Little Bat, sounds like some secret cave hideout. It’s Callooh Callay little sister by the same people. You know the people that make badass cocktails in Shoreditch/Old Street. I mean it won Best Cocktail Menu in the world. It’s not like it’s older sister with the Alice and wonderland theme. Little Bat bar is the new hunt in Islington prime long road of other eateries and bars. It’s only the corner away from Hilbury and Islington station with all good connections from the tube, overground and rail.
Visiting Little Bat on a Tuesday night the area wasn’t filled and we had a choice of spots to sit at. Sits near the doorway are exposed with the natural daylight; the back is dimmed nicely with nice leather chairs to get cosy.
The server was super friendly and handed us the menus for the food and drinks.
As you know Callooh Callay is known for their cocktails and their mixologists have created a nice drinks menu with the starting price from £8. We started off with some sours, the Bombay cocktail and Bathtub Sour. Both tasting like a concoction of juices finished off with frothy smooth egg white skimmed on the top of the glasses.
Little Bat aims to be one of those places where you can just stay in one spot for the night without worrying where to go next for food. You can have bar snacks or a proper meal.
Some of the usual bar food suspects appear on the menu, burgers, chips but it goes beyond that. Starters my friend C opted for a salad and I just had to try out the Scotch egg.
Even if it was just a few raw slices of tomatoes, the heirloom tomatoes beat normal salad tomatoes with pieces of creamy burrata cheese, shallots; pine nuts drizzled with balsamic vinegar dressing.
That Callooh Callay scotch egg, one of the best I’ve tried. Well-seasoned moist meat, perfectly cooked egg matched well to the sweet Manhattan ketchup served along the dish.
We moved on to more drinks this time from the shaken section. C went for santa Barbara daisy and I went for the rhubarb swizzle.
As the name suggest the one I picked taste exactly as sweets from the candy shop. Rhubarb & vanilla syrups, lemon juice made this one super sweet.
For mains we got some large plates, I had a hard time choosing either the jerk or burger but since C wanted the Jerk I opted for the burger.
Grilled jerk chicken is beautifully presented, crispy chicken layered on top of each decorated with edible flowers and rice and peas in balls. Banana ketchup is squirted from large to small circles. I had a bite and can say the chicken skin is cooked until it is crispy thin with plenty of fat juices running.
My chuck steak burger had plenty of flavour. Steak meat minced together, melted smoked cheddar enclosing the meat, smothered in chipotle mayo, crammed with heirloom tomato and pickles.
We also got a side of chips; thin cut fries cooked piping hot. Perfect with the large plates mains we ordered.
[blockquote author=”” pull=”pullleft”]10/10 on the drinks[/blockquote]Our last rounds of drinks were from the shaken section. Bartenders Breakfast is a naughty but nice type of drink chocolate and coffee in one.
Little Bat is a great neighbourhood bar that fits the Islington area well. You be looked after by the trusted mixologists and you know you can eat here without worrying about hoping to the next place.
54 Islington Park Street, London, United Kingdom
{google_map}54 Islington Park Street, London, United Kingdom{/google_map}