What are the tastiest street foods to eat at Street Feast: Hawker House?

Here is an obvious statement: Londoners love street food and cocktails. Who doesn’t? Over the last few years street food vendors have really honed their craft and now some of the best meals you can buy actually come from a van or a portable cart.

In fact, some of my favourite restaurants in London originally started life as street food trucks and have since grown so big they have progressed to their own brick and mortar chains; see MEATliquor and Homeslice for example.

Hawker House is run by the Street Feast team who gather together some of London’s best street food vendors and put them all in one place so you can sample the best street food London has to offer without having to actually walk the streets.

They have been running Street Feast events in four locations across London for the past few years and Hawker House is the South London sister of Dinerama in Shoreditch, which we checked out last year.

Unlike Dinerama, Hawker House is a much bigger, more spacious venue and has a whole exotic tiki vibe going on with bamboo bars and little coloured lanterns draped around the place. Plus a huge picture of beautiful island adorning one whole wall. On a hot summer’s day I can imagine you could forget that you are actually in Zone 2 just for a few hours.

Eight best foods to eat at Street Feast: Hawker House

Below are the best dishes we sampled that day…

Prawnography: Bacon wrapped Scallop (£3)

Winning the award for best street food vendor name, Prawnography specialise in barbecuing the best crustaceans they can get their hands on. These little scallops might look innocent but they took us to a euphoric place. One of our writers actually laughed out loud they were so good! Really good, salty bacon wrapped around a soft, juicy scallop. Excellent stuff. You couldn’t spend £3 on anything better.

Smokestak: USDA Beef Rib (£12) & Fries with Chipotle Mayo (£3)

Definitely my pick of the bunch at Dinerama last year, Smokestak are always awesome! This time around we went for the USDA beef Rib and skin-on chips with chipotle mayo. So juicy. So delicious, and I love the little twang from the pickled chillies. Possibly the best barbecue I’ve had in London so far. Still amazing and still definitely worth queuing for.

Yum Bun: Pork Belly Steamed Bun (2 for £7)

We started off with a light starter of pork belly steamed buns courtesy of Yum Bun, served from their adorable little yellow van. The buns were light and doughy, the pork was soft and juicy and the toppings of cucumber, spring onions and Hoi Sin sauce finished it off to a tee. If I was being picky I would say that the pork was a touch fatty and possibly could have been a bit meatier, but all in all they were very tasty.

Breddos Tacos: Hot Chicken Taco (£4)

Breddos Tacos have been a staple of Street Feast for the past couple of years and at Hawker House they have a whole menu full of fried chicken ready for you. I went for the Hot Chicken Taco which consisted of some good and crispy chicken cooked fresh to order, generously topped with slaw, crispy veg, sour cream and your choice of hot sauce: mild, hot or inferno! It was a pretty nice little taco and very fresh tasting. But at £4 I did think it was a teeny bit spenny for what it was, considering you can get a fuck-off amazing brisket bun from Smokestak for £8?

Meat Hook: Beech Smoked Lamb (£12)

I don’t think I’d heard of Meat Hook before I went to Hawker House but they are most certainly on my radar now! These lamb chops were ace! I went for the dry-aged lamb chops served with beef fat fries and blackberry slaw. At £12 it may be one of the most expensive items on the Hawker House menu but you have to remember that you are basically getting a whole meal here. I really enjoyed the fennel and mint slaw which had a nice twangy kick, and the fries were really tasty too. They were also kind enough to cook the meat well-done for me because I am pregnant which was very lovely of them. I yummed the whole thing up in about five minutes flat.

MEAT HOOK: Oak Smoked Steak (£10)

Also from Meat Hook was the Oak Smoked Steak, which was a generous amount of soft Chimichurri steak cooked to a lovely pink medium with more beef fat fries and a nice deep bone marrow gravy too. Very delicious and the Chimichurri sauce gave it a really great sweet, spicy kick. Definitely recommend this!

Bob’s Lobster: Lobster Roll (£15)

Our most expensive choice came in the form of the Lobster Roll courtesy of Bob’s Lobster. Although it may have been a bit pricey it was definitely the prettiest dish of the day. A huge mound of fresh lobster sat atop a brioche bun that was freshly cut and grilled in front of us, although there was definitely more lobster on the outside than the inside of bun the so it did require some delicate poking with our fingers to rearrange it somewhat.

My American friend was a little upset to find that the lobster was not mixed with mayonnaise (as the yanks like to serve it apparently) but she did admit that the lobster meat itself was very tasty and whole thing probably tasted a lot fresher as a result.

Chin Chin Labs: Nitro Ice Cream (£6-6.50 each)

Saving the best for last, roll up Chin Chin Labs!

For those of you not in the know, Chin Chin labs like to make delicious ice cream but with a difference; that difference being that they freeze their ice cream with liquid nitrogen which makes it super smooth. Fancy, huh?

We went for the three main flavours they had on offer that day. The Red velvet Sundae (£6) came with cream cheese frosting flavour ice cream, served on a piece of red velvet cake covered in chocolate sauce. The Burnt butter caramel Brownwich (£6) was a great hunk of burnt caramel ice cream sandwiched between two soft chocolate cookies.

But the Sticky Toffee Warmie Sundae (£6.50) was everyone’s favourite by far! Some warm sticky toffee pudding cake served with tonka bean vanilla ice cream and finished with chocolate and candied pecans. It was just delicious and warm with melty creamy ice cream and crunchy little candied pecans. I would recommend any or all of these! (But mostly the last one).

Verdict

Not wishing to sound too dramatic but I think Hawker House rescued us that day and saved our weekend. We were having a totally shit time but within minutes of arriving at the venue we had pints in our hands and delicious food in our bellies.

We even easily got a seat! Locals will know this is somewhat of a rarity in London. I love the big, open plan space of Hawker House and as there are so many tables the chances of you actually being able to sit down is quite high for once.

It makes the whole place feel a lot more chilled and enjoyable than Dinerama at Shoreditch. On top of that, nearly all of the food we tried that day was excellent, and even the dishes we tried that weren’t amazing were still really good.

The next time you have a hankering for some lazy weekend cocktails and street food just head to Canada Water and you will probably find me there.

Hawker House is open every Friday (5pm – late) and Saturday (noon – late) throughout the summer. Free before 7pm, £3 after.

Address: Canada Street, London, SE16 7PJ

Tube: Canada Water (Business Park Exit)



Discover the capital’s greatest food on the move in our London street food section, including Cure & Cut’s Reuben Sandwich.

Author: Toni Ratcliff Date: 2016-08-19 Title: Hawker House Rating: 4