Grace and Flavour: Shrimpy's

As a Bistrotheque devotee – I’ve eaten their menu backwards and forwards and even on Christmas Day – the owners were going to have do something fairly heinous to stop me loving their new diner Shrimpy’s. Putting it in King’s Cross might be the first sticking point, for Shrimpy’s isn’t pretty, fur coat and lace knickers King’s Cross down by the station. No, this is York Way, a place best visited at 9am on Sundays, to observe through gleeful sober eyes London’s youth staggering back from raves like Shaun of The Dead extras. Thankfully, its newest, best tourist attraction is Shrimpy’s, which has made its home in a former petrol station, staying true to its former shape, but now white, clean and elegant with a nod to silliness in the form of pineapple lamp bases, vivid wall etchings and a beautiful crisp, cold rosé delivered to me in a white rabbit jug, pouring plonk from its bunny gob.

I visited Shrimpy’s on Sunday at lunchtime with Mr Dent, who tolerated my infernal quacking for another week thanks to promises of soft-shell crab burger, veal heart with chorizo and capers, and monkfish with chilli and fennel. At around 1pm Shrimpy’s was ticking over prettily. Lots of well-heeled tourists had made the trip, plus they keep the bar seats open for walk-ins, so it’s worth chancing your belly if you’re in the market for the aforementioned crab, which comes whole and handsome, deep-fried in a brioche bap.

Do try the calamari with black olive tapenade, which is outstanding. And if you’re wondering, ‘Will the salt cod be really fluffy and salty and battered and probably very dire for my waistline?’, well the answer is ‘Hell, yeah’. But not a smidgen from our booth was sent back. Please do order a side of humita – creamy sweet, chilly and lime-infused sweetcorn – and say carbs be damned. The fried chicken comes with an awesome unctuous red pepper polenta. And if you ask them sweetly they’ll make you a chocolate sundae with caramelised pistachios and moist chunks of brownie, smothered in chocolate sauce.

As a mark of how sublime the sundae was, I snapped a picture of it and carry it on my phone in a gallery called ‘Grace and Flavour: job satisfaction’. Shrimpy’s didn’t let me down.

Shrimpy's
Kings Cross Filing Station
Goodsway
N1C
(020 8880 6111)