The Foragers

The Dead Dolls Club
428 Kingsland Road
Dalston
E8 4AA

Founded by George Fredenham, The Foragers started out in a St Albans pub, The Verulam Arms, and now chefs are cooking up a storm and creating the ‘foraging’ movement in a wide range of other locations. The Dead Dolls Club is one of these locations where The Foragers serve an inventive and tasteful foraged ‘grazing menu’ from Wednesday to Sunday. With the ingredients from the Hertfordshire countryside there is a little bit of ‘wild’ in every dish.

The dining room at the Dead Dolls Club has recently been refurbished giving it a light and airy feel with a slight touch of rustic through the metallic wooden tables.

Dead Dolls Club

Great Aunt Rhubarb - Gin, rhubarb, lemmon

Mutton Ham, brown buttered leeks, hazelnuts & hedge garlic & wholegrain mustard dressing 

We tried a selection of dishes which were hard to fault; each bursting with flavour, colour and richness. The mutton ham with brown buttered leeks was a stand-out; punchy, with each element complimenting the smoky mutton. Both the mushroom & parmesan arancini served with wild garlic & watercress pesto and the fish cakes served with cauliflower purée were also outstanding. The vibrant pesto came only second to the aromatic arancini while the cauliflower purée  probably deserves a whole plate to itself. 

Mushroom & Parmesan arancini served with wild garlic and  and watercress pesto

Pan fried scallops served with three different types of puree were expertly cooked. I particularly enjoyed the scallop roe which is so often left out of restaurant dishes. There are also lots of potent and creative cocktails to choose from such as Great Aunt Rhubarb pictured above.

Scallops, caremalised onion puree, apple puree, parsnip puree  with  lemon dressing and ground elder

I would make another journey just to have more of the Foragers food at the Dead Dolls Club, however they are also doing a few pop-ups around London this Summer with the ultimate goal of opening up their own permanent residence. I can only speculate that when this happens, there will be a lot of happy eaters.