Restaurant Friday: "I can't decide what to eat…" at Maltby Street Market, London
I have been writing about quite a number of restaurants here in London already and there are a lot to follow, but today I am giving you a break from that and showing you (in case you don’t know it already), a very nice market, hidden next to a railway bridge with loads of delicious food stands and other things to offer.
I am talking about 'MaltbyStreet Market', a small/mid-size market with food stands, restaurants and bars. As I told you here I am a huge fan of markets and no matter which city I am visiting I am trying to visit them all. I won’t write a post about ‘Borough Market’ which I really do like, but it has become a bit of a tourist attraction, being in all kinds of city guides and many people knowing about it. (Which is fine, I am an annoying tourist myself sometimes, but it is nothing “new” or “unknown” in that sense) About 'Maltby Street Market’… it is located close to the tube station London Bridge, close to Borough market, but is selling predominantly food to eat at the spot. There is a lovely variety of many different kinds of food and dishes and you almost can’t decide what to try first or for what to decide. There are some bakery stands offering cakes, cupcakes, Macarons, fresh bread, doughnuts with rhubarb filling, brownies with bacon and maple syrup and the list goes on and on. Other than food, there are a few other stands selling soap or flowers and below the railway bridge, along which the market is located, there are shops with furniture and decoration – second hand or brand new.
The restaurants have seating below the bridge or outside and serve pastries and coffee, Spanish tapas or cocktails, featuring home-made gin transformed into the nicest cocktails. Unfortunately I didn’t try, nor have a picture of the Bloody Mary served at one of the places, but it looked fabulous in these Kilner glasses with red and white striped straws.
Of course I tried
some things from the food stands and I must say I liked everything. In the beginning we
had a classic scotch egg with tomato relish, which was great. The scotch egg
itself was a bit dry but still good. I found the “chorizo scotch egg” sounded
very interesting, but unfortunately they have been sold out already when we
finally decided to get one. The next stop was the cheese stand, where you can get toasted good
quality bread with all kinds of cheeses and special additions such as chorizo
or ham, for around £5-£7. I tried the one with blue cheese, bacon and
pear chutney – it was absolutely delicious. They put the sandwiches on a heated
surface and squeeze it with a thing, which I have no idea how you call it.
The cheese then melts between the two halves of fresh bread and turns the whole
thing into something great. A must try, for sure! Speaking of which, the next
must try is the fresh, smoked salmon opposite of the cheese stand. My first
thought was “boooring, I can make that myself – a piece of
bread, a piece of salmon, a bit of sour cream and that’s it”. But what you get
for £3 is very good quality smoked salmon with no chewy parts or fish bones, on
a piece of sourdough bread. It is maybe hard to describe, but that’s even an
argument more for you to try it. The dessert was a filled doughnut with rhubarb
jam, which was the perfect thing for me as a rhubarb lover. A bit sweet a bit
sour - just right. There is also grilled meat or mussels, falafel, …..
So that was my choice of food, but
you will see it is very hard to decide what to get. The “pot dogs” – a sausage
in a paper bowl with potatoes and beans, or other ingredients and the waffles
with duck and plum sauce are definitely my next try.
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