Introducing Brent Cross Town Insiders. Get to know North London through the eyes of locals we love. From chefs and DJs to fitness and fashion professionals, our insiders share their favourite spots in the capital’s most vibrant neighbourhoods.
Insider Guide: Rob Rafalat
Rob Rafalat is an award-winning director of advertisements and promotional material. He’s made content that’s been viewed by over 100 million people online and won a bunch of awards. He makes funny things and he makes sporty things. He also loves to eat and spends most of his free time searching for and doing just that. And travelling. And spending time with his large extended Polish family, verbally sparring and engaging in intensely gluttonous eating. And scouring the world for very strong garments that look like they might have been worn by a moustachioed scoundrel from the ’80s or ’90s.
I've lived all over the world, but keep getting drawn back to North London, as it's got anything you could want, and never ceases to surprise.
My name is Rob, an English-Polish filmmaker, and I grew up in Muswell Hill, in the midst of the immigrant Polish Catholic community, then moved to Moscow and Warsaw as a child. I now live in Harringay, a wonderfully Turkish community 10 mins from the house I grew up in, near many of my many extended family members. I love Harringay for it’s energy – on a Saturday night it feels as much like a Turkish town as it does London, the charcoal grills billowing their sweet smoke into the air, the tea shops and restaurants bursting with life. I’ve got Stamford Hill up the road, where I can plunder the jewish bakeries for the best pitta, while Finsbury Park has a wonderful Algerian flavour as well as The Plimsoll Pub and Top Cuvee, two of my favourite places upon this earth.
Here are five of Rob’s favourite North London spots:
1. The Dusty Knuckle Harringay
Location: 429 Green Lanes N4 1HA
Find out more: thedustyknuckle.com
Follow: @thedustyknuckle
There aren’t many things in life better than bread or pizza, and this place does both exceptionally well. The potato sourdough should be illegal it’s so good. And the pizzas on Thursday-Sunday night are insane. They even managed to make pineapple work on a pizza, somehow…
Insider Tip: Weekend breakfast brunch, go for the egg chilli cheese. Best breakfast for miles and miiiiles.
2. Durak Tantuni
Location: 390 W Green Rd N15 3PX
Follow: @duraktantunisalonu
It looks like a desolate kebab shop, but it makes the most incredible spicy Tantunis you can imagine, which are ground lamb wrapped with lavash bread together with chopped onion, tomato slices, green peppers and parsley. You have to wait 10-15 mins, but watch the guy make them – the oven for the meat is worth the trip alone – and they taste like the most insane smoked fiery BBQ lamb punch-you-in-the-face firecrackers you’ve ever tried…
Insider tip: They only sell Tantuni’s, and if you can take spice, definitely get the spicy ones!
3. Kofali Hot Nuts
Location: 443 Green Lanes, N4 1HA
Wholesale nut shop! What’s not to love?! Choose a nut. Any nut. Literally any nut. In any casing. Cinnamon, yoghurt, different kinds of chocolate, various spices. Also, the awful Turkish MTV blaring on repeat is so bad it’s mesmerising. And half the shop is also crazy Turkish delight/jelly/translucent sweet madness that I’m terrified to try. But I like nuts. I go for the nuts!
Insider Tip: Milk Chocolate Hazelnuts or Brazil nuts. Can’t beat the classics.
4. Through The Woods
Location: 212 Middle Lane, N8 7LA
Find out more: www.throughthewoods.london
Follow: @throughthewoodslondon
A restaurant that just does one sitting a night, and just brings you the food. Forget a menu, they just cook deliciousness and bring it to you. The owners are wonderful people who know what they’re doing. It’s a joy.
Insider Tip: Great place to go with a big group. We booked the whole place out for a 40th as it’s only 20 seats, and what raucous fun did ensue…
5. The Salisbury Hotel Pub
Location: Grand Parade, Green Lanes, N4 1JX
Find out more: thesalisburyhotelpub.co.uk
Follow: @salisbury_pub_harringay
It’s the best pub in London. It’s my local pub at the end of my road. It’s also an utterly exquisite and untouched example of Victorian-era pub interiors. It’s MASSIVE. The death star of pubs. But it’s got a million beers and great music and wonderful old squeaky sofa chair things and a roaring fire in the winter and most importantly (for me), a great music selection.
Insider Tip: It’s open late, so you can drink till the early hours on the weekend.
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