Most of the grievances from the kibbitzers of Covent Garden boil down to Mishkin’s authenticity deficit. The latest theme restaurant to get the Russell Norman touch (think da Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino) is less the great Jewish deli they wished it to be than the Jewish-themed cocktail diner the big cheese of small plates willed it to be. Forget gefilte fish: the most criminal oversight, given the concept, is a drinks menu with no borscht martini.
Were you to meet Mishkin’s – and group – head chef Tom Oldroyd on the street your first thought would not be Jewish mother. Just read his response to my live tweet from a roomy booth at Mishkin’s last Thursday (I’m @youngandfoodish, he’s @tomolpo):
@youngandfoodish @tomolpo lunching @MishkinsWC2 with jewish friends from states. we are LOVING food.
@tomolpo @youngandfoodish So sorry I couldn’t be there. Please do give me your feedback, sounds like you’re enjoying it !
A stereotypical Jewish mother, real or surrogate, never apologises for not being there for you. It’s all your fault. Her tweet would go something like this:
@jewishmother @youngandfoodish of all the days to come in for lunch you pick the day i’m not there. that’s gratitude for you.
Not having ancestral ties to Jewish soul food may be a serious handicap for anyone trying to cook it. Or it can be seriously liberating. There’s no family tradition that dictates your matzoh balls be sinkers (dense and heavy) or floaters (soft and fluffy). You’re free to split the diff and make flinkers, as Mishkin’s has done, beautifully.
Likewise, if you’re not born on either side of the chopped liver wars you can do it smooth, chunky or smunky. (Just don’t call it a chicken liver parfait.) I really got into Mishkin’s smooth but thankfully not moussey chopped liver as well as its original garnish, schmaltzed (chicken-fat-lubricated) radish. Still, next time I will ask to borrow some fried onions from that superb, griddle-steamed mini-cheeseburger to accompany the chopped liver.
Salt Beef Bagel
Am I happy with everything? I do wish Mishkin’s prepared its own salt beef from scratch rather than source cured briskets from Hensens, as Selfridges Brass Rail and most other London salt beef bars do with varying results.  Even when the Hansens salt beef is not as stringy as it was last week at Mishkin’s (see photo above) its saltiness overpowers. The salt is in the brine to break down the tough brisket meat, not to block out every last trace of flavour. I have a similar problem with English mustard. Traditional or not I don’t see how wasabi nose is helpful to one’s appreciation of a deli sandwich.
Please, Mr Norman, give us some milder New York-style deli mustard as an alternative. If you do I’ll forgive you for not making Mishkin’s a certified kosher restaurant. I’ll give Oldroyd a pass for neither being nor having a Jewish mother. I’ll not say that small plates are laughable for a style of cooking with only two portion sizes, big and bigger. That leaves you with only the pork hot dogs on your conscience.
Latkes, Smoked Eel, Apple Sauce & Soured Cream
London hasn’t been too kind to its Jewish delis. Phil Rabin’s Nosh Bar? Closed. Bloom’s of Whitechapel? Closed. Blooms of Golders Green? Closed. The new Nosh Bar on Great Windmill Street? Opened and closed without a single newspaper review or mention. Gaby’s Deli? Threatened with eviction. Not a pretty record, is it?
Pastrami Reuben Sandwich
If you are an observant Jew who keeps kosher, or someone who believes eating Jewish means eating kosher, then you have an irreconcilable beef with Mishkin’s. I get that. But that means you also take issue with great Jewish delis like the Carnegie and Katz’s in New York, Langer’s in Los Angeles and Schwartz’s in Montreal which – guess what? – are not kosher either. Know also there is no such thing as a kosher reuben sandwich, the deli classic of corned beef, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese layered on toasted rye, unless, as I understand it, you use kosher meat and kosher cheese and eat the cheese from a separate plate, six hours later.
My feeling is, if it takes an amusing, retro-styled invention like this to make matzoh balls a little trendy, or to get London’s food activists, gentile and non-observant Jew alike, to try cholent (Jewish Sabbath cassoulet) for the first time and get their foot in the Ashkenazic (Eastern-European Jewish) door then mazel tov to Norman. If some Mishkin’s diners go on to read or write about Jewish cooking, as many already have, or seek out kosher and kosher-style foods, or support new kosher businesses like Deli West One, tell me, what’s not kosher about that?
Mishkin’s, 25 Catherine Street, London WC2B 5JS (see map) – 020 7240 2078
Well said and a fair analysis. Personally I like it and have always had an interest in Jewish food (I have several cookbooks), but obviously keeping kosher wouldn’t be an issue for me as it would for others.
Thank you, Niamh. I’d add one point: There is kosher beef and there is non-kosher beef. But pork and eel are never kosher. As a result I can see even people who don’t keep kosher thinking this sounds the wrong note.
Great review Dan and I tend to agree on” this kind of Jewish Deli” (sic)the only thing I’d say is no one in the UK has managed to serve Pastrami and Corned Beef that is even 30% as good as Carnegie , Katz’s , Stage, Schwartz’s , Langer’s et al – and it’s the thing I miss the most but I understand this may change soon
Dino – 30 percent may be generous. The hope is that Mishkin’s success will help us to get to where we want to be.
Dan, as you know, I wasn’t all that impressed with Mishkins. It wasn’t the kosher vs non-kosher issue, I went in with eyes wide open. It was that I simply didn’t think it was very good. Too much of what I ate was bland.
I’m really surprised to read that they source their beef from Hensens. I’d have thought they would want to home cure, it’s really not such a difficult thing to do/
Another London restaurant charging full-size prices for totally not full-size portions. Not knocking this review or the food itself, but I went here a few weeks ago and was vastly disappointed yet not surprised it’s another London venture trying to do ‘New York’ or ‘America’ at 1/3 the portion and double the price.
Joe – There is truth in what you say. Since moving the UK I’ve bought into the fiction of equating a pound with a dollar when perusing menus, even back was a dollar was only worth 50p. It’s been the only way to keep my sanity and preserve my appetite.