Merchant’s Tavern

Loving this place! Not the cheapest of nights out but, if you fancy treating yourself I’d recommend.
Booked in advance to secure a table on a Thursday night so recommend that! The bar area was lively with people, stopping for a pre-​dinner drink. Live DJ playing a variety of tunes. Buzzing atmosphere and engaging bar staff. So to the cocktail menu. Not your normal cocktails listed so encouraged to try something different. Service was swift and cocktails yummy. Slipping down far too easy.
Soon to be shown to our table. The restaurant area is to the back of the bar. Great seating, spacious so not on top of each other or aware of peoples conversation. Open kitchen so you can see the food being prepped. Always feel better for that!
Waiting staff were polite and engaged in conversation accommodating requests with ease and not made to feel that it was a hassle.
Food was tasty. I had the fish which was well cooked. One of those meals where you feel you may not get full but I did. full of flavours and washed down with a good wine.
Dessert options were good (important part of the menu) with a great selection to choose from.
Merchants Tavern is not the cheapest of places but you get good quality food and great service. Atmosphere was good and really enjoyed the night.
Will save up to come back soon hopefully ;)

As a visitor to London, this tavern delivered the best meal I have had so far. Friendly service, delicious bread and the venison gnocchi is yummy.

Holy shit this food is good! Rarely can you find such excellent dishes in London. This is a tavern and much more. If you want a local drink with a friend its perfect. If you want to experience an incredible dinner then your at the right place. I had the Quail starter and Pork Belly main finished with the chocolate mouse. All outstanding.

Came here on a Sunday and got the £25 for 3 courses deal– a lovely small plate of baked beets and root veggies with foie gras, amazing pork belly with 3 pieces of roast potatoes (could’ve done with more), and an okay serving of Chocolate spice cake.
Very comfortable seating, I was able to get a table pretty easily. It was actually quite vacant when I was there compared to Princess of Shoreditch down the road.
Overall solid place.

Amazing restaurant and the best I’ve been to in Shoreditch! Even the complimentary bread and butter were of impressive quality, and I’m a certified carb enthusiast.
My friend and I shared the foie and chicken liver toast, crispy pork, tuna sashimi, and quail with foie to start. They were all incredibly delicious and well-​prepared and I’d order them again in a heartbeat. For my entrée I chose the cod and she got the pork belly, and while I didn’t try her dish the skin crackled appetizingly as she made her first cut. My cod was fresh and cooked just enough to be perfectly moist and flavorful without fishiness, and even though I was already stuffed I inhaled the entire dish in record time.
Regrettably did not leave room for even one forkful of dessert but would love to come back sometime. Comfortable seating and fun ambience and wonderful staff make for an all-​around incredible experience.

Skipping right to the important part, I had the quail, the duck and the pork belly.
All three were excellent but the quail was a stand out. It was served with a variety of vegetables in various unique combinations and also… quail liver! Super delish and mild.
Every dish we had at lunch was under-​salted PERFECTLY which really allowed for the nuances of flavor to come to the surface.
I ate well while visiting London and this meal stood out as the best.
Way to go Merchant’s Tavern!

The Merchant’s Tavern is everything I want in a restaurant.
Let’s start with the food (most important, of course):
Probably the best duck liver pâté I’ve ever had. It was so light and delicious, I’ve never had anything like it. The other starter we got was a venison ragu, which was also amazing. For our mains we split the pork belly and the roast chicken, ordered with a variety of sides. Both delicious. Ordering chicken runs the risk it might be boring, but this was moist, lightly sprinkled with breadcrumbs and served with an mustard sauce. To finish off we split the treacle sponge pudding for two. Our waiter gave a knowing smile when we ordered, and when it came we understood why. It was to die for. Served with a little pot of hot vanilla custard for you to drizzle to your heart’s content.
Next, the drinks.
Great wine list, with a huge variety of wines of varying prices. They also do wine by the carafe which is great when you’re dining as a pair. We had two glasses of champagne to start, followed by a delicious, and (at £21.00 for the carafe) somewhat reasonably priced, 2011 red. Tempting cocktail menu, but we decided we’d save that for the next time…
Third, the atmosphere. Busy bustling bar at the front. This made me quite nervous when I walked in on a Friday evening, because I HATE loud restaurants (as in can’t carry a conversation kind of loud). If you’re there for dinner, they lead you through to the dining room, separated from the bar by a half wall. What a different atmosphere! Perfect noise level for dining while still feeling lively. Despite the high ceilings, they’ve done a great job of separating the noise from the bar area while maintaining the busy vibe.
Lastly, the service. My partner and I were celebrating Valentine’s Day a day early, and asked for a quiet table. They were incredibly accommodating, and put us in a tucked away booth in a corner, letting us know we could take our time. Throughout the evening our waiter was excellent, checking in on us to make sure we had everything we needed etc. There wasn’t a moment where we had to keep our eyes up to flag him down.
All in all I really can’t fault the Merchant’s Tavern, and am already looking forward to my next visit!

