Restaurants

By Jenni Muir

Hale Wharf isn't in our edition of the 'A-Z', but panic does not ensue until we see a traffic jam emerging from the Tottenham Hale one-way system. The Lock is at Hale Wharf; Hale Wharf is meant to be on Ferry Lane. All the roads off Ferry Lane have names: ipso facto, darling (NB: gritted teeth) if Hale Wharf was off one of the other roads the restaurant address would say so. Keep the faith. Drive down Ferry Lane, even though it looks like the main road back to central London. And there it is: the Lock Dining Bar, by a lock, no less, with free car parking. Easy.

They can't afford to discourage customers around here. The site was formerly a Mosaica restaurant, which closed around the time the company opened The Pumphouse in Hornsey. Not successful enough to bother with, we might presume. Now it has been taken over by chef Adebola Adeshin (known as Ade) and front-of-house man Fabrizio Russo, who have gone for a modern international menu. A large safe displayed prominently behind the reception desk could, as the website design suggests, be a pun on the word lock. Our companion reckons it's a sensible means of discouraging would-be burglars from trashing the entire restaurant. Tile-covered tables, glass bricks, chairs of leather and wrought iron, and a shining open kitchen, the effect is of a modern Turkish warehouse conversion. It's noisy, too.

Sunday lunch at £10 for a limited-choice two courses was a damn good deal, if you ordered the impressively presented roast beef. Two thick slices of medium-rare meat curled proudly over decent Yorkshires, horseradish cream and some too-crunchy roast veg. Clear-flavoured ice cream and sorbets made on the premises were the ideal finish. Well-chosen, inexpensive wines and cheap cocktails were a bonus. Service was sweet if unpractised. Worth a detour? Maybe not, but a godsend if you live locally.

Time Out London Issue 1859: April 5-12 2006