Street Food at Pump in Shoreditch

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I don’t really know Shoreditch too well.

It’s a bit of a trek for me to get to from South West, so it’s not one of my regular haunts. I usually have to be bribed with promises of food, friends and alcohol.

But the one place I HAVE heard of and had been wanting to visit for aaaages was Pump Shoreditch.

It’s a fab street food market based inside (wait for it) an old petrol station!

(Because it where people go to get refueled. GEDDIT?)

So when the lovely Sophia invited me down to attend a party thrown by the lovely team at Square Up Media, how could I say no??

The plan was to toast the Summer, celebrate the circulation achievements of their magazines (including Foodism which is, for obvious reasons, a fave of mine! #foodie), and stuff our faces with all the street food we could get our hands on.

Chloe and I have been trying to meet up for aaaaages, so I invited her to join me and off we trotted to deepest darkest (not really) East London!

After meeting and greeting Sophia at the door of Boneyards (the fab bar attached to Pump), we headed on in to explore.

There were signature cocktails rolling around, but I spotted bottles of Malbec on the table and immediately made a beeline for those. I heart a good Malbec!

(Oh God. I have a favourite wine. OLD. GETTING SO OLD AND MATURE AND OH GOD. Stop.)

We managed to find seats at one of the wooden tables and sat down to catch up and have a look around. Boneyards is basically a hut, with open walls.

BUT OH WHAT A HUT.

It’s a hipster’s paradise. Tall tables, high stools, naked bulbs and wood panelling everywhere.

Also plenty of dudes with beards. Because Shoreditch.

But even men with beards weren’t enough to distract us from our true mission: THE FOOD.

On the recommendation of my buddy Thorne, we started at Seafood by los Moriscos.

I went for calamari, Chloe had the mixed, and we both had the brioche rolls and alioli.

Unfortunately, I think we’d both imagined that these were going to involve CRISPY seafood. Y’know, battered calamari.

And, um… it wasn’t. It wasn’t at all.

Which would have been fine. I’m used to plain seafood… But this was just not nice.

The brioche was soft and pillowy, the alioli and salsa garnishes were YUM, but the actual seafood was horribly chewy and under-seasoned.

Sorry guys. It was a big thumbs down from us!

(At this point in the evening, I tripped over a bench, went flying, spilt wine everywhere and landed flat on my face on the floor.)

(There’s a bit of fun behind the scenes info for you.)

(I did somehow manage to avoid smashing my camera though. Silver linings eh?)

Next, we moved on to CHICKEN.

All the fried chicken. Like, KFC but a million times better.

Makimayo make proper deliiiicious popcorn chicken that they drizzle in spicy or creamy sauces, and then hand to you in a cone of happiness.

We shared one of the creamy sauce ones and OH BOY SO GOOD. Crunchy and tender and flavourful.

Like, I’m drooling a lil bit just thinking about it.

Definitely worth a visit, and the guys behind the counter were super lovely and friendly!

BURGERS.

Because I’m me, and I always need burgers.

We headed over to the Pulled by los Moriscos stand and opted for one of their amazing trio of sliders.

Three “mini” (lol they were totally not mini) burgers: spiced beef, lamb and duck confit.

All amazing, all delicious, but the lamb was a definite favourite!

The brioche buns were soft, the sauces were just right, and overall: a massive THUMBS UP from both of us.

We finished off our massive meal with the dessert that had been calling our names ever since we’d stepped foot in the place: BUBBLE WAFFLES from Nosteagia!

A Chinese variation on a waffle, these bad boys are soft and slightly chewy and absolutely YUM.

Especially once you smother them in banana and Nutella.

I actually preferred them to regular waffles. The pillowy texture was almost pancakey and I loved it.

They’re only like £4.50 as well, so an absolute bargain!