Name/Address: Louie Louie, 347 Walworth Road, SE17 2AL

Nearest tube station: Kennington or Elephant & Castle (plus a bus or ~20 minute walk)

What's the idea?: A relaxed bar/cafe that hosts a rotating schedule of visiting chefs; we visited when Klose & Soan were in the kitchen (they're there until the end of December, GO VISIT NOW!)

First impressions: Warm and cosy on a chilly, rainy night. Aglow with candles, the perfect place for a date or a glass of wine or three with friends.



What we ate: We ordered the salt cod croquettes with preserved lemon and aioli, carrots with mint and almonds in a cheese sauce, cod with curried chickpeas and pumpkin, tagliatelle with tomatoes and burrata and finally the chocolate sorbet with caraway seed biscuit. We drank the Dead Sea Sling (tequila, cinnamon, sugar, lime, soda, charcoal salt rim), One For Floyd (cognac, amer picon, sparkling wine, soda, orange) and the Figure It Out (vodka, fig grenadine, smokey ginger ale).


What we thought: Everything was quite genuinely fantastic. For me, the star of the show were the croquettes - fresh, crispy, and easy to pull apart into soft strands of salt cod. Their intense flavour was the antithesis of the typical bland croquettes. There wasn't much lemon flavour to be found in the aoli but everything else was faultless.

The carrots were sweet and mild but they came alive with the smooth cheese sauce and shreds of mint. The almonds offered little in flavour but lots in texture, giving the dish an extra crunch. The cognac cocktail (One For Floyd) went extremely well with the dish, completely lifting the cheese flavours and changing the taste of the whole dish.


The pasta was an Italian summer on a plate, the sunshine oozing from the long roasted tomatoes with something herbal and fleeting on the tongue that took you away to summer. Cool, creamy burrata added texture but not flavour as the taste of the cheese got lost in the rest of the ingredients.

The chickpeas and cod were exquisite - like Dishoom but better. A subtle heat and aromatic fragrance complimented a meaty succulent fish with crispy skin.


Finally, the sorbet - I am often sceptical of chocolate desserts that I haven't made as they're never, well, chocolatey enough. This was a small pot of rich, chocolatey heaven with a delicious little biscuit bringing the extra flavour of caraway to the table.

In terms of drinks, the Dead Sea Sling tasted like a margarita with an extra sour depth and the Figure It Out almost had the flavour of sherbert lemonade, something soft and sweet that was redolent of childhood sweets. My favourite though was the One For Floyd, something for those who love the bitter orange of a negroni but are after something lighter and more readily paired with dinner.


The important stuff - what were the loos like?: I didn't use them (shock horror)

Do they take bookings?: Yes.

What I'd say to a friend: Get down there as soon as you can to try the food by Klose & Soan - make sure you order the croquettes and take a few friends who are happy to share everything!

Louie Louie
347 Walworth Rd
SE17 2AL