Slowburn isn’t like other restaurants. That’s because Slowburn almost isn’t a restaurant, it’s a slap-up dinner party in a working denim factory. The best seat in the house is next to a gigantic industrial washing machine, scrappy paper patterns for jeans line the walls and there’s a lingering smell of starch in the air.
Strangely, this isn’t an entirely unique proposition – Bow’s lovely little Italian spot Polentina is another garment factory dining room – but it remains refreshing (and pleasingly odd) to enter such an unconventional space, and even more appealing to discover terrific cookery inside it.
A hilariously decadent rosti with ox cheek and tail is more meat than it is potato
During the week, the warehouse is home to Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, full of buzzing sewing machines and selvedge aficionados. Come Friday evening, the denim-heads are booted out, tables and chairs are bought in from storage and the kitchen fires up for the weekend. Conceptually, it makes so much sense. With so many restaurants struggling under the strain of rent and rates, why not get a little imaginative and lean into that dual-purpose life? We won’t be surprised if your local dry cleaners has turned into a New York-slice pop up by next summer.
Chef and founder Chavdar Todorov started Slowburn in late 2020, delivering local meals during lockdown on his motorbike. Over the past five years he’s honed his hearty home -cooking-but-better, menu. It’s not a vegetarian restaurant by any stretch of the imagination, but vegetables here are king and everything comes full of love and flavour. This isn’t tweezer-tastic fine dining, but great, semi-chaotic things on a plate that comfort and coddle as well as surprise and shock.
There are crunchy-shell black bean tacos (vegan, but who’s asking), made with crispy gyoza skins and humming with a south Asian-style coriander salsa; compelling purple sprouting broccoli with a creamy Thai-style red curry sauce peppered with peanuts; and a deeply indulgent Pitchfork cheddar and brown butter agnolotti scattered with parsnip crisps dolloped with red onion and pomegranate caramel sauce. Sweet potato is cooked how sweet potato should be; charred to the point of stick-in-the-teeth chewy, and, in Slowburn-style, dolloped on top of a globally nonconformist smash of lurid green cavolo nero chimichurri. Dishes here toddle just on the right side of a bit too much, with giddy experimentation played for fun, not for cheffy posturing.
If you want flesh, then there’s a hilariously decadent rosti topped with ox cheek and tail, that’s more meat than it is potato, and shrouded in a deviant cloud of parmesan shavings. Venison haunch steak is light and offaly at the same time, lifted out of any potential livery-ness with a tart cranberry and ancho chilli salsa. There’s fish too; lightly cured and fleshy trout in a zippy leche de tigre sauce, and a somewhat overcooked octopus with pak choi.
There’s a lot to love about the ever-so-slightly unhinged Slowburn, book in for your very own factory reset.
The vibe Atmospheric dining in a Walthamstow denim factory.
The food Globally-inspired and veg-forward sharing plates (but there’s meat as well, don’t worry).
The drink A decent wine list, spritzes (the elderflower one is particularly refreshing) and new school cocktails.
Time Out tip Slowburn is only open Friday-Saturday, so bear that in mind when booking. Check out the great value lunchtime spread for £26 a head; two starters and three mains for vegetarians, and two starters, two mains and a quarter smoked chicken for meat-eaters.