North London Food & Culture

Why It Matters: Harry’s Fine Foods, Kentish Town Road


Do you know how lucky we are to have a butcher and a fishmonger in Kentish Town Road? Something like 70 per cent of both have disappeared from the nation’s High Streets over the last two or three decades. The shopping arcades in Fortess Road and Brecknock Road used to have a butcher; there was once a good fishmonger at the top of Highgate Road; all are long gone.

That alone would be reason to support Harry’s Fine Foods. The greater reason is that Harry’s is so good. Most of the meat is organic. Most fish comes from day-boats fishing out of Brixham, in Devon. He is an excellent cook who keeps his takeaway counter stocked with delicious dishes unlike anything you’ll find elsewhere in NW5.


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Ahad Dasht, AKA Harry, is originally from Iran and has owned this shop (formerly known as B&M Seafoods/Pure Meat Company) since 2000. He runs the shop with one full-time staff, Daniel Mamedov, and two part-timers: Jeff Lindsey, a butcher with over half a century of experience, and his wife Tanya Dasht.

You’ll find cheaper meat and fish at local supermarkets, but the pertinent comparison is with meat and fish of comparable quality. You’d have to travel a good distance to get them, and you would usually pay a much higher price. To take one example: Harry’s sells chicken (known to his customers as Brian’s chickens) from a small poultry farmer in Devon. Cost: £6.50 a kilo. At Lidgate’s in Holland Park, a butcher regularly cited as one of London’s best, chickens of slightly lesser quality sell for £13.50 a kilo.

Harry’s offerings are not consistent in the way that supermarket products are consistent. Sometimes the fish are bigger, sometimes smaller – it all depends on what the boats bring up in their nets. Sometimes there’s a mountain of monkfish, sometimes there’s none. Sometimes the lamb is leaner or fatter because that is the way of free-range and organic farming – and of the seasons.

Quality of produce is just part of what you get from good purveyors like Harry. Quality of advice is just as important. If you want to make an Ottolenghi fish curry, Harry will tell you which fish to use. If you don’t know how long to roast your rolled shoulder of pork, he will guide you.

Harry always looks for ways to expand and improve what he offers our community. He has started opening for half-days on Sunday. With advance notice he can deliver your purchases. He will put together barbecue packs, and weekly meat boxes to cut down your shopping time. Special orders are welcome, not just at Christmas but all year round. There is always something new and intriguing on the takeaway counter.

How many good reasons have I given to explain why Harry’s Matters? I’ve lost count. The ultimate proof is in the shopping.

Go in and have a look for yourself, if you haven’t already. We need Harry, and Harry needs us.

Words & Pics: Richard Ehrlich

Co-Chair of the Guild of Food Writers, Richard Ehrlich has lived in Kentish Town for many years. He has written for every UK broadsheet newspaper and authored ten cookbooks, most recently 80 Recipes for Your Halogen Oven and 80 Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker. He tweets at @richardehrlich
Harry’s Fine Foods, 258 Kentish Town Road (0207 485 0346). He’s on Twitter too: @harrysfinefoods.

Why It Matters comes in association with Discount Insurance, whose boss is a fan of our daily digest and lives in NW5 (and is a fan of Harry’s, natch)


32 thoughts on “Why It Matters: Harry’s Fine Foods, Kentish Town Road”

  1. High Street Ken

    I am vegetarian, but I love Harry’s for their ethic and the quality of the meat they provide! Again can i mention cash mobbing where members of a local community go round to a local business in order to buy from them and support them (obviously the business have warning of this). I agree wholeheartedly that Harry’s need and deserve our support; I’m always alarmed when I see the shop empty.

    1. I have been a customer of Harry’s for some time, he is man who you can trust absolutely. His meat and fish are of the highest quality, the best tuna I have ever had came from Harry. Personally what I think he could do with his some help on presentation, anyone out with the appropriate skills?

  2. While I’m all for supporting local businesses, I simply can’t ignore the strong smell coming from this business. I’m sorry, but it really suggests as if some of the fish being sold here is perhaps past its best.

