Jam Tree Clapham

It was 40 hours and counting until we headed off for provence for a week with the family. The Chateau on the edge of a vine yard is where we are planning on celebrating both Gipsy Spread and sister in law Spread's birthdays this week. However, a celebration was in order as Gipsy Spread was offered a fancy new job this week. With this and the birthday in mind, I emailed our select group of friends who are normally more than happy to partake in a libation or two on a Thursday night to kick start the weekend.

With the forthcoming (two) holidays, I consulted Toptable to see if there were any good offers that we could take advantage of. The Jam Tree (www.thejamtree.com) in Clapham had received some good reviews and for tables seated for dinner by 7pm had 50% off the food, which of course means more money to spend on wine.

I opted for a starter/snack option for my main course as it interested me the most. Luckily, the other starter that intrigued was also purchased for the table to share/sample.

I had the Jerusulam artichoke hummus, accompanied by flat bread, feta, tzatziki, olives and tapenade.

This is my favourite type of food. Small dishes of mezze with excellently strong and tangy flavours. It was also delightfully presented.

We also sampled the chargrilled jerked pineapple with goats cheese, roasted red peppers and rum laced onion marmelade. The marmelade was fabulously spicy and had an intense kick. It definitely provided a poke in the eye.


A quick mention of what the carnivores had. Gipsy Spread opted for the herb marinated guinea fowl and Daffydos the III went for the blackened creole hanger steak. This, he advised was not as rare as he would have liked, but was wonderfully moist and juicy. The sauce it came with was a hot sauce hollandaise, and he could quite easily have eaten more, although he did put this down to greed, rather than not being given enough on his plate.

Gipsy Spread of course, immediately had chip envy when Daffydos the III's arrived!


Not content with a shared starter and main course; the celebratory nature of the meal with the 50% offer meant we all had a dessert. Even the Cookie Monster who had not had any food as she'd joined us after a big lunch.


So, dessert really did split the table. One half had the jamaican ginger cake with coconut ice cream and custard and the other half opted for the missisippi mud pie with a treacle sauce.

Indeed, I think we all sampled both desserts, with Daffydos the III finishing off anything that was left, including custards and treacle sauce. He has recently had his cholesterol checked and it's not as bad as it could be!


All in all, this is a really good offer for a very nice meal in comfortable surroundings. It is not fancy food or fine dining, but the menu is interesting with touches of the unusual and is delivered very well. The service is also warm, friendly and fast. I would recommend taking up the 50% offer on toptable for as long as it is available.