Kraft Dalston is a venue that has a lot going on. It combines a craft beer brewery, a sustainable gin distillery, a gourmet kebab kitchen, and an aparthotel. Is it too much for one site to cope with? We visited to find out.
Dalston, East London, seems much like many suburbs of London, with its bustling pavements and traffic-choked streets. After enduring the dreaded rail replacement bus service to get there, Kraft was a sanctuary of cool, clean serenity. Stepping in off the busy street, we were greeted with a modern, airy, stylish-looking bar, with ample seating and tables dotted around. We headed downstairs to another dining area next to the on-site brewery and gin distillery.
The modern, clean design continued, with plenty of light flooding in from the large skylight overhead. Kraft Dalston has embraced modern tech, too — it doesn’t use paper menus, but each table has a QR code to scan, which gives customers access to the food and drinks menus via their mobile devices.
Kraft Dalston: The Drinks
My dining companions and I decided to kick off with a drink, ordering the flight of beers, a Vanilla Ice mocktail and the cocktail of the month, Romero Bebe. The flight of beers included stout, pilsner and an IPA, all of which were brewed on-site. All three were fresh and tasty. The stout had a hint of chocolate coming through, the pilsner was crisp and hoppy, while the IPA was light and fruity – a great way to try out the different offerings and pick your favourite.
The mocktail was fruity and refreshing, with a hint of vanilla bringing up the rear. The Romero Bebe cocktail combined Illegal Mezcal, a slightly more herbal-flavoured type of tequila, with green chartreuse, another herbal liqueur, to create an interesting mix of sweet spices and herbs, reminiscent of margarita. Both were refreshing and tasty and went down well.
Kraft Dalston: The Food
Thoughts soon turned to the food menu, and to start, we opted for hummus topped with peanut curry pesto and flatbread for the table, and a meat butter naan. They arrived pretty swiftly, and we tucked in. The hummus was good, although the peanut curry pesto didn’t add as much of a curry kick as we might have expected. The flatbread that accompanied it, though, was superb. My dining companions declared that the meat butter naan was one of the best things they had eaten recently, so that should be a must when you visit!
The next stop was the selection of kebabs by Le Bab, bringing a new approach to this ancient dish. The techniques used by Le Bab are said to have been honed using the experience gained in Michelin-starred kitchens and combining Middle Eastern and South Asian inspiration, so expectations were high.
We chose the free-range fried chicken shish kebab, the 15-hour pork rib-eye shawarma, and the Dirty Bab. We’d seen a few plates come out to tables around us, and they looked pretty impressive, so we waited with anticipation. When our food arrived at the table, it did look terrific — well-presented and enticing.
The first quandary, though, was how to tackle it. In the UK, the usual way to eat a kebab is to use the bread base — in this case, a freshly baked thin sourdough — like a wrap and munch on through. Le Bab serves its kebabs on a metal tray lined with paper, which would suggest this method of consumption would work, but the amount of topping makes it difficult. The only real solution was to break out the knife and fork. This did present a different problem, though, as the moisture from the fillings gradually soaked into the paper, cutting the bread base without shredding the paper became impossible.
Logistics aside, we tucked into the food with alacrity. The Dirty Bab was topped with 15-hour slow-cooked pork with chilli pork jus, sweet pickled cucumber, double-cooked fries and Le Bab’s signature fondue sauce. It was an impressive plateful that won’t leave you hungry. The flavours worked well, but the slow-cooked pork was a slight disappointment; while the flavour was undoubtedly good, we’d expect meat that’s been gently cooked for 15 hours to be moist, tender and falling apart, but sadly it was much tougher than the description suggested.
The pork rib-eye shawarma shared the same slow-roasted pork topped with sweet pickled cucumber and chermoula mayo. Again, while the flavours were really good, but as you would expect, the pork was lacking tenderness. The chermoula mayo added a nice coriander flavour, which lifted the dish well.
The free-range fried chicken shish kebab was the star, combining perfectly cooked chicken with a spicy, southern fried edge, with a fresh red cabbage slaw and the hit of Kashmiri chilli mayo. The flavours complemented each other well, and the spice level was well-judged, adding lots of flavour without overpowering the dish.
The menu at Kraft Dalston lists everything but desserts – these seem to work on a ‘specials’ basis, with a different dessert each day. Our option was a vegan brownie, which we were told came with vegan ice cream, but when it arrived, it was actually accompanied by a peanut and coconut cream. While the brownie was wonderfully rich and moist, the peanut and coconut cream was a slightly odd addition – served slightly warmed, it had an unusual consistency that was claggy on the palette. The brownie was much better without it, and a definite hit.
Kraft Dalston: The Verdict
Kraft Dalston has a lot of great things about it. The space is bright and lively, with unique beer and gin options on the menu. The drinks menu is pretty extensive, and the food options, while a little more limited, offer some spectacular choices.
It’s perhaps a venue to visit for drinks and a relaxed bite rather than a fully-fledged meal, but if you’re anywhere near Dalston, it’s worth dropping in.
What: KRAFT Dalston Bar & Restaurant
Where: Inside Kingsland Locke, 130a Kingsland High Street, Dalston, London E8 2LQ
Web: KraftDalston.com
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