It was one of those Saturdays where you’ve been at work all day and you can’t be bothered to go out anywhere in particular, so we stayed local.

The Dusty Knuckle is a recent harbinger – along with the more established and quite hilarious ‘Local Shop’ – of the (semi) g************n of Harringay. While one may think that the local kebab restaurants will always abide, Rakkas has taken a radical approach and attempted to go beyond the gentry and straight to the international jet set end of the market. Or at least its north London botox and muscle-pumped equivalent.

But I couldn’t quite bring myself to go to Rakkas (and I’m not sure their two bouncers would let me in wearing battered chinos and an old jumper). So we opted for the TDK instead, which was relatively quiet.

Quiet enough that the FoH could have given us a table for four by the window but instead ordered to sit at a table for two in the dead centre of the room. But I couldn’t be arsed to ask to move (it wasn’t that sort of evening) so we took the table and looked at the menu.

The menu is pleasingly brief – a few small plates, around half a dozen pizzas and a handful of desserts. There’s a good range for all intolerances but we went carnivore and ordered a Tuscan sausage pizza with a green salad and artichoke on the side. The pizza base was very good (well, it is a bakery after all) and the ingredients for the topping high quality. I would have liked some tomato on there but there was none. The artichoke were slightly over seasoned for me and the labneh they slathered in on seemed unnecessary. The green salad was green salad with a very unobtrusive dressing. You have the option to do your own toppings and if I go back that’s definitely what I’d do.

We washed that down with a delicious carafe (always welcome when dining as a couple) of Vermentino, which for me was the highlight of the meal. The service, after an iffy start, was excellent and the roomful-ish of the local youthful middle classes was a contented one. The room and vibe put me in mind of the much-missed Walnut.

So here comes the question of value. For a shared not massive pizza with a couple of sides and a not bottle of wine we paid north of 50 quid, which around these parts is a significant premium. But I haven’t been to Harringay’s other pizzeria, Bianca, so will have to try it out to compare the two. But I’d give the Knuckle another go, if only for the variety it offers around our way.

7/10

To see where else I’ve been click on the google map below.

Food London Food Harringay London Pizza