Peckham Cellars, Peckham

Though it's always flattering to be invited to try the latest and greatest of London restaurants, and more often than not I'm happy to play a part in the tricky first few weeks of a new operation to help get it off the ground, or to refocus attention on an established place trying a new menu (or whatever), I sometimes get the impression any "help" I can offer in terms of publicity on the blog is rather surplus to requirements. Peckham Cellars, for reasons that will hopefully soon become obvious, is already wildly popular, every table taken on a windswept Wednesday night in October, and they hardly need my increasingly irrelevant voice adding to the crowd.

But here we are, and I'm adding my voice to the crowd anyway because it's an absolute pleasure to report on how good Peckham Cellars is. They seem to have worked out exactly what makes a space like this work, from the attentive and enthusiastic staff dying for you to try their new range of Georgian wines to a bijou but serene kitchen sending out small plate dishes you want to eat over and over again.

These are Aubergine Parmigiana croquetas, delicate and crisp on the outside, held in place with a cracking (and punchy) aioli, and boasting a rich, thick filling easily equal of anything to come out of the top Spanish tapas joints in town. They were so good, in fact, that they made me realise it's not the chunks of Iberico ham I really enjoy in a croqueta, it's a properly constructed bechamel, which hardly needs any gimmick like extra protein at all.

Fried hake came in a whisper-thin batter, which gave a nice golden colour to the skinless fillet as well as holding this sometimes rather unruly textured fish together. Served with a super-smooth chive emulsion as well as a slick of green chilli oil (there aren't many things that can't be improved with a house made chilli oil), it did what all these kind of dishes should do - showcase great British ingredients with the judicious use of clever cheffy techniques.

Enoki mushrooms, deep fried as an entire plate-sized branching tree of funghi, came on a bed of superbly rich and interestingly-spiced porcini mushroom "ketchup", and sprinkled with what I'm assuming is more blended dried porcini mixed with chilli. It all worked incredibly well, yet another vegetarian dish that would have been spoiled by adding or removing anything.

But we did feel we needed to try something that once had a pulse, and so landed this lamb neck with lentils (so a pulse as well as pulses) and salsa verde, which matched an incredibly soft and yielding pink meat with a salty, colourful dressing. Also though one of the most expensive items on the menu at £16, it was a pretty generous portion, easily enough for two.

We shared a dessert, a kind of Basque trifle called a Goxua which had alcohol-soaked spongecake and chunks of what I think were toffee, topped with a creme caramel type layer of burnt sugar. We "matched" this with a Last Word dessert cocktail which involved Chartreuse and maraschino (our match, not theirs) which went down better before a mouthful of caramel and cake than after. But still, all great fun.

I'm never at my most comfortable when talking about wines, but I will say that the Listan Blanco "Benji" from Tenerife tasted like nothing I've ever experienced before, the pitch-black volanic soils there responsible, I'm told, for the fact it tasted like burned popcorn. But in a good way. There should be something on the list for everyone, and if that's not enough they sell everything at retail price in a little 'shop' bit alongside the restaurant, so you can take your favourites of the evening home with you. Which I did, of course.

As I've said above, Peckham Cellars don't really need me to tell you they're great - they know they are, and most of South London it seems knows they are, and if you've been already you'll know they are too. But it doesn't do any harm repeating the obvious, and they're going to need all the attention - superfluous or otherwise - they can get in the next few months alongside every other restaurant in the country staring down the barrel of a frankly terrifying set of external pressures. So please do hop on over to SE15 to this friendly, bustling little spot on the Queen's Road (right next to the station, so unusually for this part of town even that isn't an excuse not to go) and make the very most of it. Because who knows what the future might bring.

8/10

I was invited to Peckham Cellars and didn't see a bill, but I doubt it would have been much over £40pp even with all the booze we managed to plough through.