Focus on Turnips restaurant in Borough Market, London

Restaurant Focus is your way to discover new and upcoming restaurants to know about. This time we’re in London, at Turnips in the famed Borough Market.

Where is Turnips?

Turnips is located deep inside London’s historic, ferociously busy Borough Market, inside a greengrocer’s that has been operating for over 30 years. Borough Market can feel like a bit of a warren, but head along the middle walkway towards the Southwark Cathedral end and you’ll find Turnips nestled behind crates of produce. The prime seats are those right in front of the kitchen, so you can see the finishing touches being put to your dish on the pass.

How fresh are the ingredients?

Extremely. In a sense, it’s the perfect location for a restaurant: the kitchen is able to utilise the abundant produce right on its doorstep, with much of the ingredients coming from the market. In fact, aren’t some of the most fun eating experiences in markets themselves? It must be the strolling around, looking at all that gorgeous produce that works up an appetite.

_{Photo courtesy of Memo Agency}

How did the collaboration come about?

By chance. During Covid lockdown Turnips was providing bags of produce for local healthcare workers and chef Tomas Lidakevicius (formerly of Galvin at Windows and City Social) was one of those who volunteered to help. He and Turnips’ fifth-generation grocer Charlie Foster hit it off and started discussing the idea of a fine-dining restaurant. Turnips the restaurant opened as a pop-up in 2020.

What dishes can I expect?

Turnips serves a tasting menu and an à la carte, of plant-forward dishes, where fruits and vegetables are the stars – it’s not that meat and fish aren’t served, more that they are the accompaniments. Lidakevicius utilises what’s available to him and what makes sense in terms of sustainability: standouts at time of writing include a tomato and tiger prawn dish inspired by an influx of overripe tomatoes; English baby cucumber with smoked cream cheese and kingfish (stunning, top); and the juiciest raspberries with Champagne and balsamic. Dishes are light, precise and bursting with flavour. Of course, expect the menu to change with the tides of the market.

Melon, and crab taco at Turnips Borough Market.

_{Zabeloti melon, Devonshire crab taco. Photo by Susan Pun}

So the chef is heavily sustainability-focused?

Absolutely. Earlier in 2023 Turnips launched an initiative entitled, ‘Fight the system’ to highlight the ridiculousness and unsustainability of a food system that values perfect produce and conformity, as well as bringing much needed cheer to a gloomy UK winter of discontent. The team cooked highly flexible menus that could change from service to service depending on the availability of ‘surplus’ ingredients, at a discount.

“The idea of the initiative came from the discontent and antipathy we all seem to be feeling: if it’s not the cost-of living it’s Covid; if it’s not Covid it’s Brexit; if it’s not Brexit, then we have the parliamentary merry-go-round to delight in. Quite simply we wanted to set aside cost and celebrate value and have some fun in our own way,” says Lidakevicius.

"Surplus isn't poor quality food," adds Foster. "In fact, it can be food of the highest quality, but for which there is no commercial home: it is often just the result of over-ordering, or slightly not meeting aesthetical standards for their imperfect appearance.”

_{Photo by Nic Crilly-Hargrave}

What are we drinking?

Turnips offers a broad range of wines, and cocktails, again made from the best produce the market has to offer. It’s almost as if they’re – whisper it – good for you.