    1. As someone who buys fish from Harry’s on a fairly regular basis I’d have to disagree. What you can smell reflects the fact it isn’t all vacuum packed in neat plastic boxes. Fishmongers and butchers smell. Meat smells.

    2. You can go in and look at the fish; he sells whole fish so it’s easy to determine freshness.

      In brief, check for the redness of the gills,clear not opaque eyes and skin that springs back when you touch it. Analysis sometimes beats supposition.

  3. Sorry I disagree, the smell of a fish monger is one of the tell tale signs of the freshness of its produce. An outlet selling fish will of course smell, yes, but it should be a pleasing smell (like the smell of the sea). Fresh fish does not smell, so 1 +1 = ? I walk past Harry’s on a daily basis and I flinch every time I do so.

  4. I agree re smells! It’s important!

    Harry’s is good – and I’d recommend too, especially for the fish and game. I haven’t tried Brian’s chickens yet! Maybe Harry’s could set up a rotisserie to rival Phonecia’s?

    For what it’s worth, for those on the east side of KT, I also rate Cramer’s the butcher on York Way (near the junction with Brecknock Rd/ Camden Rd). Another local worth supporting – really friendly and advice on cooking times etc. He doesn’t do fish, but I’ve had consistently good meat, including steaks. Fruit and veg at Austin Flowers next door, and a mooch at the antique/ junk shop on the corner – all makes for a productive Saturday morning!

  5. The best thing Harry could do would be to stay open until 7! He misses all the business from those of us lucky enough to live in KT but work outside. The number of times I’ve got back from the office, got my veg at the fruit bowl, but then have to go to the Co-Op or Sainsburys for my meat. Come on Harry, do us all a favour?

  6. I love Harry’s, they always have great bacon and Brian’s chicken tastes nothing like something from the supermarket, how proper chicken should taste. They also sell frozen chicken, fish and beef stock (might be made by them) which is handy. Had an amazing 5kg shoulder of pork from there earlier this year, was melt in the mouth after 6 hours of slow roasting. My new years party banquet was centred around one of their 4kg Salmon’s, bags of flavour and excellent value.

  7. Agree with the ‘smelly poster’ above. Funnily enough, after the refurbishment the smell disappeared for 2 weeks or so, but since then the pungent fishy smell has been back.

    1. I had really wanted to like this place too, and got excited when it was refurbished and the gross smell gone (unfortunately only for a very short while). I cannot imagine why it smells so bad all the time – fresh fish should not and does not smell bad! Sadly, I’ve not been able to try anything else inside the store – until this persistent smell is gone for good.

  8. On the subject of great local independent food sellers, Fam Greengrocers at the top end of Fortess Road (just along from Aces n Eights) is brilliant! And usually much cheaper than the supermarket 10 doors along from it.

    My uncle used to be a butcher, and the quality of meat that he sold, compared to supermarket meat was so much better. Butchers know their trade.

    And, on the smell debate, I would say that Harry’s fish is surely going to be fresher than anything in a supermarket, simply because of the processes and economics involved in way the large chains operate. Plus, like already mentioned by pascal above, there is the vacuum packing and whatever else they do to the fish which dampens the smell.

  9. Richard Ehrlich

    It’s great to see my piece inspiring so much comment.

    Naturally I am sorry to hear that some people are put off by the smell. I will convey this message to Harry and am sure he will take it seriously. And I am quite willing to admit that I have sometimes noticed a fishy smell. But there’s fishy and there’s fishy, and I’ve never noticed anything alarming at Harry’s.

    I will also pass on the comment about staying open later. This would be hard for them, as a butcher/fishmonger’s working day begins long before the shop actually opens, but I’m sure he will consider it. he used to do rotisserie chickens but has stopped, presumably because of insufficient demand.

    After a colleague recommended Cramer’s in York Way, I went by and had a look. It seemed like a decent family butcher of the old school but I haven’t bought anything there. My colleague said the chickens aren’t much, it’s more for red meat.

    Haven’t heard about the reopened place in Chetwynd Road.

