Village East

Naomi and I made another stab at this modern brunching lark on Saturday, but didn't manage to meet up until 2:30pm so it was really more of an early dinner by the time we took our seats at Village East on the newly trendy Bermondsey Street.

We had what was a pretty decent lunch, I chose a burger topped with foie gras and caramelised onions and Jones had hake with a clam 'casserole.' I am normally a bit sceptical about jollied up burgers, because really all I'm interested in is the quality of the meat and whether they've cooked it how I've asked them to. The meat in my burger was good, it had been cooked medium rare causing me to exclaim "look! pink in the middle, they never do that!" and was still juicy but with a charred crust. Top marks on that. The little piece of liver on top was a bit lost in a burger really, so I picked it out and ate it separately. Soft sweet liver doesn't really have a place in a lump of meat in a bun affair in much the same way that Billie Piper has no place in a metal band.

We had deserts because 'we deserve it' although in reality we don't really deserve it, and after my gluttony in America, all I deserve is steamed veg and broth. But we ordered anyway, because we are greedy. I had a crème brulee which was all right, not the best I've had (which incidentally was at The Green at Goose Green, home of the best club sandwich I've ever had, and now sadly closed. Why God? Why?!) It was sort of bland and eggy, not vanilla-y enough, but the crust was good, so it was around a 7/10 overall. Naomi had honeycomb semifreddo with poached plums which she declared 'all right' too.

We decided that Village East was about that, 'all right' nothing special, and when we received the bill, it dropped in our estimations yet further. With a bottle of wine and a bellini each our bill came to £85, which for a burger lunch is a bit strong.


Village East
171 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3UW
020 7357 6082