Ozone coffee roasters started up in my home town of New Plymouth,New Zealand so of course I had to try their second London restaurant which has just opened up in Bethnal Green. This was the second time I had been, as I was lucky enough to get an invite to the soft launch when it first opened in October.
The first time I went, I walked straight past it. I'm not sure if it's too cool for signage or they hadn't been put up yet as it was so new.
The space is cool, large and warehouse like. It reminded me of Amass
restaurant in Copenhagen.
The wine list has some interesting offerings. We chose a Hungarian white which hit the spot. The waitress bought over the wine glasses and I could see my friend scowling as she walked over. Of course this place is too hip for real wine glasses with a stem and we had to drink out of a fancy glass tumbler. When are people going to realise that wine can't be served in anything less, including jam jars, stainless steel, ceramic and old shoes. The bottle was then left on our table to get warm and for us to top ourselves up during the night.
The staff here at Ozone are friendly enough but they are too cool for school. They are the types that if they walked past, you wouldn't know if they actually worked here or were a customer coming back from the toilet. Their ripped jeans would see them better off at a skateboard park but I guess they are going for the Shoreditch chic look. While on the subject of the toilets: these are also too cool to deserve a sign. I headed to the nearest door which looked like it could be a toilet and walked straight into a row of cubicles. Was it male or female? It was both; I suppose they didn't want to fork out for anymore signs so just made it a free for all. I hate these types of toilets where you're sitting there wondering if you're Arthur or Martha and scared to come out if you hear a mans voice, wondering if you've come to the wrong place. Or maybe they are just trying to get on board with the whole PC gender neutral, non-binary bandwagon?
So, what about the food? The real reason we are here. I don't care about the chairs from Denmark or the exposed brickwork or the non gender specific toilets or the haunted flower arrangements. I'm here for the food and it is stunning, all of it!
The menu has small plates, main plates and pizza. There is a large pizza oven emitting amazing smells throughout the restaurant positioned just behind the bar.
Hangi carrots with labneh, pickled mustard seeds and dukkah was amazing. I would say it brought back memories from growing up in New Zealand but that would be a lie as Ive probably only had hangi about five times. But, the carrots were sweet and smokey and delicious.
London burrata with green apple, smoked tomato powder on grilled sourdough was my favourite despite not being an apple lover. The tart slices were thin and sour and complemented the creamy cheese and the smokey sour dough.
Then there was the grilled tardivo with whipped honey butter & thyme which was both sweet and bitter.
For the large plates, we shared the salt-baked celeriac with braised greens, toasted kale, pickled mustard & pumpkin seed romesco and the artichoke, smoked pumpkin, mascarpone with salsa verde pizza. I'm not one to usually order pizza and I'm not known to usually order all vegetarian food as a rule. But they sure know how to make vegetables exciting. The first time we went for the opening we noticed someone had got a bit heavy handed with the pickled mustard seed decorating. It seemed to be topped on nearly every dish. It was not noticeable this time so maybe the novelty had warn off.
We were too full for dessert but it did all look good as does their breakfast menu.
Prices were reasonable for three small plates, one large and a pizza and a bottle of wine for two people came to £78. I will definitely be back to try their daytime menu despite the wine glasses.
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