    I’m curious: those of you who avoid Harry’s because of the smell, where do you buy fish and meat?

    1. Alternatives to Harry: Nick the french fishmonger in Primrose Hill, Gloucester R, is extremely good, fantastic produce, priced competitively, beautifully presented. The butchers in Englands Lane is also very good. Not NW5 I know but…

  10. You’re all really lucky to get served in there. Most of the time it used to seem like the Marie Celeste. One time I asked about John Dory and the man knew nothing even though they had some on the counter. Another few times they had an Eastern European girl serving who knew nothing about even the most basic things and seemed to care even less.

    The final straw was when, in front of quite a few people, I asked for a *THIN* rib eye steak and was cut a huge steak about 4cm thick! I reminded the man I’d asked for a small steak and he cut *ACROSS* the huge piece of meat so then I had a ridiculous box shaped lump of rib eye that still cost more than £10!

    I’m afraid to say I was so embarassed I ran out of the shop. I haven’t been back since.

  11. Fishmongers should smell a bit. And fishmongers shouldn’t open until 7pm, when they have to be at Billingsgate at 4am, and smart retail customers will have nabbed the good stuff before midday anyway.

    I like that Harry’s is there, though I’m more likely to travel to Steve Hatt or club together with neighbours and go to Billingsgate itself to be honest. I miss Fish & Fowl on Highgate Road, a very good fishmongers which closed about five years ago because the rents went up. The shop has been vacant and become dilapidated since then, so go figure. Andrew the fishmonger is now a driving instructor.

    Jackson Bros. on Chetwynd has not reopened, it’s still there and solely operated by Manu as it has been for the last 20+ years. He’s a *proper* local character, knows everything that’s going on, has an absolutely jawdropping turn of phrase and should have a documentary made about him, or at least a fake twitter feed. The little vignettes of his domestic life, youthful travels and petty battles with Camden Council that you get when you go to his shop are probably better than his eggs. Elite Meats on Swain’s Lane is a very good butcher and probably has superior produce but Jackson Bros with the mad Turkish butcher is a more heartening “local” place.

  12. I appreciate that if Harry, Jeff or Daniel are going to Billingsgate and Smithfield at the crack of dawn every day they need an early night. But it seems a shame they can’t get someone else in to keep it open for an extra hour. They must get hundreds and hundreds of hungry people walking past the shop between 6.30-7.30, their loss is totally the supermarket’s gain. See how busy Phoenecia is between 7-8pm, for example. Or Earth until 7.

  13. I want to like Harry’s, but gave up shopping there a year ago, having been a customer from the beginning (and remember the days before that, when there was a fishmongers at the shop). The reasons? As said by others here: unfresh fish, and being pressed to accept larger pieces of meat than I wanted to buy. I could add that the atmosphere between the two assistants, when Harry wasn’t around, was awful, and gave the whole place a gloomy feeling. It’s a pity. The sausages will probably still be great.

    (Richard Ehrlich could have written a paragraph on Harry’s brave venture in developing the building where the Kentish Canteen now is, and opening the restaurant RED there.)

  14. I have to say that I have been a couple of times to Harry’s, but was never impressed with the service – unfriendly/unhelpful – maybe I just got them on off days. For those on the western side of KT, I really recommend Barratt’s butcher on England’s Lane. Consistently brilliant service, excellent quality, and actually very good value as well.

  15. Last time I went in I asked for Shoulder of lamb which was £9.95/kilo. I asked the old bald butcher to dice it up and suddenly it became £19.95/kilo because that’s what they were selling diced lamb for. He lost it when I refused to pay but he’s a miserable old sod to be honest.

    I’ve seen the mackerel covered over with ice to try and hide the red and cloudy eyes and they tried to tell me it was fresh in that day.

    I think they’re sheisters and I question the quality and freshness of their produce as has been reported here.

