What can you tell us about Blackfoot?
Essentially, it's a restaurant devoted to pig (hence the name). So you can expect all manner of piggy goodness to be on offer in all manner of ways. This will obviously be many people's idea of heaven. Although avoid if you're a vegetarian...
Where is it?
In the middle of that North London foodie haunt, Exmouth Market. The best station to use is either Farringdon or Angel and it's about a 10 minute walk from both.
Where should I meet a friend for a drink first?
The are loads of options around Exmouth Market - no shortage of a place to drink here. However our top two options would be either to grab a beer or a cocktail at Caravan or a glass or two of wine in the wine bar section of Quality Chop House,
Where should I sit?
Up front in one of the booths would be the best bet. Blackfoot took this site over from an old pie and mash shop and the old style decor is very much in evidence in this section. We would warn that the benches in this section are wooden (think old-style Quality Chop House before the recent revamp) so be prepared for that. One of us had no problem at all with this, but the other (who's writing this) would have appreciated a little cushioning!
And what parts of the pig did you work your way through?
As much of it as we could, to be frank. Check out the gallery below for the full list, but there were a few specific highlights.
First up - the whipped lardo on sourdough. This is undoubtedly one of the stars of the show and if you're anywhere near Exmouth Market, you owe it to yourself to at least pop in and try some of this. If we weren't planning on giving the full menu a going over, we would have been perfectly happy to continue ordering this for the rest of the evening. Also worth mentioning is the well done chilli pork crackling - not too tough. We also loved the colcannon mash, which led to the discovery that scraping up the remainder of the mash with the crackling makes for a very good (although heinously unhealthy) snack indeed.
From the mains, the key attraction were the crispy and aromatic pork ribs ("Braised with lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves, deep-fried with crispy garlic, chilli and spring onions) which was a very good choice but we'd still like to try the whole smoked belly on a return visit.
Also impressive was the selection from the charcoal grill (all served with a side and sauce). We went for the Oxford Sandy and Black Gammon (with that marvellous colcannon and cider onion gravy) for £14, and would come back for the presa (£25) or spare rib steak (£14).
Essentially we were very happy with everything we ordered and loved quite a bit of it too. And despite ordering a chunk of the menu, there's still loads we'd return for.
Of course we still had room for dessert. The lemon sorbet in pink fizz is highly recommended if you just need something light and sweet, but we also had an excellent chocolate eclair too.
What about the drinks?
There's a short wine list (6 each of red and white) starting at £21 for a bottle as well as a house white and red for £17 as well as beers and cider on tap (including rotating specials too), Prosecco for £3.50 a glass. A few cocktails round out the list - we were really keen to try a rhubarb highball but it wasn't available the night we went (a reason to return).
Overall thoughts
There is a genuine worry when you go out to a restaurant that you've been looking forward to for a while that it won't live up to expectations, so we were very pleased that we loved the meal at Blackfoot so much. We instantly agreed that we'd be back at the very least for more of that whipped lardo, but also to work through the rest of the menu. The whole place comes highly recommended.
Blackfoot is at 46 Exmouth Market,London EC1R 4QE. Follow Blackfoot on Twitter @BlackfootEC1.
Prices were correct at time of writing. Hot Dinners ate as guests of Blackfoot.
