Menuwatch: Caravel, London
Lorcan and Fin Spiteri are making waves with their barge-based restaurant and eclectic and indulgent English cuisine. Maria Mellor goes aboard
Lorcan Spiteri can see his guests whipping out their phones to film before they even reach his restaurant. The pontoon gently bobs on the water under their footsteps as they make their way to Caravel, located in a barge.
Somehow Lorcan and his business partner brother Fin can fit up to 32 covers in the restaurant, floating on Regent's Canal in London's Islington, and a further 40 in the more recently opened bar, Bruno's, named after Fin's dog.
"It has been a bit of a struggle getting power into the kitchen," Lorcan says. "Last year the canal was frozen over with no water in or out for a while. But it's pretty novel. People love it."
The pair have been running Caravel since 2021 – before that the barges were offices and they were cooking food for Holborn Studios, in a more chips and burgers-style affair. Now their menu includes boquerones, tagliatelle and prawn toast, making it hard to pin down the cuisine of Caravel. But Lorcan simply states: "it's stuff we like cooking and eating."
It certainly paints a picture of two lads let loose in the kitchen, but when those lads were raised by renowned restaurateur Jon Spiteri and Rochelle Canteen co-founder Melanie Arnold, you can see how refinement comes into play. And it works – they know that because they like eating their food, their customers will too. They also try to maintain a lower price point and to use cost-efficient ingredients to avoid being "too fancy".
"We're relaxed enough to be kind of homely," says Lorcan. "There's no tweezers."
One of their fan-favourite dishes is a simple potato rosti with sour cream and caviar, for which the chef finely slices potato on a mandolin and combines it with garlic, thyme, oil and seasoning, before frying on the plancha. Because of the tiny kitchen space on the boat, much of the prep is done in the larger studio kitchen before service. If they need more ingredients ferried over after customers have arrived, there's a small hatch in the barge, and it's also through this hatch that nibbles are sent to Bruno's.
The prawn toast is a menu item that is unlikely to be removed – Lorcan created it while running residencies in pubs under a brand he created, Guinea Fowlers. With the dish he is aiming to hit notes of nostalgia, giving it his own spin with a sweet chilli jam.
"The look is quite strong," says Lorcan. "The bright red sauce and two slices of toast with black and white sesame seeds."
Most of the dishes at Caravel have a similarly strong look on no-nonsense white plates, tying together the wide variety of cuisines with a bow of classic British cooking. A dish of merguez sausages, lentils, red onion and yogurt serves true home comfort while being plated in a way that avoids any accusation of slop, and a salad of crispy Jerusalem artichokes, beetroot, green sauce and picata is a modest splash of colour in contrast to its white plating.
Then there's the chips and curry sauce, which really pushes the boat out (if you'll pardon the pun) when it comes to elevating home comforts. It's hard to imagine anything but your average chip shop portion, but what arrives is anything but. Lorcan has created his own style of chips by slicing the potatoes into chunky rounds – "we call them chips, but we wanted to do a different kind of size" – and the curry sauce is made by cooking onions, garlic and ginger and adding curry powder, sour cream, double cream, coconut milk and stock before blitzing until smooth. The dish has proved to be so popular that for a time Lorcan elevated it even further by incorporating it into a main dish with hake sitting on the pool of sauce.
You wouldn't think winter on a barge would be so cosy, but robust insulation combined with warming food makes for the perfect cold weather combo. In summer guests can spill out onto the pontoon, perhaps enjoying the firepit or cocktails created by Fin.
Though you can see how growing up in the kitchens of the French House has made its mark, the Spiteri brothers' youthful vibe makes it fresh, relaxed and welcoming for all.
From the menu
Plate of pickles £5
Potato rosti, sour cream and caviar £6.50
Boquerones £5
Sesame prawn toast and chilli jam £12.50
Grilled octopus skewers, polenta and salmoriglio £13
Chicken liver para, pickles and sourdough £11
Merguez sausages, lentils, red onion and yogurt £22
Mussels and chips £21.50
Cavolo nero and walnut tagliatelle, goats' curd £19.50
Pressed potato, parsnip, calcot onion and romesco £19.50
Guinea fowl, chanterelle and leek pie, mash £25
Treacle tart £9.50
Rhubarb crème brûlée £9.50
172 Shepherdess Walk, London N1 7JL