  16. Being Spanish I am a huge fish fan and have been brought up eating very fresh fish on a pretty much daily basis, of all varieties. I too have always been put off by the strong fishy smell coming out of Harry’s. Fresh fish does not smell, certainly not the way it does at that shop. For fresh and reasonably priced fish just go to Billinsgate, although again, be careful as not all fish is super fresh there. Steve Hatt is ok too, probably the best I know in London, if a bit pricey. For those who keep on insisting that fishmongers should smell, go to Billinsgate at 4 am for comparison.

  17. Finally bought an organic chicken there. Can’t believe I’ve not done that before. What a great place! Didn’t think the fishy smell was any more worse than what a normal wet fish market would smell like. And as a child, wet markets are the only markets I ever went to! Anyway will head back there again…..probably to get some fish for a curry!

  18. I have to agree with the concerns about hygeine and service at Harry’s. I have wanted to like it but on too many occasions I have seen staff passing between the meat/cooked meat/fish counters without washing their hands. The final straw was when I went to collect some fish that was being filleted for me, and the lady who was mopping the floor went to bag it up for me without washing her hands! Perhaps the new owners will focus on these shortcomings.

  19. Terrible news he’s selling, hopefully it’ll remain as a butcher, but I fear the chains have already started queuing. Harrys is one of the best parts of K-Town, damn shame.

    1. I hear from a reliable source who heard it from (Harry) the Horse’s Mouth that he is NOT selling. And I for one am extremely relieved. I think I must be visiting a different shop from the one some of you mention above. Harry and all the staff have always been very helpful. Good meat and fish does cost – and so it should. Have you seen how much they charge at the Farmers’ Market in William Ellis? And sorry to break it to you, but fish does smell. I’ve never thought it smelled any worse outside Harry’s than any other fishmonger.

Leave a Comment

32 thoughts on “Why It Matters: Harry’s Fine Foods, Kentish Town Road”

  1. High Street Ken

    I am vegetarian, but I love Harry’s for their ethic and the quality of the meat they provide! Again can i mention cash mobbing where members of a local community go round to a local business in order to buy from them and support them (obviously the business have warning of this). I agree wholeheartedly that Harry’s need and deserve our support; I’m always alarmed when I see the shop empty.

    1. I have been a customer of Harry’s for some time, he is man who you can trust absolutely. His meat and fish are of the highest quality, the best tuna I have ever had came from Harry. Personally what I think he could do with his some help on presentation, anyone out with the appropriate skills?

  2. While I’m all for supporting local businesses, I simply can’t ignore the strong smell coming from this business. I’m sorry, but it really suggests as if some of the fish being sold here is perhaps past its best.

    1. As someone who buys fish from Harry’s on a fairly regular basis I’d have to disagree. What you can smell reflects the fact it isn’t all vacuum packed in neat plastic boxes. Fishmongers and butchers smell. Meat smells.

    2. You can go in and look at the fish; he sells whole fish so it’s easy to determine freshness.

      In brief, check for the redness of the gills,clear not opaque eyes and skin that springs back when you touch it. Analysis sometimes beats supposition.

  3. Sorry I disagree, the smell of a fish monger is one of the tell tale signs of the freshness of its produce. An outlet selling fish will of course smell, yes, but it should be a pleasing smell (like the smell of the sea). Fresh fish does not smell, so 1 +1 = ? I walk past Harry’s on a daily basis and I flinch every time I do so.

  4. I agree re smells! It’s important!

    Harry’s is good – and I’d recommend too, especially for the fish and game. I haven’t tried Brian’s chickens yet! Maybe Harry’s could set up a rotisserie to rival Phonecia’s?

    For what it’s worth, for those on the east side of KT, I also rate Cramer’s the butcher on York Way (near the junction with Brecknock Rd/ Camden Rd). Another local worth supporting – really friendly and advice on cooking times etc. He doesn’t do fish, but I’ve had consistently good meat, including steaks. Fruit and veg at Austin Flowers next door, and a mooch at the antique/ junk shop on the corner – all makes for a productive Saturday morning!

  5. The best thing Harry could do would be to stay open until 7! He misses all the business from those of us lucky enough to live in KT but work outside. The number of times I’ve got back from the office, got my veg at the fruit bowl, but then have to go to the Co-Op or Sainsburys for my meat. Come on Harry, do us all a favour?

