This little corner of Shoreditch is where you'll find The Knave of Clubs
What can you tell us about The Knave of Clubs?
It's a brand new pub for Shoreditch (well, sort of, and we'll get to that in a bit). It comes from something of a hospitality superteam - James Dye (The Camberwell Arms, Franks), Benjy Leibowitz (JKS and The NoMad in NYC) and Patrick Powell (Allegra and Chiltern Firehouse). This is the first half of an opening which later sees them adding a restaurant, One Club Row. But The Knave itself is a proper pub, through and through.
Where is it?
It's less than a five-minute walk from Shoreditch High Street station, having taken over a building that was most recently Dirty Bones. However, long before that, it was a pub and the original name was indeed The Knave of Clubs, which first opened in 1880. Its history is right there on the walls where there's a very fancy sign that has the pub's name (you can see it on the right of the photo below). That sign looks brand new, but is actually from one of its earlier way-back-when pub incarnations. So this is very much a back-to-the-roots operation.
A classic boozer inside, albeit one done very, very well.
But is it a proper pub?
Whenever we write about or put up a video of a newly open pub in London, many of the comments use the cliché "that's not a pub" retort. While we think the definition of a pub can be stretched more than some people do, we also don't think anyone could consider The Knave anything other than a proper pub, albeit one which happens to have great food. You can't reserve a table (so none are reserved for food only) and you can only order food and drink by heading up to the bar. So it has an old-school pub feel and it really benefits from that.
We visited early in the week, just a few days after opening and it had already found a strong following with both locals and local workers as a post-work drinking space.
But there is food?
Patrick Powell, most recently best known for running the show at Allegra and The Midland Grand Dining Room, is in charge of the pub food here. It's a short menu that centres around rotisserie chicken, but as you'd expect from a chef of his calibre, the food hits at several notches above your average pub grub.
The menu is a mix of pub snacks and the main rotisserie chicken event. Even if you're not planning on having a proper dinner while you're here, many of the snacks are excellent and shouldn't be missed. With that in mind, here's a selection of what's on offer, starting with the snacks:
Prawn scotch egg, chilli jam (£12) - a different take on the scotch egg and while shifting away from the traditional meat can lead to varying results, replacing pork with prawn proves to be a genius choice. A contender for Scotch egg of the year if the Scotch Egg Challenge ever returns (The Knave would be a great location to host that).
Venison sausage roll, house smoked ketchup (9) - very good sausage rolls (and excellent ketchup).
The Knave Fried Chicken, aioli & pickles (£10) - There's a big focus on the rotisserie chicken at The Knave but we'd say equal billing needs to be given to these incredibly crispy chicken snacks. Do not leave the pub without ordering them.
And then there's the main event. This is all about the rotisserie chicken although other dishes may pop onto the menu from time to time (porchetta has appeared on the menu already). As for the chicken, that's sourced from Turner & George butchers in Angel, who in turn get their chickens from small farms in Yorkshire and Suffolk. Half or whole options are available at £24/£28 and for that, you get the following.
The chicken comes in a classic glaze (which is what's shown here) or in chermoula spices and comes with chicken fat potatoes, green salad, baguette & aioli. The chicken is fantastic, but extra top marks go to the extremely crispy chicken-fat potatoes. These are so good, we'd recommend you order an extra batch on the side (£6).
They are also working at introducing more vegetarian options - and when we visited, this was on offer:
Roasted cauliflower, vadouvan spices, pomegranate and yoghurt (£16)
There are also toasties, oysters (3 for £10 is a pretty good deal) and Old Bay-seasoned fishcakes. And as for dessert, there's just one thing on offer - a very, very good chocolate mousse.
Chocolate mousse with chantilly & cherry (£9)
What about drinks?
On the beer side, they've teamed up with Allsops Brewery (who actually owned the pub back in the 1930s) and they'll even have the throwback Double Diamond on tap here (the first time the retro beer is back in pubs in the UK). Alongside that are pints from various London breweries like 40FT and, of course, Guinness. As for low/no alcohol, Erdinger, Lucky Saint and Guinness 0 are all available.
Outside of the pints, classic cocktails (martini, negroni, etc) are on offer at a very decent £10-£12, while the wine is also well priced, with bottles starting at £32 (glasses at £5.50), with about 10 bottles available, all European.
And there's more to come?
Yes, that will be One Club Row, coming about a month after the opening of the pub. That's an upstairs restaurant with a very different NYC-style vibe (and a separate entrance in an alleyway round the back of the pub). Given how great the food is in the pub, that is firmly an opening to watch out for.
Overall thoughts
There was a lot of buzz building around the opening of The Knave of Clubs and it's safe to say that they have delivered an immediate hit right out of the gate. A proper pub in every sense that's already building its own community and one that's backed up by an excellent pub menu. All that and it's pretty decently priced too. Shoreditch has been a bit quiet for new openings of late, but this is an absolute winner and it all bodes very well for the upcoming restaurant upstairs.
More about The Knave of Clubs
Where is it? 25 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6JX
How to book: No booking the pub is for walk-ins only
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @theknaveofclubspub
Hot Dinners ate as guests of The Knave of Clubs. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
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