I’m duty bound to write about Tila.. because despite the food being delicious, there was no one else there… no one to admire the wood fire and the relaxed decor. This is wrong. People are missing out.
There was much to like, the QR code menus, the open kitchens (from which we would have heard if there was a cough…) the wide sunlit windows. – and that menu, oh that menu…. Tila understand flavours… and colours.
My husband chose the pork belly and I had the harrissa chicken, which was a bit of a dieter’s concession, but arrived deeply grilled and flavoured and was perfectly complemented by the quinoa tabbouleh, however inauthentic that may sound.
The only shock was that they were out of miso french toast for dessert. Apparently it ‘flew of the shelves’ the day before… (Friday must have been more busy than Saturday then) which we all accepted on face value and ordered different desserts.
But after the waiter left, it occurred to me that the ingrediants for french toast are hardly rare (neither is miso, either, and sat just there around the corner from the wonderfully diverse ‘world’ shopping options of Deptford, even less so).. so what did Tila not have (bread? eggs?) or did they not trust us with their french toast? Was their french toast chef out? ‘Maybe they are out of caramel?’ suggested my husband. Yep, caramel, that thing that (better cooks than I) make out of sugar. Nope. This was a conspiracy of the foremost kind. Maybe the CIA needed all the french toast in the country (or whatever the french version of the CIA are). Or maybe it was the CIA, and they got confused about France and the UK, because they’re all over there in Europe and generally a bit smaller than the states and so took our toast instead.
Insights welcomed.
We settled for cardamom chocolate slice, which turned out to be a particularly gooey brownie infused with cardamom, like it said one the tin. Extra points for sending this with a jarringly fresh creme fraiche rather than vanilla ice cream or cream.
We left satisfied and surreptitiously checking out everyone else’s plates, you know, for the mysteriously missing french toast.
Don’t forget to order “Helen and the Grandbees” My Deptford based novel https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Alex+morall&ref=nb_sb_noss
“Engaging and Uplifting” – The Daily Mail
