Feels Like June restaurant review: A summer rush of escapism in Canary Wharf
There’s nothing like being a tourist in your own city. Sometimes I go to Canary Wharf to pretend I’m in Downtown New York, with its vertiginous skyscrapers, wide thoroughfares that expand alongside water basins, and steakhouses and cocktail bars offering solace to tired bankers.
New Canary Wharf restaurant Feels Like June sounds like the perfect restaurant opening for this endlessly hot summer. Sitting on the outdoor terrace, the food was as thrilling to gawp at as the high rises, albeit for the few seconds before I crammed it all in my face.
It’s California-style – a popular concept at the moment, joining other new openings like Laurel’s – so there’s a focus on colour and vibrant flavour, also mirrored in the interior design, featuring lots of fun, eclectic art. To start we order a beets and goat cheese strattacino salad, which our lovely waiter described as a “village salad”.
For the equivalent of an illegal party high in food terms, try a piece of supple pork solo. Holy moly.
The cheese had been warped into the consistency of foie gras against a sterner hazelnut vinaigrette, making it that rare find: a challenging salad made for conversation. We also tried Hamachi ceviche with jalapeno dressing with tiger’s milk and avocado that was cheerful but less thrilling, and then a nostalgic line of tater tots smothered in parmesan which pleased the inner 7-year-old in me. Give me thirty more.
DIY pork tacos for mains had an ambitious range of DIY bits and bobs to build into charcoal-coloured wraps. A spicy salsa stood out, but I can’t stop thinking about how good raw cabbage is when enveloped with piles of pork. It’s just the most obvious companion to carefully cooked pork, offsetting the fattiness, but one I’d never thought about.
For the equivalent of an illegal party high in food terms, try a piece of supple pork solo. Holy moly.
A butterscotch budino dessert was lightly rich, and a fun companion to the Wharf Swizzle, which the manager describes as “our version of a mojito”. It’s refined but – stick with me – has the naughty appeal of a tasty energy drink. Presented like a colourful test tube in a tall skinny glass, and with two types of rum, I can imagine Californians drinking this after a long day.
I might not be in Cali, but I don’t feel like I’m in London either. Cheers to the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf and Feels Like June for the top-draw escapism.
Feels Like June is within the new Tribe hotel in Canary Wharf and accepts bookings and walk-ins