  6. I love Harry’s, they always have great bacon and Brian’s chicken tastes nothing like something from the supermarket, how proper chicken should taste. They also sell frozen chicken, fish and beef stock (might be made by them) which is handy. Had an amazing 5kg shoulder of pork from there earlier this year, was melt in the mouth after 6 hours of slow roasting. My new years party banquet was centred around one of their 4kg Salmon’s, bags of flavour and excellent value.

  7. Agree with the ‘smelly poster’ above. Funnily enough, after the refurbishment the smell disappeared for 2 weeks or so, but since then the pungent fishy smell has been back.

    1. I had really wanted to like this place too, and got excited when it was refurbished and the gross smell gone (unfortunately only for a very short while). I cannot imagine why it smells so bad all the time – fresh fish should not and does not smell bad! Sadly, I’ve not been able to try anything else inside the store – until this persistent smell is gone for good.

  8. On the subject of great local independent food sellers, Fam Greengrocers at the top end of Fortess Road (just along from Aces n Eights) is brilliant! And usually much cheaper than the supermarket 10 doors along from it.

    My uncle used to be a butcher, and the quality of meat that he sold, compared to supermarket meat was so much better. Butchers know their trade.

    And, on the smell debate, I would say that Harry’s fish is surely going to be fresher than anything in a supermarket, simply because of the processes and economics involved in way the large chains operate. Plus, like already mentioned by pascal above, there is the vacuum packing and whatever else they do to the fish which dampens the smell.

  9. Richard Ehrlich

    It’s great to see my piece inspiring so much comment.

    Naturally I am sorry to hear that some people are put off by the smell. I will convey this message to Harry and am sure he will take it seriously. And I am quite willing to admit that I have sometimes noticed a fishy smell. But there’s fishy and there’s fishy, and I’ve never noticed anything alarming at Harry’s.

    I will also pass on the comment about staying open later. This would be hard for them, as a butcher/fishmonger’s working day begins long before the shop actually opens, but I’m sure he will consider it. he used to do rotisserie chickens but has stopped, presumably because of insufficient demand.

    After a colleague recommended Cramer’s in York Way, I went by and had a look. It seemed like a decent family butcher of the old school but I haven’t bought anything there. My colleague said the chickens aren’t much, it’s more for red meat.

    Haven’t heard about the reopened place in Chetwynd Road.

    I’m curious: those of you who avoid Harry’s because of the smell, where do you buy fish and meat?

    1. Alternatives to Harry: Nick the french fishmonger in Primrose Hill, Gloucester R, is extremely good, fantastic produce, priced competitively, beautifully presented. The butchers in Englands Lane is also very good. Not NW5 I know but…

  10. You’re all really lucky to get served in there. Most of the time it used to seem like the Marie Celeste. One time I asked about John Dory and the man knew nothing even though they had some on the counter. Another few times they had an Eastern European girl serving who knew nothing about even the most basic things and seemed to care even less.

    The final straw was when, in front of quite a few people, I asked for a *THIN* rib eye steak and was cut a huge steak about 4cm thick! I reminded the man I’d asked for a small steak and he cut *ACROSS* the huge piece of meat so then I had a ridiculous box shaped lump of rib eye that still cost more than £10!

    I’m afraid to say I was so embarassed I ran out of the shop. I haven’t been back since.

  11. Fishmongers should smell a bit. And fishmongers shouldn’t open until 7pm, when they have to be at Billingsgate at 4am, and smart retail customers will have nabbed the good stuff before midday anyway.

    I like that Harry’s is there, though I’m more likely to travel to Steve Hatt or club together with neighbours and go to Billingsgate itself to be honest. I miss Fish & Fowl on Highgate Road, a very good fishmongers which closed about five years ago because the rents went up. The shop has been vacant and become dilapidated since then, so go figure. Andrew the fishmonger is now a driving instructor.

