You may have followed, a few years back, that show about that chef who wanted to only cook with products obtained within the M25 - even better if it can be reached on the London Underground. You know the one. It was quite interesting as you contemplated whether or not you could cook anything found in the Thames. Yeah that one - good, we're all caught up.
Well, as promised chef Oliver Rowe has delivered and created a restaurant where over 80% of the produce used is sourced within a tube journey of its King's Cross base (the Eurostar is, we believe, not included within the tube network. Shame as we're big fans of... erm... Orangina and Thierry Henry). It's really rather good.
Despite the obvious constraints, the happy customers are offered a good range of seasonal food that includes delights such as seabass, sprats, Waltham Abbey Chicken and a mix of meats from Amersham. Whatever the dish, most of it is sourced locally and is cooked up in imaginative ways. You'd think that Mr Rowe would probably turn anything in London into a tasty concoction for your delectation.
Thankfully not everything local to London was being cooked up at Konstam
The local nature of the restaurant is more than just a gimmick - it's an effort at conservation and reducing that pesky carbon footprint. It should be supported by us as a valiant effort to save the environment. Well... unless you take into account that it's so brilliant people travel from afar to visit it. Hmmm...that's an inconvenient truth right there.
No matter - Konstam serves up brilliant food and drink night and day (the lunch time offers are great value too) and should be visited as frequently as possible (with Oyster card clutched in hand) as it paints King's Cross in a new light.
In decades past, King's Cross was primarily famous for ladies of the night and happy endings - let's hope Konstam can produce the same outcome for years to come... just with a different set of locally sourced ingredients.