Lunch Mon—Fri midday—3pm; Sat—Sun midday—4pm
Dinner Mon—Thu 6pm—10pm; Fri—Sun 6pm—10.30pm
Battersea, like most of southwest London, isn’t somewhere I often visit. From Sheen to Vauxhall, it’s a bit of a mystery to me. This is chiefly because getting there involves a three-hour ordeal on the terrifying Wimbledon branch of the District Line or a self-defence exercise on the big train. To go there for good food is madness, considering you can get the Eurostar to Paris in roughly the same time. However, Source, like its much-loved and much missed predecessor Ransome’s Dock, is putting paid to that—admittedly narrow-minded and west-London-centric—view.
Set at the back of a stunning courtyard on the former dock, Source occupies what was the ice store, remnants of which are everywhere. It also houses, in one of its cavernous basements, an artesian well, water sourced from which it bottles and sells in the restaurant, with profits going to charity. And the food is all sourced (there’s a theme here) as locally as possible, with ingredient provenance a high priority. So far, so altruistically conscience-cleansing.
The place itself is a mix of brick walls, hushed lighting and stripped wood furniture up against the remnants of the dock and cold store areas. The kitchen is an eyesore, however, and sits uncomfortably in the middle of the space like a youth club canteen trying to hide in the middle of a fine dining restaurant.
To kick off proceedings we were served an amuse-bouche of deep fried pig’s cheek and Harissa aioli, with the crisp parcel of soft pork very good but the aioli pretty underwhelming. For one starter we opted for crab toast, which was nice but severely lacking in crab, although the burnt spring onion interceded with some nice caramel flavours. The lamb heart, though, was a proper English winter dish with deep, gamey heart and rarely-seen tongue bacon on a bed of warm barley and swede, and it really worked.
The mains were delicious but so multi-faceted in their ingredients it would be advisable to leave diners with a menu for reference. A plump parcel of pillowy pan-fried seabass with a crispy skin came on a bitter chicory puree in pastry with dots of roasted artichoke and a velvety mushroom puree—less a dish, more a piece of art. Each part was well cooked, bar the soggy pastry, and sung as a complete dish.
The lamb leg was served the right side of pink with slivers of nutty Ratte potatoes and a rich aubergine caponata. A splodge of ricotta was a bit out of place, but provided a good foil to the very salty lamb. A side of sprouting broccoli, cranberry and almond slaw was an absolute revelation, like the sophisticated cousin of a Waldorf salad; delicious, moreish and recommended.
We drank a couple of glasses of La Versant Viognier (for the fish) and a Bulgarian Pinot Noir (for the lamb). Both were very good and well matched by the waiter. Seemingly unable to eat any more, we somehow ended up with the Earl Grey crème brulee, which not only rhymes but actually tasted of Earl Grey and was delectable.
Before we left we were given a tour of the aforementioned cavernous basements; a stunning, labyrinthine collection of former ice storage rooms. One is available for hire to entertain or for business meetings. A few noted celebrities and politicians are said to have used the secret hideaway—and you can see why, it’s like Churchill’s War Rooms with really good décor. Worth a visit if you get a chance.
Source has given me a very big reason to visit Battersea: the place will be fantastic in the summer and the food is very good. And the journey wasn’t that bad really—it took about half an hour. Though we drove. Which probably balanced out all the eco-good the local food had done: equilibrium restored.
