Chef Neil Gill, who launched Season Kitchen in Stroud Green in 2010, will open Gilly’s Fry Bar on 19 September, a restaurant modelled on the northern fish and chip shops of his youth.
Gilly’s Fry Bar will serve fish and chip shop classics such as battered cod with scraps but will also have a strong focus on tempura cooking - an idea that Gill says he came up with while working with Alan Yau.
Gill has sought advice from industry friends, including Edgar Wallace of Koya Bar in Soho, to devise the Anglo/Asian food offer. The menu will be split into five sections; snacks, fry, raw, donburi rice and sides and has been created with sharing in mind to enable customers to try a wide variety of dishes, much like the traditional tempura bars of Japan.
Snacks will include the likes of prawn toast while dishes on the fry section will be soft shell crab, aubergine, chicken wings and shitake mushrooms.
The donburi rice section - steamed rice topped with a choice of fry and served with pickles, seaweed and a 64 degree egg - will include mixed veg, prawn and chicken tempura options as well breadcrumbed pork, beef and mackerel.
A ‘fun but grown up’ highball cocktail menu will complement the food offer, with combinations such as gin, lemon, cherry and elderflower; vodka, Cointreau, lemon juice and cream soda; and Jameson, spiced honey and lemon Shandy Bass – all priced from £4.
The restaurant will also serve interesting shots, pickles and punches, such as the Salt & Vinegar; a shot of whisky with salt and pickle juice; and The Fish Bowl Punch for two made with rum, cognac, peach, lime and Irn Bru.
The 35-cover restaurant will be situated close to the new City North Development in Finsbury Park.