Address: 24 Clapham Road, London SW9 0JG

Phone: 020 7735 6111

Website: https://24theoval.co.uk/

Opening times (for food):
Wednesday – Thursday: 18:00 – 22:00
Friday – Saturday: 12:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 22:00
Sunday: 12:00 – 16:30

The restaurant is set back from the road and has an outside veranda for those who need more sun. Inside is modern and spare in furniture. This was a work dinner on a weekday, so we arrived at 6.00 pm and even with the warm weather the restaurant was pretty empty except for the determined cocktail drinkers. We got rid of most of the business part of the meal first – oiling the wheels with an Aperol Spritz and a Campari Spritz (or two).

There are three menus – one a la carte and two tasting menus (vegan and non-vegan). We went for a la carte. First up came sourdough with smoked butter. The butter had half melted and I am not sure I could taste any smoke but the bread was pretty good. Next came the homemade charcuterie which was all tasty and we really loved the ham. We continued on the meat theme with beef crockets – again delicious.

The smoked eel with the turnip cannelloni and apple made a good interlude as did the jersey royals with crispy skins cultured cream and lemon which looked lovely but wasn’t a highlight.

This built to the main event – a really delicious dish called “Daphne’s Welsh lamb” which was to share. It consisted of roast loin, Lancashire hot pot, slow cooked belly, BBQ offal served with smoked aubergine, fennel and preserved lemon. Unfortunately our photograph was a bit shaky (no comments please) but it was a large portion for two and every bit was delicious.

We washed it all down with a bottle of rosé and the final bill came to £150 including the tip. Shame we couldn’t charge it to the firm. It was expensive but a lot was due to the alcohol and over-ordering and you could certainly do it for less and it would still be delightful.