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My relationship with Islington’s plant-based Caribbean classic-in-waiting Jam Delish started poorly. 'No fucking way,' I exclaimed, obnoxiously, 'are we going vegan for a joint birthday blow-out.' Call it boorish omnivorism; call it the fact that, even as a professional eater, I still see a pervasive joylessness in vegan cuisine compared to the indulgences of flesh and dairy. I won; off to The Tamil Prince. So imagine my shame when, willed to Angel by my editor, I relished the most engaging dinner I’ve had in eons.
Sibling owners Jordan and Chyna opened Jam Delish off the back of stints at Kerb and a well-
received six-month residency at Soho’s Sun and 13 Cantons pub. For this permanent iteration, the kitchen is headed up by Bajan-Jamaican chef Nathan Collymore, an alumnus of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen.
Dinky, sugar-flecked doughnuts arrived on a pineapple, mango and scotch bonnet sauce of such fragrant heat that we literally cackled.
The vibe doesn’t exactly reflect the urbane origins. Jam Delish is almost senselessly
unfashionable. From the outside, tinted windows give it a vaguely ‘smart shoes’ suburban nightclub look. Inside, things are kookier still: a YSL-blue riad for a foyer; statement wall of plastic foliage; padded mirrors in the turquoise-bricked bathrooms. The kind of chintz that’s a world away from homogenous London cool – well, 12 miles to Zone 4 – and I adored it.
First, snifters. 'It’s a secret…' was a lurid concoction of rum (possibly), blue curacao (definitely) and passionfruit, as zesty as it was otherworldly. The ‘Antiguan Zombie’ featured three different rums and was served in a tiki cup with a flaming slice of orange. Knock them back with a bowl of ‘mini festivals’: dinky, sugar-flecked doughnuts on a pineapple, mango and scotch bonnet sauce of such fragrant heat that we literally cackled.
The wider menu was a relatively unadorned amble through West Indian classics like jerk 'chicken', 'goat' curry, 'saltfish' tostones, 'beef' patties and so on. There’s something faintly
retrograde in every dish being a plant-based proxy of a meaty staple – the inverted commas are theirs – but Collymore is doing seriously alchemical things with seitan, tempeh, jackfruit and soy.
Take a bowl of silken 'oxtail' stew – the beef subbed out for indistinguishable nuggets of jackfruit in a wildly flavourful liquor, studded with cassava dumplings and served with perfect rice and peas. Or the pakora-style tostones: dinky assemblages of fish-favoured bark (not a clue what) teetering on samphire, fried green plantain and a humming scotch bonnet mayo.
A few seitan 'chicken wings' were the closest things to weird, the bone subbed out for sugarcane; texturally bizarre but still delicious. More conventional were a couple of slightly brittle roti – with a sweet/spicy plantain hummus and a wicked burnt spring onion and chilli ‘butter’, lip-smacking with coconut fat – and a pile of burnished, eldritch buttermilk oyster mushrooms on avo-slicked ‘hard dough bread’ that showed consummate skill with the frier.
So yeah, Jam Delish was a genuinely humbling surprise. Consider this a genuflection – the
clue’s utterly in the name.
The vibe A heady mix of gaudily suburban and gastronomically progressive, near bustling Upper Street.
The food Caribbean classics – with a few curveballs – made totally animal-free.
The drink Come for the insanely retro cocktail list, stay for the jagerbombs, slippery nipples and bottles of high-ABV Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.
Time Out tip The menu is fascinating but the portions are sizeable: take a few pals, order too much.