Outstanding for drinks, will have to try the food soon.
We dropped by on a chilly evening over the holidays to grab a drink and warm up. My wife asked if they had mulled wine, to which the bartender replied, «no, but I’ll make you some» and proceeded to whip up a batch so perfectly spiced and balanced that it’s made it difficult to drink it anywhere else. I had a very good scotch-​based cocktail, which was (finally!) not sickeningly sweet but refreshingly fresh and complex. The bar area is very comfortable and manages to be both warm and open.
The kicker for me was that they had a pop-​up DJ setup from Spiritland that included a massive pair of Tannoy Prestige monitors, each powered by its own tube amp and fed from good old Technics 1210s and a reel-​to-​reel deck. The sound was amazing, the mix well-​curated, and the volume perfectly appropriate for a lively bar without being raucous. If they were going to hang onto that setup, I’d come back just to hear it, but I’ll still be back to try the food and have more of their delicious cocktails.

Fantastic restaurant in Shoreditch.
I don’t know what was here before but it’s a huge space that is perfectly laid out with a warehouse feel and partially glazed ceiling section. There is a bar in the front area with friendly bar tender who knows his stuff. Cocktails, wine and beer on offer. The dining area extends rearwards towards an open kitchen at the back, a mix of tables and banquettes. It just felt like one of the most comfortable and relaxing restaurants I’ve been to in ages. I think they’ve got the design just right.
The menu is well crafted and a classic menu with starters, mains, sides and desserts with a few extras such as ‘sharpeners’ and larger meat dishes for sharing (thankfully NOT a menu of small plates).
Our group started with some deep fried oysters. Oh yeah. These were so good, we wanted more but held back to save room for the rest of the meal. Also sampled pig’s trotter on toast and dressed brown crab.
For starters I enjoyed gazpacho with shaved fennel followed by brill with borlotti beans, mushrooms, anchovy and bread sauce which was just excellent.
We shared a selection of delicious deserts which were well balanced between sweet and tart (roasted plum and almond sponge) and not too rich.
Service was friendly and informal and just right.
This will be a go to place that I will want to bring friends to in the future.
***
I see one or two negative reviews below here but looks like they are just bitchin’ about not getting some sort of half price soft opening offers but don’t let that deter you.

A Shoreditch gem that is well worth a visit; I hadn’t heard of this place (an Angela Hartnett production) until last week but it gave me one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve had in recent months.
I should probably confess upfront it didn’t hurt that I was on a date that was trying to impress me and v generously picked up the bill (eek!)… but even aside from that, I think it has triple-​pronged appeal:
1) The Place
It takes your hipster preconceptions, brushes them down and tells them to stop trying so hard. It is confident and at ease with itself. The crowd is a mix of casuals, suits, hipsters and a couple of tourists, and the space is vast: the restaurant and open kitchen at the back, the bar area at the front. It probably felt larger than it was thanks to the enormous skylight that stretches along the room (not that there was much to see through it but grey sky). There were several non-​diners just enjoying the bar space, whilst there were bums in almost all of the restaurant’s green banquettes during our meal — they probably had room for a few walk-​ins though we booked in advance.
2) The Service
I haven’t felt so well taken care of at a restaurant since, well, maybe ever (at least without paying through the nose for it). This is probably what made the place stand out from the hundred other upmarket brasserie-​style restaurants in London for me. It started with the bar manager after I pulled up a high chair to the welcoming wooden counter. I still don’t know what my date had been chatting about with him before I arrived but he gave us a couple of aperitifs on the house (err not that my opinion is easily swayed by free booze or anything obviously…). He was chatty about his bar work and the Mayfair place he’d run previously, then gave us an educational snippet on Kamm & Sons which he mixed for us with bitter lemon — apparently the British answer to Campari and set to be the apéritif of the summer (you heard it here first!).
As for the meal, our waitress was so friendly and charming with her suggestions that we got suckered into ordering it all (well almost — she could tell from my face that pushing the foie gras was a no-​go). We declared we were skipping starters; she suggested getting oysters. I say I don’t like oysters because they only taste of whatever they’ve been dunked in; she suggests getting deep fried ones. We caved — and rightfully so as they were pretty good, plus I got to try something new! She was attentive and kept up a nice amount of conversation between courses — more chatty than usual but not overbearing, and if her interest in our opinions was faked then it was very nicely done!
3) The Food
Didn’t disappoint. I usually hate ordering the same thing as my companion but I was too wary of getting food envy after the barman had recommended the grilled flat iron steak. I would’ve been right as well — the meat was so soft and cooked a lovely medium rare, partnered well with mash and morels, and a green salad on the side (another waitress suggestion). I’d choose it again, and all washed down with a yummy Italian red. Unusually, the one flat note for me was dessert, though partly my own fault for ordering a ‘Mont Blanc’ on a whim without listening fully to what it was. The waitress got as far as ‘chocolate mousse on a chocolate maca-​’ before I interrupted with ‘I’ll have that!’, but it was less the moist chocolatey gooeyness I was lusting after and more dry, plain biscuit and cream. My date looked pretty smug over his chocolate tart with salted almond ice cream at this point…
With those three boxes ticked, four stars just didn’t seem enough; there’s a lot of places in this price bracket but I think this is a reliable upmarket choice that I’d go back to. Hopefully you’ll try it and have as good an experience as we did!

