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Restaurants

Brat x Climpson's Arch.

Basque grill · London Fields · $$$ · Solid · should-visit · verified

Tomos Parry's open-fire residency under the arches

Jeff's note

Brat x Climpson's Arch

Tomos Parry first cooked a residency in this railway arch in 2013, before Brat existed, and the wood grill he came back to in the summer of 2020 has been permanent since January 2021.

Why go

Climpson's Arch is a coffee roastery's yard off Helmsley Place, and the restaurant is a marquee over the courtyard with the fire in the open and trains running above the brickwork. The menu is a blackboard rewritten daily against what the farms send, which is why the Good Food Guide review tells you to photograph it before you sit down (The Good Food Guide). Parry's Basque hand is all over it: hake pil-pil built on kokotxas, the fish cheeks whose gelatin sets the sauce with nothing but oil and movement, and a whole turbot priced and portioned for four. The frying gets specific praise, which is rarer than praise for the grill: "A top tempura chef could hardly better the lacy batter, pristine frying and impeccable produce on show here."

Order this / avoid

  • Order: the turbot if there are four of you, hake pil-pil with the kokotxas if there are two, the fritto misto of whatever came in from Flourish Farm, and the burnt cheesecake. Roasted chicken rice and whole crab with hay butter are what Harden's reporters name as typical (Harden's).
  • Avoid: Mondays and Tuesdays, when the arch is closed. Do not book it for conversation. And know before you go that you are eating well in a tent: Jake Missing's line is that paying these prices on "plastic school chairs on a tarmac floor" won't suit everyone (The Infatuation).

What locals & experts say

  • Jake Missing, The Infatuation (22 August 2023), 7.9/10: "Part greenhouse, part deluxe BBQ, and part future dry-cleaning bill, there's a relaxed attitude to this space that suits bigger groups and louder voices." His caveat in the same piece is that the food "doesn't quite hit the heights as the original." ref
  • The Good Food Guide, rated Very Good, on the room at full tilt: "On a busy night, the place is packed, the staff harried, the atmosphere unparalleled. Great fun." ref
  • Harden's survey reporters, the dissent worth reading before you book: "interesting and trendy, but at a hell of a price for a glorified pop-up," alongside the majority line, "Truly outstanding all round." ref
  • Time Out (Joe Mackertich, 12 January 2021) reported the residency going permanent, which is coverage rather than a verdict, and dates the change. ref

Good to know

  • Where: Arch 374, Helmsley Place, London Fields E8 3SB. The courtyard is covered by a marquee, so weather is survivable and noise is not.
  • Timing: closed Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday from 5pm, Friday and Saturday from noon, Sunday noon to 9pm.
  • Booking: book online or email arch@bratrestaurant.com. The site publishes no walk-in policy.
  • Sites: two premises trade under the Brat name. This row is the arch at Helmsley Place. BRAT at First Floor, 4 Redchurch Street E1 6JL is the separate Shoreditch restaurant and its own row. The Michelin star in the 2026 guide belongs to Redchurch Street; nothing here claims it for the arch.
  • Hygiene: no rating on record. The FSA holds the premises as FHRSID 1973610, awaiting inspection. The Shoreditch parent's rating is a different record and does not apply to this address. ref
  • Diet: the venue publishes no dietary statement, so nothing is claimed either way.

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing. His saved-places export carries an empty Note for this row, checked against london/data/_src-part3.csv. The master CSV's "Tomos Parry's open-fire residency under the arches" line came from an enrichment pass rather than from him, and it is also out of date: this stopped being a residency in January 2021.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth rearranging an evening for, with a clear caveat about what you are paying for. Tomos Parry has been cooking in this arch since 2013 on and off, and the fire work is the same hand that holds a star half a mile away: hake pil-pil where the kokotxas set the sauce, a whole turbot sized for four, a fritto misto The Good Food Guide says a top tempura chef could hardly better. The blackboard is rewritten daily off what the farms send, which is the craft axis here and it is moving. It stops short of must-visit because two independent sets of reporters land on the same complaint, that the money is Redchurch Street money and the seat is a plastic chair on tarmac under a marquee. Primacy puts the plate first and the plate holds up; it just does not hold up hard enough to make this the night you build.

