Medlock Canteen

Medlock Canteen is one year old. The ideal time to pay a visit and celebrate. 

Medlock Canteen has all the excitement of a Franky and Benny’s before you got old enough to realise that there’s a whole other world out there. It’s a very cool, very relaxed, mid-century interior. Creators Sam Grainger and Chris Edwards point to a mix of references: American diners and Parisian bistros. It’s a perfect match for their style of dining, atmosphere, and cuisine. 

We open with oysters – ice-cold shells with hot sauce inside. There’s a slight sweetness that staves off the spice factor and complements the seafood beautifully. 

For our mains, we get a huge cutlet of turkey, hammered out and schnitzeled to the gods. It’s dripped in a thick, cheesy truffle creme with bright dollops of herbs. It was perhaps meant for three or more people, but I managed to handle the whole thing solo.

The chicken Caesar is an oldie, but this specific version is truly a goodie. You can hardly see the green for the mountain of parm on top. It’s a perfect partnership for their classic French fries – crunchy, fresh, very savoury.

The rotisserie chicken feels like their raison d’être. It’s definitely the reason to come. It arrives as a whole or half, with a super caramelised lemon to squeeze over. It’s cooked in its own juices, and lies in them on the plate. Make sure you get your fries in some of that – it’s gold dust.

The dessert is the most ridiculous banana split I’ve ever seen. It’s like something you’d see in an 80s American movie as a child, and then bother your parents about endlessly. I didn’t know they really existed. And here it is: layers of bananas, whipped cream, ice cream, cherries, and hundreds of hundreds and thousands. Happy Birthday, Medlock.