Rok

4 Reviews on “Rok”

• Cook & Pour

  There is a Rok in Islington and it’s interesting that I got there before I got to the one on my doorstep in Shoreditch. Up, at what I consider to be the wrong end of Upper Street has sprung this little Scandinavian gem. With the name (and two little dots over the o) you would think it would be all pickled herring and meatball. Not at all, it is a simple menu on a small A5 piece of paper, similar to what the other cool cats are doing like Popolo. Not necessarily about sharing, the dishes come on small plates and if you want to, you can taste a selection of dishes if you are more than a party of one.The vibe is chilled. A team of young guys work the room, having a wee bit of banter amongst themselves. They still look after you and you get to eye up the open plan kitchen if you are close enough. A long narrow room at the front is great for a little intimacy between two, with bigger spaces to the rear. A very simple decor does not distract from what is interesting food.I went for starter of scallops in a creamy nduja mush. I say mush, as I am not sure what to call it, but please don’t feel put off by it, it was absolutely lush. Spicy sausage paste (nduja) is increasingly becoming a thing, mostly debuting on pizza, but now on the shelve to buy at your local M&S as well as appearing in an array of dishes. For my main course it was a leg of duck on a bed of lingonberry jam with some wild mushrooms. Lingonberry is an acquired taste and whilst I get why it was partnered with the duck, I am not a fan of sweet things. It overpowered a little, so I pushed that to the side. The duck was gorgeous though, in fact, without the need for anything else. I had a side of blackened broccoli with rich nori rice, macadenia and vasterbotten smothered all over. Again, if you lean more to the side of subtle, this is probably not for you. That said, there are some great alternative options to suit all tastebuds. In fact, one big plus for me was that they had orange wine, another 2017 fad. Of course, orange wine has been around for a while, but it is really being pushed to front and centre now. For me, I just love the dry and nuttiness of it. Rok is cool. It is a foodie place for when you want to try something out of the norm. cookandpour.co.uk

  June 20, 2017, 2:58 am

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• Shayan Sacki

  Nordic food – omgThe food was so good, we luckily managed to get a seat and ate great food. Mallard, guinea fowl as mains were so good. I can’t wait to go back

  February 1, 2017, 3:37 am

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• Lucy Makinson

  Everything we had was perfectly done. Perfectly cooked meat with different textures and flavours in each bite from the garnishes, and lovely sides. 6 of us were at dinner and all scraping our plates clean. It’s small so won’t work if you need a sense of space, but although it’s quite buzzing noise-wise it wasn’t so loud that it interfered with our conversation. I’ll go back.

  December 20, 2016, 1:55 am

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• Alice Gee

  The new outpost of Rok is an attractive space. However, a few of the tables for two are rather uncomfortable, where one person ends up sitting inside a niched archway. Quite cramped and warm. When booking I would recommend requesting not to be seated at one of these. We ended up changing tables between starters and mains.They are billed as a Scandinavian restaurant, but I would say they focus on Scandinavian cooking techniques, such as pickling, brining, curing and smoking. Their ingredients are actually sourced from all over.We started with two types of pickles. The fennel & chilli and the dill & cucumber. Nice attention to detail in that different brines were used for the different vegetables. The fennel was quite hot with slivers of de-seeded green chillis. The cucumber by contrast was quite sweet.For mains my companion had ribeye with vinegared and creamed cows curd cooked perfectly to order. Meat had a lovely smokey note having been cooked over charcoal. It was garnished with some charred green onion. My pork loin with pickled granny smith and fennel sauerkraut was wonderfully smokey from the barbecue as well. The pickled apple was a really refreshing palate cleanser.You do need to order sides here as the meats don’t generally come with carbohydrates. We had the bone marrow mash and blackened cabbage. The mash was incredibly rich and tasty, but too salty. I suspect this was a one off error in the kitchen, because the standard of cooking is really very high. Our other side of cabbage blackened on the BBQ, mixed with a little vinegared arborio rice and toasted chopped macadamian nuts, and finally sprinkled with both nori seaweed and a hard Swedish cheese, was totally intriguing.They make fantastic use of wood fire smokers and charcoal grills here. We didn’t have room for dessert, and in fact brought home a little of our mains and sides in a takeaway box. A bottle of the house red was a somewhat pricey 24 Cotes de Rhone but very smooth and pleasant. Given the quality and ingenuity of the cooking I found Rok well priced. They do stuff you just can’t reproduce in a domestic kitchen. Dinner for two with a bottle of house wine was 82 including service.

  October 8, 2016, 2:28 am

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