Order

  • The whole turbot off the wood grill, sized for four, so bring the table
  • Hake pil-pil with the kokotxas, where the cheeks are what sets the sauce
  • Fritto misto of whatever the farm sent that morning, mint leaves and a whole red chilli included
  • Roasted chicken rice, cooked over the same fire as everything else
  • Basque burnt cheesecake with rhubarb

Good to know

  • Booking: recommended
  • Timing: closed-mon, closed-tue, lunch, dinner
  • Best for: lunch, dinner, groups-ok, big-night, drinks
  • Avoid: Monday and Tuesday, when the arch is shut; Booking it for a quiet dinner. Trains run over the arch and the courtyard gets loud; Coming for the Redchurch Street room. This is a marquee over tarmac, at similar money
  • Expert picks: Jake Missing
  • Verified 2026-08-01

Where

Location is area-level only (London Fields) — no pin shown rather than a wrong one. Browse the London map →

Sources & mentions

  1. [1]
    BRAT x Climpson's Arch (venue site, read 1 August 2026)

    first-party: Arch 374 Helmsley Place, E8 3SB; closed Monday and Tuesday, Wed and Thu 5pm to 10pm, Fri and Sat noon to 10pm, Sun noon to 9pm; bookings online or arch@bratrestaurant.com; states it began as a temporary residency in the summer of 2020 and is now an established neighbourhood restaurant; describes a daily seasonal blackboard menu; no dietary statement published

  2. [2]
    The Good Food Guide

    full review, unbylined, rated Very Good. Records that Tomos Parry first did a residency at Climpson's Arch in 2013 and returned after lockdown. Names grilled peas in the pod, salted pollock crudo, young leeks with fresh cheese, a fritto misto of Flourish Farm produce, hake collar with aioli, hake pil-pil with kokotxas, and the burnt cheesecake with rhubarb compote. Also records the blackboard menu independently of the venue's own copy

  3. [3]
    The Infatuation London (Jake Missing, 22 August 2023)

    bylined review scored 7.9 out of 10. Positive on the room's looseness, critical on the value: the food 'doesn't quite hit the heights as the original', and paying those prices on plastic school chairs on a tarmac floor 'isn't for everyone'. Names flatbreads, grilled john dory, chicken rice and cheesecake

  4. [4]
    Time Out London (Joe Mackertich, 12 January 2021)

    news report that the residency was becoming permanent that year. Describes food taken from fields in Cambridge and Cornwall and cooked in front of you on a barbecue counter. This is coverage of an announcement, not a review

  5. [5]
    Harden's (survey summaries)

    four reporter-survey rounds, all naming the arch or the courtyard. Carry both the praise ('Truly outstanding all round'; 'staff who care, food that's different and a great buzz without being so loud you can't have a conversation') and the dissent ('interesting and trendy, but at a hell of a price for a glorified pop-up'; one reporter found prices 'sky-high considering we weren't drinking'). Names roasted chicken rice and whole crab with hay butter as typical

  6. [6]
    FSA food hygiene register

    FHRSID 1973610, Brat x Climpsons Arch, Arch 374 Helmsley Place E8 3SB, Hackney: AwaitingInspection, no rating on record. The Redchurch Street parent is a separate record, FHRSID 1149783, and its rating does not attach here

Record

slug
brat-x-climpsons-arch
city
London
group
Restaurants
category
Restaurant
cuisine
Basque grill
area
London Fields
price
$$$
editorial class
Solid
ladder verdict
should-visit
provenance
verified
confidence
high
status
Open
address
—
coordinates
51.597009, -0.044443 (area-level)
last verified
2026-08-01
curated page
places/brat-x-climpsons-arch.md
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