My visit was on Friday - their second night in action. I took along my new flatmate assuring her that street food markets were all the rage in Dalston and to be honest East London generally. After a short queue to get in at about 8pm my first shock was a £3 admission fee... Since when do you have to pay to get into a food market? Never in the history of Street Feast, Red Market... all the food markets have I paid entry, so I was surprised. Especially since I knew that the new Hawker House run by Street Feast is charging after 8pm but I wasn't prepared for Night Tales. Anyway £3 paid and in we went. The girl’s at the door were getting excited as a pregnant woman was feeling faint – thus them assuming they were about to have an opening weekend live birth on their hands.
Night Tales is under a large sort of marquee tent thing with outdoor heaters to keep you warm. As expected for opening Friday the place was absolutely packed. We shuffled our way to the bar for a couple of glasses of vino to help us with our food decision.
The area is pretty small and includes 3 bars: a Negroni bar, a Mezcal bar on a mezzanine level and a normal general bar. My mother would be hitting up that Negroni bar like noone's business as it's her favourite drink... but alas I went for plain old wine.
The food choices are: Bao, Patty and Bun, Rainbow, one which was selling ribs and wings, and for those with a sweet tooth, Le Petit Paris. I wanted to try Patty and Bun - I really did. But the queue was about 30 people long and I was starving. In the end I went for the one who'se name I sadly missed and we both had a bowl of good old Mac'n'Cheese. I would have gone for the ribs which looked amazing or the chicken wings but as there was no space to sit – decided that the sight of me trying to shovel meat into my mouth with one hand was a treat for no one.
The Mac and Cheese at £4 a
bowl was just what you need on a chilly November night. The right amount of
cheesiness and with a slight kick from what I’m guessing is cayenne – it warmed
us right up.
My main issue with Night Tales was the music. They have a DJ on the site who was pumping out electro beats. I have no problem with this. The problem is when it’s so loud the two of us couldn’t have a conversation. And call me a granny but 8pm, whilst I’m huddled in a corner shovelling cheesy pasta into my mouth does not seem like the right time for mega loud house music.
I will definitely go back to Night Tales before they go and give them another try. Hopefully the queue for Patty and Bun won’t be quite as long next time. As for the music? Well lets just say I can understand why that pregnant woman’s baby was trying to get out.
Night Tales
Arcola Street Car Park
Dalston
E8 3DL
No comments:
Post a Comment