The omens were good - Marina O'Loughlin had reviewed Elliot's for that morning's Metro, raved about it and given it four stars. We got there expecting it to be heaving, but only had to wait a couple of minutes to be seated. It's a lovely little building on Stoney Street, with natural light coming in from the huge skylight at the back and a big sharing table at the front of the restaurant.
We ordered a bottle of Prosecco and settled in to peruse the menu. I have it in front of me now, and just reading it is making me salivate. We decided to order two or three starters and share them, mainly because I am greedy and wanted oysters, as well as a more 'substantial' starter dish. The oysters were enormous, sweet and fresh and tasting of the sea. My only quibble was that as well as the traditional shallot and red wine vinegar to accompany them, there was a very odd teriyaki style sauce with them, best avoided. Other than that, they were superb:
We observed hundreds of plates of shoestring fries with aloli coming out of the kitchen and decided that we were going to get ourselves some of those. Messy as hell to eat, but temptingly moreish, just grab a handful dip in the gorgeous, heavily garlicked aioli, ignoring the fries that scatter across the table in your wake:
The third starter dish we chose was soppressata with spiced cherries. Wonderful finely sliced Italian salami with pickled spiced cherries that I thought we may come to blows over:
Having lingered gloriously over our starters, the delightful waitress asked if we were ready for our main courses. Bring them on we said! Dayna had a beautifully poached piece of plaice, with the roe still in it. Cooked to perfection so it was ever so slightly opaque, it fell off the bone and was light and lovely.
It was accompanied by a fennel, tarragon and radicchio salad, which looked beautiful, but I'm ashamed to say I did not try it (I know, I know, schoolgirl error) because I was busy stuffing my face with my lamb cutlets and kidney, served with green bean and anchovy salad. And, as an added bonus, there was more of that wonderful aioli on the plate - hurrah!
Because I am a complete glutton, I was a bit concerned that this would not be enough food for me, especially owing to the lack of carbohydrates on the plate, but I needn't have worried. The lamb cutlets were fat, pink and tender and the kidney was that perfect, slightly sharp tangy antidote to the sweetness of the cutlet meat. The green bean and anchovy salad was perfectly dressed, with sweet onions and mint included in the tangle - divine!
We were too stuffed to even think about pudding, so we paid the very reasonable bill and sauntered out into the Borough Market sunshine. I now see it as my duty to go back so I can try the desserts and report back. It'll be no great hardship.
