese and Filipino dishes, "Hawaii’s main immigrant communities." The menu will also be seasonal, using local ingredients where possible. In practice, all this means dishes like whole catfish with citrus ponzu, Maui charcoal avocado with macadamia salted coconut crème and Kalua pork with pickleback slaw. Plus desserts which include "Red bean nori mochi with pistachio cake and Bailey’s puree".
There's also poke. A Hawaiian dish that is "somewhere between sashimi and ceviche" the poke here promises to be unique to Pond. For instance - "Bulgogie steak poke with lemongrass influences, with caramelised red onion and pear" or "Poke pines supreme with ahi, Tobiko, Wakame and Lilikoi sorbet." The bar snacks sound interesting too - we're particularly intrigued/concerned by Hurricane Popcorn and "Dried shrimp crusted pork spam".
And cocktails other than Tiki. They'll be created by Megs DeMeulenare (Bramble) who'll be doing "new bold interpretations of tropical flavours and seasonal twists on well-loved classics".
Where is it? Unit G2, Stamford Works 3 Gillette Street Dalston, East London, N16 8JH
When does it open? 29 August 2014
For more information, follow them on Twitter @ponddalston
