Hype Dish: Planque’s super-seafoody lobster tartine

Planque, the wine den and French restaurant tucked away in Haggerston’s railway arches, might be hidden, but it’s anything but ordinary. With a vivid blue private-dining alcove and ten-metre-long communal oak table, its lobster tartine sums up the space’s unassuming elegance to a tee. ‘It’s like a piece of toast – a really nice piece of toast,’ says Seb Myers, chef and founder. To drink? ‘It would go well with a nice glass of champagne, or a dry white,’ Myers says. He talks us through the stellar dish.

The lobster

‘After blanching the lobster, we cool it down, slice it up and lay it on the toast. The idea is we have clean, pristine meat on top of a thick and super intense sauce.’

The bread

‘We toast our house-baked sourdough on the grill to give it a smokiness. We always have a surplus of bread, so we make tartines or bread crisps to use it all up.’

The sauce

‘We make a stock from the lobster head and bones, then mix in the brains with brown butter, giving it a deep seafood flavour with a scrambled-egg-like texture.’

The reaction

‘This dish is slightly unassuming – it’s meaty lobster, with a crunchy piece of bread. The sauce is the star and I think the depth of flavour surprises people most.’

322-324 Acton Mews . £17.

More from our Hype Dish series:

Facing Heaven’s crispy sweet-and-sour seaweed toast.

Café Cecilia’s juicy onglet with peppercorn sauce.