Home SW15
What makes a perfect local restaurant? Samantha Laurie visits Good Food Guide award winner, Putney’s Home SW15...
Good local restaurants are a joy. If every high street had somewhere you could go week in week out for reliably good food, a cracking cocktail and a cheery welcome who would want to schlep into London to a fancy destination eatery?
So when I heard that HomeSW15 in Putney had won the Good Food Guide’s Award for the Best Local Restaurant in London – and it’s hard to imagine a more competitive field than that – I was more than interested to try it.
It’s the brainchild of three friends, Craig and ‘the two Freddies’ who met at Charlotte’s Bistro in Chiswick (another award-winning local) and spotted an opportunity to bring the same kind of warm and hospitable all-day vibe to Putney. Located on Upper Richmond Road, it’s in a less than alluring spot tucked between a budget car hire shop and a two fast food joints. But one step inside, and it’s instantly apparent the chaps know what they’re doing.
We’re here early on a Friday evening and the bar is buzzing with folk enjoying Freddie’s £5 happy hour cocktails. Everyone has a beaming smile and a hello. Perhaps it’s the end-of-week spirit, but it really feels like we’ve wandered into a friend’s house for dinner – which is of course exactly the desired tone, hence the name.
Beyond the cocktail lounge is a spacious mezzanine dining area with a long communal table, surrounded by lots of tables for two, jauntily slanted so you’re looking into the restaurant rather than each other’s eyes, At the far end is a skylight overlooking the railway line – at night often mistaken for the river by geographically challenged diners! All this fits nicely with the day-to-night vibe – on Sundays, this place is bustling with young families, yet by evening it’s just as suited to cocktail and dinner daters.
The food is British with flair. There’s no concept or flammery, and just a nice short, regularly changing seasonal menu of six starters and seven mains. But before we choose, front-of-house manager Craig – described quite deservedly by the PR lady as “the lovely Craig” – sends over his most popular bar snack, a crispy, creamy dish of cauliflower cheese croquettes, perfect with our G&Ts.
Our starters are flawless. My Cornish crab and avocado mousse served with radish and light and crunchy bread crisps (£12.50) has an intense and delicious flavour. Drops of lemon gel and avocado puree on the plate give the dish a dash of piquancy. My dinner partner Sophie opts for the salad of kale, rocket, cashew and two ingredients neither of us has tried before: freekah, a wheat cereal roasted and rubbed to give it its flavour, and kohlrabi, a German turnip presented in thin slivers. It’s a fabulously creative and tasty vegan option.
For mains, we’re both fishionados so we opt for the line caught cod, perfectly cooked with Falmouth mussels, courgette and olives (£19.50) and the white lemon sole, served with beautifully deep and flavoursome spiced brown shrimp butter (£22). Both are sourced from The Stickleback Fish Company in Hatfield. Shame to have passed on the restaurant’s most popular dish – shrimpburger served with a spicy sriracha (chilli sauce) mayo, but perhaps that’s a better choice for brunch.
By dessert, we’re struggling, so we share a lime and mint granita with pomegranate and pineapple (£6.50) – surely not too filling, granita is essentially just ice, right? Boy, we’re glad we did – light and superbly flavoursome, it’s a perfect finish.
By mid-evening, the restaurant is three-quarters full – buzzy and alive, but still, enough tables to feel you could drop in on the way back from the pub. Diners tonight are a mix of young professionals and couples, but what’s most appealing about this place is how well it serves a variety of tastes. A café by day, come Sunday it’s packed with young families and Sunday brunchers. On a Monday night, chef Freddie serves up Mac ‘n’ Cheese with chilli and garlic breadcrumbs, for £10, with an optional £5 Daiquiri for those who’ve had an exceptionally tough start to the week. (Interestingly, for every one of bar Freddie’s exotic cocktails, there’s a non-alcoholic version, a nod to the fact that so many of Putney’s young professionals don’t drink.)
All things to all people can be a tricky call, but these three friends are doing it with panache. Friendly, affordable and versatile – everything a true local restaurant should be.
