Janda Diner, Peckham

It's important to point out about Janda Diner that it's a very different restaurant at lunchtime than at dinner, and if that you only go for the short small-plates selection in the middle of the day you're not really getting the full experience. I admit I have only been to Janda Diner once, and it was for lunch, so there's much more about the place that deserves attention than I can report on. However, Janda impressed in so many different ways at once that I feel duty bound to write about it anyway, as I'm convinced that a return to try the bigger evening menu would only cause me to be even more embarrassingly effusive.

It's a smallish, bright (at least in the middle of the day it is) and attractively minimalist spot - that's the first thing you notice about the place. The second thing you notice are the prices - nothing over £7, and an extremely reasonable wine list involving a bottle of sparkling for £35 which we obviously ordered immediately. This is the kind of value that's so rare in London in 2025 you may reasonably have assumed it had disappeared completely, but here we are anyway browsing a menu that looks like it had been priced back in 2012.

Of course low prices are not the same as value, and none of it would have mattered at all if the food was disappointing but without fail, everything we ate was astonishingly good. First to arrive was this colourful pile of all sorts of vibrantly fresh fruit and veg, involving jackfruit, kholrabi, apple and carrots boosted with tamarind, chilli and lime. It tasted like the bright tropical sun on a plate, and lifted the mood in much the same way.

Next we had these cute little skewers of ayam (chicken - one of the few bits of vocab I remember from a time working in Indonesia), beautifully grilled to tender inside and with delicate flecks of char outside. Spritzed with lime they were simple, attractive and supremely easy to enjoy.

Masak Lemak scallops came with a surprisingly generous amount of seafood for £7, the char grill presumably responsible for the gentle touch of smoke, and topped with a superbly rich and complex turmeric curry. The amount of effort that had gone into everything despite the tiny amount they're asking for it is quite something.

Sea bream ceviche was, just like everything else, beautiful to look at and a joy to eat. The fish was bouncy and fresh, full of flavour and not overwhelmed by the delicate sour tamarind dressing. Chargrilled pineapple on top added a lovely extra sweet and smoky note too.

You probably don't need to know anything more about the mackerel than is obvious in the picture above - absolutely expertly cooked to preserve a buttery, crisp skin, the neat fillets of fish came in a clear consommé which had a remarkably powerful sour and savoury flavour. A few slices of okra and herbs added some extra colour and crunch. It cost £7.

We finished with two neat little mouthfuls of Nasi Lemak Bungkus - a fried patty of rice topped with a sambal of cucumber, egg, anchovies and with peanuts for extra texture. For some reason this didn't turn up on the bill, which I've only just noticed, so thank you to Janda Diner if that was intentional and apologies if it wasn't.

But clearly, an extra £3 per person still wouldn't have stopped Janda from being an absolute steal. At twice the price, this food would still be worth travelling across town for - an intelligent, vibrant take on modern Malaysian street food that makes you want to jump on a plane to Kuala Lumpur. But at £34 per head - including, remember, that bottle of fizz - it becomes something approaching essential, the kind of place you'll end up banging on about to every person you meet for weeks after. And as anyone who's met me in the last few weeks will agree, that's exactly what I've been doing.

So the only obvious thing to do next is go back for the longer (and, admittedly slightly pricier but I'm sure still top value) dinner menu and discover yet more of the joys of modern Malaysian food. I haven't been as excited about a small plates restaurant in South London since I stumbled across Chishuru all those years ago. And we all know what happened to them next. So get yourself to Janda as soon as you can, before the rest of the world cottons on. Because right now, this place is a gem.

10/10

Elephant, Hackney

I spent most of last month in Spain (see previous post) and although I'm happy enough to be back in cold, wet London town (honest), as the evenings really closed in I was in dire need of a reminder of sunnier times and brighter places. And after scrolling through my holiday photo stream just made me more depressed, I thought I might have more success with Mediterranean food.

Elephant is a restaurant/pub in a handsome old Victorian building on Lower Clapton Road which, Google Street View tells me, has swapped hands an alarming number of times in the last few years. It is now, though, thanks to part Italian owners, serving a short and attractive menu of snacketti (that's my word, not theirs), pizzas and secondi, alongside a list of classic cocktails.

So, after a spicy Margarita (Mexico is sunny too) to lift the mood we nibbled on some of those giant bright-green Italian olives and some nice hot house flatbread (it would make sense if it was pizza dough) which came with an interesting homemade butter flavoured with some kind of winter veg. Clever stuff.

These are ox cheek croquettes with anchovy mayo, and were fantastic things indeed, all soft and gooey and beefy inside and with just the right amount of crunchy breadcrumb coating. Ox cheek croquettes in London I've found range from superlative (Hawksmoor Bar in Spitalfields in about 2010 that came with a thick, glossy beef jus, never been bettered) to diabolical (a restaurant in Pimlico I've long since forgotten the name of where they tasted like dog food and looked like what would happen not long after said dog had finished with them).

Seabass crudo had perhaps an ingredient or two extra than required but the fish was good and it was certainly a colourful if, er, rather rustic presentation.

The one secondi we went for was a giant fillet of excellent cod in breadcrumbs, mainly because we liked the sound of the olive oil mash it came with. Now, obviously there are too many pea shoots - there were some pea shoots and there should ideally, at all times, be none - but they were easily removed and we were left with a very enjoyable dish indeed, the cod flaking beautifully apart.

There was a tendency to put too many things on their house Elephant pizza too - weirdly, and I can't believe this is me saying this, but it could have done without the anchovy which battled rather hard with the other ingredients. But the tomato sauce was good and the dough was excellent, all fluffy and crisp.

Perhaps my odd slight disappointment comes from one of the chefs here being ex-Manteca, and though I probably should have not expected those kinds of fireworks, there wasn't a great deal at Elephant that brought to mind the OG (as I believe the kids these days are saying) on Curtain Road. But the atmosphere was still convivial, the staff friendly and efficient, and if I was a local I'm sure I'd have it on the list for an unpretentious evening out. And that's often more than enough.

7/10

I was invited to Elephant and didn't see a bill, but I think it would have come to about £70/head.