Some people who’ve reviewed this place must be somewhat premature. Service was outstanding today, but more than matched by the food. Gorgeous raviolo, perfectly judged Jacob’s Ladder… Excellent. May even have preferred the whole experience to Café Murano…

After much procrastination, I finally had dinner at Merchants Tavern for a Saturday evening dinner.
I’ve seen some good reviews on it, and was excited to try it for myself.
We were nicely seated at a quiet corner at the back of the dining room, with a good view of the place as well as the open kitchen at the back.
We started off with the fried oysters, which were gorgeous, and the quail dish (also very tender and delicious)
I ordered the pork belly as my main, because I LOVE pork belly, and this dish definitely lived up to my expectations — delicious tender meat, without being to fatty, and a lovely crispy crackling. My cousin ordered the venison which was also very nice and tender.
As for dessert, I’d recommend the Mont Blanc, and the ginger loaf was equally tasty.
I’ve noticed that the previous reviews on here have been quite negative, maybe because that was during the soft launch period, which may be understandable. But they’ve been open for a while now and I can assure you that it is worth a visit.
Overall, great food, service and ambience.
Full blog post with photos here:

Such mixed feelings on Merchant’s Tavern.
Where do I begin?
Okay, first of all, it’s a lovely space. Calming ambiance, lovely wood stove crackling and, in in my opinion, friendly and attentive staff, which is a rarity in Shoreditch.
I was here for a work lunch, and decided on the «Christmas Set Menu», so I can’t speak to what the «regular» menu is like. I can’t remember what my starter was (oops), but had the «Roast Goose with all the trimmings» as a main. Despite being quite tasty, the portions were laughably small. Perhaps we hadn’t properly done our research on what sort of dining establishment this was, but we thought more «upscale pub» than «really posh restaurant». My team actually let out a collective giggle as the food we served — we were all pretty damn hungry, and these teeny, tiny portions just weren’t very appealing to the eye. Secondly, «roast goose with all the trimmings» conjures up images of a proper roast dinner — and this was not it. At all. Hilariously, when asking what «all the trimmings» were, our waitress actually suggested we order extra sides as it «doesn’t come with much». Thank god my work was paying for it, as I assume all the potatoes and greens that we ordered on the side would have added up.
Still, despite the tiny portions… the staff were very nice and I loved the space.
Would I go back?
Probably not.

Great dining experience. Mackerel appetizer and monkfish entrée were both cooked to perfection. Prompt and attentive wait staff.

I would have given it 4 stars, the food was not bad and the interiors interesting. But the service we got was very upsetting. We went there for a group dinner. I was the one picking the venue. My friend saw that they have soft launched and offering 50% off their food menu. I was deciding between this or the newly opened Ace hotel in the vicinity and thought Merchants Tavern offers an interesting and potentially promising menu. However, after I sat down we were told that the full food menu is only available in the restaurant section of the tavern (which we had no access to as it’s not open for reservation but was only half full for the entire duration of two hours from 8 to 10 when we were there). A very nice and friendly waiter came up to offer serving us the full menu in the bar area, explaining that the dining area was not fully open as they were still in the soft open period which we understood. However, I saw that he was quickly pulled aside by his manager and I knew he was in trouble. Manager came over and said we could not have full menu in the bar section. I didn’t think that was such a big deal. And if you have promised your customers sth you should just try to stick with your promise. And by that time we have already opened a bottle so we decided to stay. My friends also complained getting unfriendly treatment from members of the staff including the manager. At the end of our meal, he came over to ask how the food was … what wast that?! I don’t know if I want to go back again given the bad experience. Sometimes I just don’t get the level of service in London… sigh… I wish I had gone to Ace hotel, at least their staff told me specifically that they have bar seats and I could order the full menu there…

Sorry, but I can’t bring myself to give you more stars. I know I should give you another chance, but I really can’t stand appalling service in restaurants like these.
When we went, everything was 50% off, as it was during their soft launch.
However, we weren’t allowed to sit in the dining area (despite it being 75% empty). No matter, we thought — we’ll order at the bar.
Sat down at the bar, and we asked the waiter for menus. We also asked for the dining menu (in addition to the bar menu), to which he kindly obliged.
Minutes later, what appears to be the manager hastily grabs our waiter and gives him a thorough dressing down in the back of the restaurant. The manager then hurries over, and says gruffly, «I’m sorry, I can’t offer you the dining menu» and stomps off.
At the end of our meal, the manager still had the balls to come ask us what we thought of the food.