    Jackson Bros. on Chetwynd has not reopened, it’s still there and solely operated by Manu as it has been for the last 20+ years. He’s a *proper* local character, knows everything that’s going on, has an absolutely jawdropping turn of phrase and should have a documentary made about him, or at least a fake twitter feed. The little vignettes of his domestic life, youthful travels and petty battles with Camden Council that you get when you go to his shop are probably better than his eggs. Elite Meats on Swain’s Lane is a very good butcher and probably has superior produce but Jackson Bros with the mad Turkish butcher is a more heartening “local” place.

  12. I appreciate that if Harry, Jeff or Daniel are going to Billingsgate and Smithfield at the crack of dawn every day they need an early night. But it seems a shame they can’t get someone else in to keep it open for an extra hour. They must get hundreds and hundreds of hungry people walking past the shop between 6.30-7.30, their loss is totally the supermarket’s gain. See how busy Phoenecia is between 7-8pm, for example. Or Earth until 7.

  13. I want to like Harry’s, but gave up shopping there a year ago, having been a customer from the beginning (and remember the days before that, when there was a fishmongers at the shop). The reasons? As said by others here: unfresh fish, and being pressed to accept larger pieces of meat than I wanted to buy. I could add that the atmosphere between the two assistants, when Harry wasn’t around, was awful, and gave the whole place a gloomy feeling. It’s a pity. The sausages will probably still be great.

    (Richard Ehrlich could have written a paragraph on Harry’s brave venture in developing the building where the Kentish Canteen now is, and opening the restaurant RED there.)

  14. I have to say that I have been a couple of times to Harry’s, but was never impressed with the service – unfriendly/unhelpful – maybe I just got them on off days. For those on the western side of KT, I really recommend Barratt’s butcher on England’s Lane. Consistently brilliant service, excellent quality, and actually very good value as well.

  15. Last time I went in I asked for Shoulder of lamb which was £9.95/kilo. I asked the old bald butcher to dice it up and suddenly it became £19.95/kilo because that’s what they were selling diced lamb for. He lost it when I refused to pay but he’s a miserable old sod to be honest.

    I’ve seen the mackerel covered over with ice to try and hide the red and cloudy eyes and they tried to tell me it was fresh in that day.

    I think they’re sheisters and I question the quality and freshness of their produce as has been reported here.

  16. Being Spanish I am a huge fish fan and have been brought up eating very fresh fish on a pretty much daily basis, of all varieties. I too have always been put off by the strong fishy smell coming out of Harry’s. Fresh fish does not smell, certainly not the way it does at that shop. For fresh and reasonably priced fish just go to Billinsgate, although again, be careful as not all fish is super fresh there. Steve Hatt is ok too, probably the best I know in London, if a bit pricey. For those who keep on insisting that fishmongers should smell, go to Billinsgate at 4 am for comparison.

  17. Finally bought an organic chicken there. Can’t believe I’ve not done that before. What a great place! Didn’t think the fishy smell was any more worse than what a normal wet fish market would smell like. And as a child, wet markets are the only markets I ever went to! Anyway will head back there again…..probably to get some fish for a curry!

  18. I have to agree with the concerns about hygeine and service at Harry’s. I have wanted to like it but on too many occasions I have seen staff passing between the meat/cooked meat/fish counters without washing their hands. The final straw was when I went to collect some fish that was being filleted for me, and the lady who was mopping the floor went to bag it up for me without washing her hands! Perhaps the new owners will focus on these shortcomings.

  19. Terrible news he’s selling, hopefully it’ll remain as a butcher, but I fear the chains have already started queuing. Harrys is one of the best parts of K-Town, damn shame.

    1. I hear from a reliable source who heard it from (Harry) the Horse’s Mouth that he is NOT selling. And I for one am extremely relieved. I think I must be visiting a different shop from the one some of you mention above. Harry and all the staff have always been very helpful. Good meat and fish does cost – and so it should. Have you seen how much they charge at the Farmers’ Market in William Ellis? And sorry to break it to you, but fish does smell. I’ve never thought it smelled any worse outside Harry’s than any other fishmonger.

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