St John Bread and Wine

St. John Bread & Wine was intended to be just that: a home in Spitalfields for the growing breadmaking and wine-importing arms of the St. John restaurant business. A dining room was added due to demand from customers, and now the site houses a kitchen specialising in Henderson’s British comfort food and nose-to-tail style of cooking.

The Spitalfields site continues the group’s pared-back approach – white walls, small wooden tables and the day’s menus written on chalkboards – but the dining room is airy, and a bakery counter selling the group’s acclaimed sourdough bread lends a point of intrigue.

Food here celebrates British ingredients and British cooking in all its ancient glory. Braised pig’s trotter, Arbroath smokies, lamb faggots and whole quail are all full of flavour and couldn’t be less complicated in their make-up, while the bakery’s bread is used as a bed for an iconic Welsh rarebit. The “wine” part of the name refers to the business’s importation arm, working with producers to produce bag-in-box versions of their flagship wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux, meaning house wines are always of incredible value.