Grace Dent reviews Monty’s Deli: Firmly on the list of places I love

Ambience 4/5

Food 4/5

There should, by rights, be more Jewish restaurants in London. Not only do around 60 per cent of British Jews reside within the M25, but it’s a cold soul regardless of faith who balks at kneidlach sat nobly in a noodly broth. Or the offer of fresh challah, kugel or latkes. Personally, I’ve yet to pass Brick Lane’s Beigel Bake at midnight, dawn or dusk, when it wasn’t exactly the right time for something plump and stuffed with smoked salmon. Of course, not all communities long for their food to have ‘on trend’ periods or mass-acceptance. None of us really enjoy seeing our nan’s recipe pulverised and served back in an M&S wrapper with added mango and rainbow sprinkles. But there was genuine warmth across London’s food world towards Mark Ogus’s dream to build a permanent home for Monty’s Deli and serve food that reminded him of his grandfather Monty.

Since 2011, Ogus and his partner Owen Barratt have been on a discreetly avowed mission to hone salt beef, bake the perfect bagels and serve what they call ‘Jewish soul food’.

A patch in Maltby Street Market serving their Reuben special (multiple layers of salt beef, pastrami, pickles and mustard piled on rye bread) turned into an imperfect albeit loveable home in a Bermondsey arch, then rumours of a Katz’s-style deli. And I’m happy to say that the new permanent Monty’s in Hoxton is indeed charming. It’s pretend-shabby and comforting. A bit like Canter’s on Fairfax in Los Angeles where I spent too much time in the 1990s either drunk or crying or crying while drunk.

Crowdfunding schemes usually give me a stress rash. Not because I disapprove of crowdfunding, but because I imagine it breeds a sort of self-entitled foodie who slings in £10 and then thinks they’re a mix of Richard Caring and Tony Montana. But I ate my words about ‘chipping in’ with Monty’s because it’s glorious to sit in a booth at the new Deli beside a little name plaque, like you might see on a synagogue seat, bearing the booth donors’ names. Each evening Monty’s serves Shabbat dinner delights such as challah and chicken soup, beef and dill meatballs, cholent stew and entire joints of salt beef. They’re trying their damnedest to make everything on site. Not merely the meat, but all the bagels, bread, mustard — and pickling too. Heaven knows when they sleep. The staff all seemed remarkably warm and chipper when I showed up, and I’m the last thing you want when you’ve got 300 bagels to wrap in hessian cloth and arrange on cedar planks.

Lunch at Monty’s was supposed to be a quick chat and a sandwich. ‘Just tea for me,’ I said, non-committally before shifting quickly to sipping Kiddush wine, then onto a glass of Pinot Noir. The lunchtime crowd were as young, beardy and earnest as one might imagine. After wine we ordered a plate of plump potato latkes served with sour cream and apple sauce. This was followed by a relatively humble but delicious salt beef mensch slathered in house mustard, which appeared with a fearsome pickle. The meshuggener came with chopped liver. The pastrami classic was stuffed with coleslaw and Russian dressing.

I’d go back merely for the egg and onion, which comes exactly as I love it, with plenty of the green of the spring onion, served with challah. We didn’t need the hot, fresh fries but we hoovered them anyway. At lunchtime they do blintzes. I will go back again for the babka. OK, I’ll go anywhere for babka, but Monty’s Deli in Hoxton is now firmly on the list of places I love.

Monty’s Deli

2 Latkes £4.50

1 Glass of Pinot Noir £6

1 Glass of organic Pinot Grigio £7

1 Salt beef mensch £8

1 Pastrami classic £8.50

1 Coleslaw £3

1 Dripping fries £3.50

1 Egg & onion £4

Total: £44.50

227 Hoxton Street, N1 (020 7729 5737; montys-deli.com)