The Observer
Opening a “New York-style non-kosher Jewish deli” in a high-end retirement
complex opposite the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead is – to Jay Rayner – an “eminently sensible” arrangement. After all, as we get older, what we want is “to be in the heart of things, close to a chemist, primary health care and other people. Ideally, with a New York-style Jewish deli attached, for when we don’t want to cook. Or at least I do.”
Such a place “lives and dies by the Ashkenazi classics”, and Freddie’s comes up trumps with “chopped liver good enough to be argued over”, “fish balls [that] are dense and just a little sweet too, as they should be”, “latkes crisp and hot and salty”, top-drawer London-cure salmon and beef, a good range of bagels and sandwiches and more – all of which are “definitely slugging it out with the competition”, the Brass Rail in Selfridges or B&K in Edgware. The only duff note is the “desperately under-seasoned” chicken soup.
On a darker topical note, Jay wondered aloud whether he might invite abuse by reviewing a Jewish restaurant given the current political situation. The answer, he felt, was clear: “The horrendous campaign of the government and armed forces of Israel in Gaza cannot be allowed to make being Jewish a source of shame.”
