Jimi Famurewa reviews Levan: Menu of indisputable bangers means another reason to visit Peckham

Banger: Ravioli at Peckham restaurant Levan
Ravioli at Levan
Jimi Famurewa @jimfam29 November 2018

Ambience 5/5

Food 4/5

We have probably all been lured down to Peckham for a day by now, haven’t we? We have all shivered slightly as we watched the sunset at Frank’s or nosed around Peckham Levels or lazed on the Rye as VERY intense games of football happened all around us. We have eaten at Coal Rooms or The Begging Bowl or braved the queue at Taco Queen. We have seen the butchers and phone shops and Afro hair salons, and maybe even joined a rowdy crowd for a five-quid film at the Peckhamplex. We have felt — if we are anywhere north of, say, 30 — ancient in Canavan’s Peckham pool hall and we have definitely posed for an Instagram pic in that pink stairwell.

Well, I think that we are going to have to add another item to the list of Things Absolutely Everyone Does In SE15. Because Levan, a new all-day bistro from the team behind Brixton’s justly adored Salon, has just slotted seamlessly into the neighbourhood. And in an area of my beloved south-east London where there can be something a little puppyish about even the better places to eat, Levan feels like a significant arrival. It’s a gently grown-up operation where the prices are reasonable, the Francophile food balances ambition and comfort, and the loos aren’t the kind likely to give a visiting older relative PTSD.

I met my Peckhamite friends Kate and Simon there for lunch. And, while snacking on warm hunks of sourdough baguette and drinking glasses of a crisp, lingering Vinho Verde from the bumper list, we took in walls painted a deep, sexy blue, an open kitchen and a counter bearing flaky takeaway pastries. And in a nod to Larry Levan, the legendary New York DJ who gives the place its name, there’s a central, open cabinet crammed with vinyl and a vintage stereo that pumps out tasteful, dance-inflected deep cuts.

Deep, sexy blue: the alluring decor at Levan
Levan

Head chef Nicholas Balfe has name-dropped the relaxed inventiveness of the French ‘bistronomy’ movement as inspiration. But all you really need to know is that this is one of those tight, dud-free sharing menus where each omitted dish feels a little painful. Slivers of house-pickled sardine, artfully arranged on gorgeous, golden aromatic olive oil, were as punchy as they were pretty. Comté fries (which are possibly already rivalling that pink stairwell for Insta fame) arrived as sunshine-yellow, finely crisped bricks made of chickpea flour with soothingly cheesy middles and a hefty dusting of more cheese on top. ‘God these would be good if you were hungover,’ said Kate, as we all swiped chunks through a perky accompanying saffron aioli.

Croque monsieur, as a concept, has possibly been ruined for me by any number of microwaved service station atrocities. But this one, clattered by pepper and boosted by rich béchamel, did its gooey, dirty thing. Caramelised celeriac ravioli was an indisputable banger: fat pasta parcels seeping out silkily creamed root veg, plus crisped Jerusalem artichokes and cavolo nero, splashing about in the impeccably balanced sweetness of dashi butter and lovage oil.

30 must-try dishes in London restaurants

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It’s not all perfect. Proportions were slightly askew in the tamari-cured egg yolk that came on a too-thick puck of black pudding-ish boudin noir, and the sheaf of crispy skin above excellent halibut was too salty. A pudding of pumpkin sorbet with seed brittle had, as Simon noted, an unfortunate similarity to partially defrosted baby food.

But nothing really shook my belief that most will leave Levan extremely happy. We jointly demolished a terrifically sticky tarte Tatin and walked out into the sun, stepping over stray hair extensions and feeling that, though Peckham has long been on every Londoner’s cultural radar, it has just been given another hell of a boost.

Levan

1 Bread £2.50

1 Comté fries £6.50

1 Sardines £7.50

1 Boudin noir £7.50

1 Ravioli £9.50

1 Whole croque monsieur £8.50

1 Halibut £16.50

1 Bottle of Aphros Vinho Verde £36

1 Tarte Tatin £6.50

1 Pumpkin sorbet £4.50

1 Espresso £2

1 English breakfast tea £3

1 Macchiato £2.80

1 Filtered water £1

Total £114.30

Levan, 12-16 Blenheim Grove, Peckham, SE15 (020 7732 2256, levanlondon.co.uk)

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