The Fox Reformed (8.5/10)

We had visited the Stoke Newington Farmers Market in the morning and wandering back up Stoke Newington Church Street, decided that lunch was on the cards. On a warm and sunny Saturday, the primary criteria for a lunch destination was a pleasant outdoor dining area. The Fox Reformed is a wine bar with a pretty small garden, but being quite empty and in the sun, qualified perfectly.

While perusing the menu in the window, some friendly locals decided to offer their 2p worth: "Nice place if you like pretentious food". Thanks for that. To be fair, the menu was not exactly Summer lunch in the sunshine (sausages and pork belly featured), so the choice had to be the burger. It sounded very promising - homemade bun, organic beef burger, caramelised onions and mozzarella served with fries and salad. I suppose this could be considered a pretentious burger.


While The Fox Reformed is a wine bar and has a very good wine list (they also run monthly wine tastings), given the glorious weather, we decided to start with our first Pimms of the Summer (we may have been inspired by the rather bossy sign in the window - Have Garden, Drink Pimms). I love, love, love Pimms. It is such a typically English drink and has come to truly epitomise the English Summer for me. This was a good strong version with plenty of fruit and was the ideal drink for the sunshine.


The burger arrived fairly quickly (sadly, there was almost no-one at the Fox and no-else eating) and looked as promising as it had sounded. The homemade bun was lightly toasted and almost scone-like and was a lovely vessel for the main event - the medium-rare (without even asking), juicy, packed-full-of-flavour burger. I have been reading all these blogs that rave about burgers and I'm not sure I've had many burgers that qualify for that level of raving. I think this one does - plenty of fresh herbs and garlic and really well-seasoned. The caramelised onions were sweet and the mozzarella added a lovely texture. Even the sides were lovely - crispy, crunchy chips and super-fresh salad with a delicious pesto dressing.

For a spur-of-the-moment choice based on the fact that they had a garden, this was an outstanding meal. I would definitely consider going back, but given their menu, probably more for dinner and wine.

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Fox Reformed
176 Stoke Newington Church Street
London N16 0JL