Mike Bagnall’s Auguste brings arrosticini to east London

Tables are draped in white tablecloths and staff are kitted out in uniforms from London-based workwear-inspired fashion brand Ronning. The all-important arrosticini, which range from lamb to hogget and wagyu, sit alongside a concise but diverse list of small plates, prepared by Bagnall’s team of “three and a half chefs”. The smoky skewers are untraditionally paired to a selection of home-made sauces – green goddess, aïoli, chilli and bagna càuda – the latter inspired by the anchovy purée served alongside the lamb at St John in London’s Smithfields.

“We don’t do anything to the meat apart from source it really well,” Bagnall says. “We look for the best cut we can get, then we prep it really nicely and store it. When we make the arrosticini, we don’t season them until the final minute when they’re on the grill over the flames.”

“It’s about having that food memory and turning it into an east London restaurant-style dish”

To his surprise, the chef has not been continually cooking an “onslaught” of arrosticini. “That’s not the reason people are coming here – they’re coming for the whole experience. The dishes that are more popular are the familiar ones, such as potato rosti or the pasta in brodo,” he says. “Obviously, as a chef, I would have been so bored just doing arrosticini, so I’m glad I have this audience of really lovely people coming to eat the whole menu. It gives me a really good opportunity to flex my creative muscles.”

Some of this creativity is expressed through dishes the chef has previously tasted, such as the foraged wild risotto he used to make in Abruzzo, reimagined here through a dish of asparagus, fresh peas and wild garlic. A cod, mussel and brodetto vastese, a sort of fisherman’s stew, echoes a “really nice lunch” he had at a village called Vasto in north Pescara in Abruzzo, where a terracotta pot full of clams, mussels, scorpion fish, langoustines and prawns were cooked down into a tomato and garlic sauce. “It’s about having that food memory and turning it into an east London restaurant-style dish, using British seafood, really good quality ingredients and leftover wine from the bar,” he says.

The theme continues into the desserts, where a tiramisu reappears as a mascarpone, spiced rum and coffee caramel tart (he’s sold 380 of these within the first month), while a muffato blue cheese is recreated through a combination of British blue cheeses wrapped in marjoram and piped onto a potato rosti, reminiscent of cheesy chips.

Another fan favourite is the ‘puttanesca pasta’, made with cured sea bream but no pasta. “That came about from a ‘need to survive’. I wanted puttanesca pasta, but I didn’t want to make something hot, so I made a chilli oil out of it and put it on some tinned tuna I had in the house. Then I started playing around with it and we refined it by putting on the bream,” he says. “We’re making minor changes to the dressing every day, trying to get it closer to being more salty, more briny, more fishy – quintessentially a puttanesca.”

Bagnall isn’t claiming to bring authentic Abruzzian cuisine to London Fields. “I wasn’t in Abruzzo for long enough to say it’s part of my identity or anything,” he admits. “But when you travel and you find something nice and you want to showcase it, it’s important to give a little nod to some of the things I learned and discovered and enjoyed there.”

373 Mentmore Terrace, London E8 3DQ

From the menu

Arrosticini

• Salt Marsh lamb (six) £10
• Earl Stonham wagyu (four) £10
• Potato rosti, blue cheese and marjoram £6

• Cured sea bream and puttanesca salsa £15
• Stracciatella, yellow datterini tomatoes, pepperonata £12
• Wild boar-stuffed morels, Italian summer truffle, cacio e pepe £16
• Caramelised onion and soft cheese cappelletti in lamb brodo £17

• Mascarpone, spiced rum and coffee caramel tart £12
• Vanilla semifreddo, Gariguette strawberry, olive oil £10