Weekly Review: Trivet
My favourite restaurant. Period. Let me explain why.
Quick hit: Comfortable spot with some of the best food and wine you’ll find anywhere. And I do mean anywhere. Genius chef & sommelier. Food is simple, accessible, modern, and unsurprisingly delicious. Chill, welcoming vibe.
Details: Booking essential. London Bridge / Bermondsey. £££ (for lunch menu. More for a la carte.)
Restaurant website.
More on Instagram and from the Michelin Guide.
Find it on Google Maps. 36 Snowsfields, Southwark, London, SE1 3SU.
The full picture: Trivet is my favourite restaurant.
It’s the incredibly rare place that does everything well. It has a fabulous bar where you can sit down for a drink with a colleague, client, or friend without needing a booking. You can come for lunch and have a great meal in an hour-ish or you can hang around all afternoon. You can come for a special occasion or treat it like your neighbourhood place.
Okay. They also have two Michelin stars. And writing a review that says “Two Michelin star place is really good,” doesn’t exactly justify the cost of your (free) subscription.
So let’s start with this: Trivet is the only two star place in the London area that doesn’t offer a tasting menu. That sends a message.
Still, it’s two Michelin stars, so it’s not exactly cheap eats.
Ah, but if you go for lunch, you can choose from an accessible menu of delicious treats including incredible coq au vin. Or you can plan to linger and dig into their full a la carte menu of two-star caliber delicacies. My favourite on the current menu, which changes seasonally, is the sweetbread, available as either starter or main. The venison and ‘Best friend of white burgundy’ (eg: monkfish) are also both extraordinary.
Or you can go on Monday evening, when Trivet becomes Labombe, a neighbourhood wine bar concept offering fantastic by-the-glass selections and epically good bar food. The Tongue Bun is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten anywhere, and the fries with homemade onion ketchup are potatoes in their most perfected form. Labombe is so good that there’s usually a gang of sommeliers and staff from other restaurants enjoying their night off.
The vibe is Trivet is both chill and modern. On a summer day, massive doors open the space up to the outside world. There’s a comfortable terrace. Beautiful wooden tables and chairs require no cloths.
And then there’s the wine.
Wine boss Isa Bal is a genius. He was named best Sommelier in the world a couple of years ago by Michelin. And his list is the best. Make sure you take a minute (or twenty) and have a read through it. Then hand it back and let him and his team pick your wine. They have a particular specialism in regions that are sadly a little unusual for us including Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Syria, and Lebanon. You will not go wrong.
Isa founded Trivet together with Chef Jonny Lake. The two met while Jonny was the head chef at the Fat Duck and Isa was head sommelier. That history will always be part of their resume. But they have moved well past it now.
By managing to be perfect for a special occasion or as a neighbourhood favourite, by providing two-star caliber food or the best meal you’ll ever have at bar, by serving great classic wine or helping you discover something entirely new, and by offering the most generous service you’ll experience anywhere without a hint of pretension, Trivet is a truly great restaurant in its own right. And I’d much rather spend an afternoon there than at the Fat Duck.
I’m pretty confident that you will, too.
Which is great, because it’s almost time for lunch.
