Details
Opening hours
Restaurant
Tue-Sat: 5.30-10.30pm
Sat: 1pm-4pm
Bar
Tue-Fri: 5pm- late
Sat- 1pm- late
Address
Peninsula Square,
Greenwich Peninsula,
SE10 0SQ
More info
Vibe & Decor
Having become a firm favourite on the food scene for Dock Kitchen and Rotorino, Stevie Parle’s Craft London spot out on the Greenwich Peninsula isn’t the most obvious choice for a third location, but the young chef has unmistakably made it his own. Craft stacks a bar, restaurant and cafe across three circular floors, giving a 360 degree view of the Peninsula. A collaboration with designer Tom Dixon, the interiors are sumptuous, modern and surprisingly cosy; chrome and midnight blue colour schemes mix with velvet banquette seating in the restaurant. The positioning means you’ll look out onto the east London skyline whilst also being sat next close enough to friends so as not to shout across the table. It’s a neat trick from Parle, who has lived on houseboats on the Thames, and puts the focus on the water here, too.
Flavours
Parle already has a reputation for championing British produce and the methods we’ve used to bring out the best in our harvests for centuries. At Craft, pickling, fermenting and roasting all happens on site; there’s even a smoke-house, kitchen garden and beehives here. Even by mid-evening, when we arrive for dinner, the staff are still hard at prep work, grinding coffee beans for Craft London’s own coffee blend. Every plate is beautifully presented, with an understated confidence and care. Instead of towers and tuiles, expect to be presented with edible cucumber flowers and homemade soda bread. The flavours are delicate: a rhubarb ketchup dominates an opening course, a pickled-green walnut pesto later on. Tomato water and green beans are allowed to shine, speckled with elderflowers and rapeseed oil, and later, that most underrated of brassicas, the cauliflower, takes centre stage as a creamed, condensed base for asparagus and chestnut mushrooms. It’s a rare delight when the subtle flavours of British produce are allowed to shine through, and Craft captures them just at their best.
Top Tip
Make time for aperitifs in the bar upstairs, and try to catch sunset over dinner.
Highlight
The attention to detail, which is no surprise from a chef that is ready to make the honey for the ice cream and the butter for the bread. The service was flawlessly attentive and even the homemade flat breads are worth leaving room for.
