Made in Camden

Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8EH

 
This year, as part of an annual festive Christmas dinner with friends we decided to go for Made in Camden which serves modern European/mediterranean cuisine. The ambience of the restaurant was pretty nice - warm, modern, candle lit and a buskling atmosphere.

 As a group we went for set menu B, £24 per person (including drinks/service approximately £32 per person). The set menu consists of 5 small savoury dishes to share between two, and a dessert each (of which there was a choice of 2).

The fennel/feta/pistachio was tasty and perfectly seasoned. The pistachio was probably the most dominant flavour in this dish.

Pan-fried fennel, feta, pistachio, dill, salted caramel

The broccoli dish looked very simple. But actually the taste and texture of the dish was in fact surprisingly nice. The onions and broccoli were perfectly cooked, not too hard not too soft. The broccoli had a fresh taste to it and the tomato sauce complimented it very well. The onions themselves were perfectly sweet. Overall this dish was definately palatable.

Grilled purple sprouting broccoli, chilli jam, flaked almond, radiccio, anchovy

The pan fried seabass was cooked very well. The skin was crisp and well seasoned. The flesh of the fish itself was slightly bland and possibly slightly over-cooked, but the sumac labneh (the cream/youghurt) was divine and complimented the fish well. Alternatively, there is an exceptionally delicous tomato on the side of the dish that also goes brillantly with the fish. The tomato was like eating a fresh sundried tomato - I've never raved enough about a tomato before! it was sooo yummy!

Crisp sea bass, Jerusalem artichoke puree, slow-roasted tomatoes, sumac labneh

My dad makes an exceptional belly pork, and is now my gold standard. This belly pork was comparable, very nice, not too fatty and the crackling was yummy (crispy and well seasoned). Instead of the usual combination of pork and apples, this dish had a poached pear (quince) instead. The quince itself was ok, I liked the idea. The red cabbage/maple puree was nice and went well with the pork.

Slow-roast pork belly, garlic and maple puree, braised red cabbage, poached quince

The beef skirt (or 'onglet') was exceptional. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked (medium) and the steak itself was tender. The tomato and onion compot was a match made in heaven with the beef steak! The dauphinoise potatoes were delicous!! I'm not entirely sure what the side greens were, but complimented every aspect of this dish. This was probably my favourite dish of the night.

Grilled onglet steak, tomato and onion compote, gorgonzola dauphinoise

The mains/tapas were nice so far. However, the desserts were a bit of a disappointment. The
walnut and pear tiramisu was, in essence, a cup of mascarpone cheese containing walnuts and pears, sprinkled with a bit too much coco powder (enough to make my friends have a coughing fit every time they took a bite). There was no trace of coffee, liquor or sponge. This dessert was okay, but I felt needed more dimension.

Walnut & caramelised pears tiramisu

The hotcakes were nicer than the tiramisu. However, it was slightly floury. The sorbet was ok, nice, although the sweetness of the hotcake was overpowering so you couldn't really taste the coconut flavour of the sorbet or the blackberry sauce.

Dulce de leche hotcake, blackberry sauce, coconut sorbet

Hotcake open

Overall, I would say that I had a very good time here. The food itself was delicious. The only let downs were the desserts and it would have been much more satisfying if they were more generous with the portion sizes of the mains. The waiter was very nice, the food arrived promtly and the price wasn't too bad.


Food = 8.5/10
Service = 7/10
Atmosphere = 7/10
Recommend? yes