Yvonne’s – No.10

I must have walked past Yvonne’s almost every day for a year and not realised it was there.  Tucked away down a side alley on Winter Street in Downtown Crossing, with a sign that is not obviously lit or clearly says Yvonne’s unless you get right up to it (or perhaps I need glasses).  Subtle, how does anyone stumble upon this?  But they clearly do.  

We arrived on a Wednesday evening at 6.30 and entered into what looked like an old hairdressing salon.  We were politely directed to a door at the back, which opened up into a large restaurant.  It was buzzing, had low lighting and felt very much like a speakeasy would.

Upon reading the menu I was slightly sad that we were only two.  They champion what they call “Social plates” and specifically what they term as “Feasts” for 2+ people.  I did ask whether just the two of us could manage a “Feast”, but was told it was actually rather a large quantity of food.  Please…people, go with more than two and order a feast!  We need details!  Gutted.

As you can see the cocktail menu was enough to encourage us to indulge (order early – the popularity of Yvonne’s means cocktail service was a little slow).  After our disappointment at the lack of “Feast” we decided on some of the “Social Plates” at Yvonne’s.  The saving grace was that there were a good selection of Stone Fired Pitas – basically pizza type things – we have a happy Clark, AND ribs…again a very happy Clark.

I decided that we should at least order some vegetables, so we had the Roman street Cauliflower..order this, it is covered in chilli, pecorino and spicy agliata (basically a yummy garlic sauce), thoroughly recommended.