Now Reopened: Dinerama Shoreditch Street Food

A few weeks ago Dinerama, the newest Shoreditch street food location, went up in a blaze of fire that could be seen miles away. Luckily ‘No Hipsters Were Harmed’ to quote the controversial Tweet from the London fire services. But that ill considered Tweet now rings true, Dinerama has reopened and it’s looks like the hipsters and the vendors haven’t been too badly harmed. Yes they missed out on peak summer trading, but the weather’s been horrible anyway so no harm done.

The Shoreditch street food scene has become over-saturated in the past 12 months. But Dinerama is the brain child of the original Dalston Street Feast creators, so you can hardly say they’re jumping on the bandwagon – they built that bandwagon and dragged it all over London. I visited at this latest location on a fairly grey August Sunday, the first weekend after it reopened. Word of mouth hadn’t got out and it was fairly quiet in the yard. That worked perfectly for me because it meant I didn’t have to queue or wait at all, but up on the terrace the atmosphere on a dreary day was a bit too subdued. But there were almost no signs of the blaze that had engulfed the area just a few weeks ago, save a few signs for workmen to wear hats. The umbrellas however provided more of a curiosity, how can you hold an umbrella and eat messy street food at the same time? No venue can be blamed for the London weather, so back to the food. I tried three amazing tacos from Bredo’s Tacos, one fish, one chicken and one pulled beef. At £9 for three the price was steep but the tacos were well worth it. Artisan corn tortillas were filled with top quality meat and carefully chosen, fresh accompaniments.

I wasn’t deterred from the bad weather so I few days later I made a return visit to try some of the options from other vendors. This time I went for comfort food from Cheeky Italian. Oddly what I tried was not Italian but a beef Poutine, and Quebec speciality of French Canadian origin. This really is comfort food at its best: fries covered in pulled beef, gravy and cheese sauce. Basically a heart attack in a dish. There are many other vendors I’d like to try before the summer is over, with everything from lobster rolls, to ponchos (popadom nachos) duck rolls and rotisserie chickens on offer. This is street food at it’s best, and my second visit in the sunshine proved that the crowds have quickly retuned.

You can’t keep a hipster down.