You’ll be spoilt for choice at The Good Egg

EATING out in Camden Market is now a bewildering experience.

There are hundreds of options – a dizzying choice. So where can clued-up locals grab a decent table?

The Good Egg is a new opening in North Yard and the third restaurant from a small chain that has branches in Stoke Newington and Margate.

The food traces its soul to Tel Aviv, with diversions to the Jewish delis of New York and bagel shops of Brick Lane and Montreal. The owners describe a menu that “we can’t quite pinpoint on a map”. But the result is irresistible: an all-day offer that hits multiple sweet spots.

I took a seat at the back of the dining room, which is bright and cheerful with lots of natural light and vibrant colour. Above my head, trailing plants dangle from shelves stocked with wine and Kilner jars of homemade pickles. The tables and walls are painted deep blue; the soundtrack is funky and laid back.

When it comes to ordering, you may well struggle: again, it’s very hard to choose. There are stuffed pitas and bagels, dips and flatbreads, zingy salads and half a dozen larger plates.

Open 10am-10pm, the tempting options span breakfast, brunch, lunch, coffee-and-cake and well into dinner time, too.

My order arrived lightning fast. I tore strips of warm pita to dunk into an emerald green dip of whipped feta topped with crispy chick peas and snipped chives.

There was a bowl of rainbow house pickles, a hummus-style dish made from blitzed butterbeans, with a scarlet dressing of harissa and sour cherries.

Definitely order the Zoo Fries – a messy, clever jumble of textures and flavours. The chips are doused in a spice mix of cumin, salt and pepper then a dollop of two sauces: a mayo mixed with amba, a sort of tangy mango pickle, and a green herb mix called zhoug. As a final flourish, the chefs chucks on a handful of green herbs, red chillies and pickled pink onions.

Vegetarians are well provided for. They do an aubergine shawarma, for example, with tahini yoghurt and a pumpkin seed relish.

I went for a potato hash with chunks of tender lamb shoulder and what is described as an Aleppo fried egg, fried in plenty of butter then dusted with red pepper flakes.

Knafeh is a speciality – and hard to find in London. This is a Middle Eastern dessert made with spun kataifi pastry and a layer of soft, stringy cheese. It’s soaked in a sweet syrup infused with thyme and orange and served warm. I had a slice but was still sorely tempted by another option. A few doors down, there’s a take-away called The Humble Crumble that is doing a roaring trade.

You can customise your crumble with extra toppings such as blowtorched marshmallows or an almond butter drizzle.

But this just takes us back to the original, thorny problem – how to decide when faced with such abundance of choice.

The Good Egg
732-736 North Yard
Chalk Farm Road, NW1
020 3007 8100
www.thegoodegg.co
@thegooodegg_