Acorn House

Last night we discovered that the rumours are true, Kings Cross is indeed 'up and coming'. OK, round the station it's still unquestionably a dump. But veer off on to the dark side streets and you will find not one but two shiny new(ish) restaurants. And not just any restaurants, but the ultra trendy, organic, low-on-the-food-miles and fully-booked-at-dinner-time kind. The organic, eco friendly Acorn House was able to fit us in a bit earlier than the funkily decorated Konstam -- which specialises in food produced in London. So we went organic. The menu featured about 6 starters, 6 mains and a few pastas. The service friendly and the £20 bottle of Chapel Down Bacchus (excuse me while I polish my food miles halo) went down a treat with the delicious bread. We wolfed down two of the surprisingly ample £8 starters between four -- a salad of pheasant with pomegranate pips and dandelion leaves and a plate of smoked mackerel. For my main I had a large plate of pasta with plentiful shreds of tender, slow-cooked venison (£10). My companions happily gobbled up the pork chops, the swordfish with horseradish and the sirloin steak which came with some delicious anchovy butter (£10-14). For a trendy restaurant, the flavour combinations were surprisingly simple, which was a nice change. To accompany an interesting wine list, there was also a good selection of beers from Greenwich's Meantime brewery. The only slight disappointment was the rather uninspiring cheese plate -- but may be that's because there is a limited range of organic cheese out there. Overall though a big thumbs up. Lets hope the rest of the area catches up soon though, and someone opens up a nice bar near by for pre/post dinner drinks.

Acorn House, 69 Swinton street London WC1X 9NT ; Tel 0207 812 1842; www.acornhouserestaurant.com; Tube: Kings Cross

PS I keep meaning to start taking beautiful pictures of the food - with which all the other foodie blog seem to be adorned - but then inevitably get too absorbed in the drinking and the eating and forget. One of these days though...