The prime corner spot occupied by Feng Sushi, the only-ever-average Japanese restaurant (at least on our visits), has been vacant for months since its closure.
In fact, the sizeable area west and south of Chalk Farm tube seems to have lost its footing of late, with the former Early Bird Café now boarded up, Grape Sense off-license closed, the coffee shop opposite The Enterprise vacant and the spot where Marine Ices existed for years a sprawling building site.
Why on earth is this, with people-draw and all-round place of excellence The Roundhouse so near?
Thank goodness then for the arrival then of new very pared-back patty joint Bite Size Burger, fresh from a wildly popular pop-up in Soho.
The menu lists ten pretty imaginative sliders – hence the ‘bite me’ angle – from the ‘bloody mary’, with its secret sauce, horseradish and onion, to duck with truffle mayo and smoked hoisin and lamb with mint, cumin and watercress.
Vegans and vegetarians aren’t particularly well catered for, it seems, with a note on the menu saying any of the options listed can be replaced with a fried aubergine. A fried aubergine? Okaaay. Oh, and chips are cooked in fashionable rapeseed oil; wash them down with an Oreo Shake.
So all in all, promising: let’s hope the other vacant units on that stretch get a new lease of life, too.
