The bit of London I am most familiar with would be  Camden, more specifically the area where the three stations of Euston, St Pancras and King’s Cross congregate. These are the three stations where I arrive in and exit from the capital. However, it was nice to have the time to walk around the new developments there. I was taken to lunch at The Grain Store behind King’s Cross. Correction – I think it would be truer to say we stumbled into it during our ramble. Neither of us had known of its existence before yesterday.

Reading the website (while we were waiting for the menu) it said

Grain Store is the hotly anticipated new restaurant by Chef Bruno Loubet and The Zetter Group’s Michael Benyan and Mark Sainsbury. Following on from the extraordinary success of Bistrot Bruno Loubet and The Zetter Townhouse, they have once again, joined forces with pioneering drinks creator Tony Conigliaro. The restaurant is located on Granary Square at the heart of London’s most exciting new quarter, King’s Cross.

We were seated at the restaurant section (not serving time yet as it was not quite noon) since the bar /comfy region was not accessible to wheelchair users (steps with no ramp –  I cannot see any reason for the steps beyond a demarcation of space). The decor was definitely bistro, very contemporary. Either the acoustics were terrible or my hearing is getting bad.

I had the Vietnamese style salad, seatrout and squid à la plancha, Naomi decided on the  Grilled leeks, apple and pickled walnut salsa, confit pork belly. We were both curious on how the confit pork belly would turn out. I really appreciated the tart piquancy of the Vietnamese style salad after the rich Christmas food, the trout was just right with the crispy skin with the hint of pink in the flesh, and the squid was not rubbery – as it can be sometimes be overcooked. I was not so impressed with Naomi’s choice – the pork belly, the thinly rolled crispy pork rinds were intriguing but the pork itself was a touch too dry and the walnut salsa didn’t cut it with me, nor did the diced apples. The leeks were good.

Conscious of having already overindulged ourselves during the festivities, we virtuously skipped dessert to wend our way to the British Library nearby. Is this a place where I would go back to with my mates? I am not sure, the area where one would ‘hang out’ at – the bar area is not accessible to me after all. But it might be different in the summer out on the Square.