Restaurant Review: Oru/Trinco

Some Like It Hot...

Restaurants come and go and are often replaced by restaurants. There's a spot on North Cross Road which has gone through umpteen iterations over the years, each one presumably as determined as the last to take root. Meanwhile back on Lordship Lane Oru Space is different. I don't think this prime location near Goose Green has been an eaterie before. Wasn't it an office block or a DHSS building at some point?

Maybe that why I've always given it a wide berth. I've never quite known what it was. For a while I thought it was a community centre. Then a friend was doing movement classes in there, making me think it wasn't really open to the general public and was more of a waiting room serving decent coffee…

Anyway, as the fates would have it I popped in yesterday. I was intending to bag a bargain and take advantage of Soderberg's cut price Meatball Monday but there was filming taking place so we couldn’t have a full meal. FYI their Meatball Monday deal ends next Monday and also maybe you should get there early - even though we couldn't eat them yesterday they'd run out of meatballs by 12:50 anyway...

So, meanwhile back at Oru Space, a co-working and wellness hub where there is also a nail salon, children’s yoga and numerous other activities in the building as well as scrumptious food. My confusion continued on entering. As you stand at the door waiting to be seated there is what looks like a bookcase on your left. Except instead of books there are croissants and pastries. It's very tempting just to help yourself. Maybe that's the idea. Oh, and the restaurant isn't called Oru, that’s the name of the Space. It's called Trinco.

We were seated quickly. The room has a bustling, friendly dining hall vibe and was packed at lunchtime. Always a good sign. If you are lucky you can bag a seat at the large windows and watch the SE22 world pass by as you grab your vegetarian bite. If only people watching and food were Olympic events...

The website says that the food is Sri Lankan influenced. In which case Sri Lankans clearly like their food spicy. Hence the Some Like It Hot headline that I nearly used last week when reviewing Silk Road. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of spicy food, but when it's prepared and incorporated as well as this it's hard to resist. Though just as easy to fish out the little hot-as-hell hoops and put them on the side of your plate.

The menu was small but there was still plenty to choose from. We decided on two dishes and when they arrived they were both so appealing there was a quick squabble over ownership. No need for the United Nations to intervene on this one, we happily shared.

I think, however, I ordered the Chilli Cheese Thosai (£8.25). I didn't really know what to expect but when it came it rang a bell. It was similar to one of those cone-shaped Dosas I used to devour in the Drummond Street Indian restaurants round the back of Euston station many moons ago, usually with a variety of chutneys. There was so much flavour here no chutneys were required.

The cheesy filling was different though and gave it a smokey kick alongside more fragrant spices and the obligatory chillies (green ones I think) . Somehow it reminded me a a giant Pringle. In a good way. And, needless to say, once I popped my Thosai it was hard to stop.

But after the half-time whistle we switched dishes and I tried the Lentil Dahl (£12). This was as good a dahl as I've ever had. Dahls can usually be a bit samey but this was full of surprises. It came with a fragrant coconut sambol topping, some kale and some garlic yoghurt to take the sting out of the red chillies. All topped off with something round that was either bread or potato but definitely not one of the pastries from the bookcase. Cue tenuous pun about Dahl and tales of the unexpected.

All in all, very good value. This is the kind of lunch which can fill you up for the rest of the day. They also do an evening menu on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6pm. Oru doesn't look like much to write home about from the outside. But step in and go past the pastry bookcase and it's a very different story.

Oru/Trinco, 20 – 22 Lordship Ln, London SE22 8HN

All meals paid for and identity not revealed before or after.