Partying is back on the menu at Camden Market

THE crowds are back in Camden Market – along with new places to eat and drink.

Lock Inn Camden has opened opposite Mildred’s in Jamestown Road, taking over the site previously run as Camden Diner. It’s the latest venture from a hospitality group with multiple venues, including The Princess of Wales in Primrose Hill.

The place is described as a pub – but feels more like a bar. When we popped in, the last of the Olympics was playing on large screens on the ground floor while a glitterball sparkled overhead.

Behind the beer taps, metal shelves display a collection of homemade spirits in vintage glass decanters. The handwritten paper labels, hung around the bottle necks, describe a pear and chilli cognac, wildberry gin, mango vodka and many more.

If you head upstairs, there’s a large roof terrace with tables, a DJ booth and bar – the space softened with pot plants and vast mirrors to bounce the light.

In short, Lock Inn Camden is a venue designed to party – and the volume was cranked right up on our visit.

We took a table outside and watched a young crowd slowly fill the space and take advantage of the happy hour, with 2-for-1 on signature cocktails such as a Flirtini made with passion fruit vodka, passion fruit puree, vanilla syrup and prosecco.

The food menu is less ambitious. A range of pizzas is priced £10-14, but we tried some other dishes.

The organic “popcorn” chicken (£6) is deep-fried chunks served with a glossy barbecue dip.

Less successful were my friend’s croquettes – slightly stodgy – flavoured with tomato, basil and Manchego.

Next, we shared ribs, chips and a salad of quinoa, chickpeas, pomegranate, avocado and other vegetables, which was crying out for more seasoning and a punchy dressing.

You’ll find a more exotic menu at Patog, a new Iranian food trader on the second floor of the Hawley Wharf development around the corner.

Owner Fareed Hashemi describes it as the first Persian street food-style restaurant in London: “We are very rustic, very casual, similar to going to an eatery in the bazaar of Tehran.”

Most Persian restaurants are modelled on the “Chelokababi”, which serve kebabs and rice dishes.

Hashemi offers dishes such as saffron chicken with a burberry sauce, a shrimp dopiaza curry and a starter called “mirza ghasemi” from the north of Iran, made with roasted aubergines, garlic and tomato topped with egg.

We shared the classic lamb stew “ghormeh sabzi”, flavoured with fenugreek, a green herb, and dried limes to add a subtle sour note. This is served with rice and “tahdig”, the prized fragments of crisp rice crust, and costs £13.

“We have been really focused on locals, Londoners and office workers,” explains Hashemi. “You would go bankrupt if you wanted to just rely on tourists.”

Lock Inn Camden
2 Jamestown Road, NW1
www.lockinncamden.co.uk
020 3475 3289
info@lockinncamden.com
@lockinncamden

Patog
Unit M20
Camden Market Hawley Wharf
2nd Floor, NW1
@patoglondon