More Mishkins, Covent Garden

There is nothing quite like a spontaneous boozy dinner at Mishkins. I wasn’t planning to blog this meal, but once we got to Mishkins, we realised the menu had received an almost complete turnover of dishes; a lot of which we hadn’t seen before, and I really enjoy looking at new dishes at places that I’m already familiar with, so it gets a write up!

The cocktail menu at Mishkins completely is comprised of gin options and my Diamond Fizz was tart and refreshing.

Corn dogs (or a Pluto Pup!) demanded to be ordered. The batter was a little bland, but honestly – a battered sausage on a stick? Always a winner. The green tomato ketchup was lovely and sweet without the sharpness you can find in the usual red tomatoes.

The confit duck was the winner of the 2 mains we ordered. I graciously let Duncan eat most of the duck, being the saint that I am. The crispy skin, combined with the softly cooked meat falling off the bone was brilliant. The accompanying sauce was sweet and from memory was fruit-based. Peaches maybe? Potatoes so moreish they had to have been cooked in duck fat, I can’t think of any other reason they would be so tasty.

The sardines on toast were big fat ones, coupled with sweet cherry tomatoes. The samphire balanced things by adding saltiness and crunch to the dish. As is ever the concern with small fish, the presence of soft bones was a danger that I chose to crunch through and ignore.

For dessert, Duncan went with Mishkin’s version of Eton Mess. Obsessed with this dessert, he can never not order it.

Personally I was in the mood for something less sweet and opted for the Spiced Honey cake with peach jelly and pouring cream. What arrived was a dense, dark, sticky, almost bread-like cake studded with nuts. The cake had faintest trace of ginger and cinnamon to it. The choice of peach jelly was odd – the flavour of the jelly itself was light and sweet and the cake was almost Winter-like with it’s darker stronger flavour, but weirdly the whole thing worked together, with each component highlighting each others flavours. Blurry photo evident of just how many cocktails we (I) had drunk at that point….

As usual, staff were their more than helpful self. Even when I tired of the cocktails on the menu and ordered a Clover Club, not found on the Mishkins drink menu, but is present on Spuntino’s cocktail menu. An egg white had to be fetched from the kitchen and a raspberry puree had to be made from scratch. I hate being that difficult customer and I honestly was clueless as to what went in it, but at no time was it any trouble for the guys behind the bar and the happily made me one that tasted brilliant.

How good is Mishkins?

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