A deli to dine in?

The Venue
Esca is situated on Clapham High Street, a stone’s throw from the common and a new neighbour for all the other restaurants, bars and cafes and pubs that throng this happening area. Inside it is unusually spacious with a ceiling high enough for a railway station. The front section is taken up with the shop’s main business, ie the delicatessen, and there are floor-to-ceiling shelves, with a moveable ladder on rails, housing speciality teas, biscuits, preserves, honey, oils, dried pasta, potted terrines and pates. The back part is the restaurant.

The Atmosphere
Large, wooden rustic style tables comfortably seat six apiece, (the restaurant seats 24 altogether) and each is laden with pots of jam, bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and stupendously large blocks of butter for you to help yourself. Soft, instrumental, rather non-descript music plays. Lots of mothers come here with babies; you’ll also see quite a few people alone with their laptops, working and eating at the same time. The atmosphere is laid back rather than vibrant. No one will hurry you, and indeed the service is somewhat lacking in urgency. The deli is busier than the restaurant.

The Food
There’s a wide selection of salads, mostly with a Mediterranean vibe, featuring tabouleh, feta, or grilled chicken. An antipasto vegetariano at around £8.00 offers zucchini, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, aubergine and mushroom and is a lovely mixture of bright colours and strong flavours. It’s advertised as coming with a bread basket but appears in the disreputable company of two slices of slightly burnt toast. Main dishes - which come with two salad or veg selections from the deli bar - include sweet potato gratin, sliced stuffed lamb, and polenta. The honey roast gammon is a disappointment: you only get one slice, you can’t taste the honey and it isn’t warm all the way through. Fish pie is slightly better, with chunks of fresh tuna, but is somewhat on the dry side. For afters there’s a selection of cakes from the patisserie. The apple mascarpone cake is OK but tastes more of coconut than of apples; it too could be moister.

The Drink
The wine list offers five reds, five whites and a rose. The Sicilian Doricum Cataratto is a dry, grassy white, good value at just over £11.00. They also serve mulled wine. There’s a broad selection of soft drinks: elderflower presse, iced tea, herbal drinks, root beer amd every conceivable variety of smoothie.

The Last Word
Esac is clearly an excellent deli, as the queues at the counter testify. It needs a little more love to work as a restaurant.

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