Anna’s Kitchen

It’s what a neighbourhood restaurant should look like, even if it is only a short walk from Tottenham Court Road. An inviting room with big windows, a menu that changes weekly, but also as and when things are in-season. A tiled bar and a wine list that is interesting and easy to navigate; great food cooked and brought to the table by a couple of chefs creating magic in a small kitchen. If there’s schnitzel on the menu, you should order it. 

On the site of a former greasy spoon in Bloomsbury, Café Deco is chef Anna Tobias’ vision of simple and refined cooking. She graduated from the kitchens of Rochelle Canteen, River Cafe and P. Franco, learning alongside chefs like Jeremy Lee, Margot Henderson and Ruth Rogers—a serious CV. Along with the team behind 40 Maltby St, she opened Café Deco in 2020, a challenging time for the hospitality business as you might recall?

“I've been cooking for about 15 years,” says Anna, sat by that big window on a recent morning, the hum of prep and deliveries coming and going. “I think most sort of young chefs daydream of having their own place, and it got to a point where I was ready for that challenge.”

After looking for sites around East London, Anna eventually settled on a leafy corner of Bloomsbury, on the site of an old sandwich caff. She kept the former name and the beautiful Italian-style bar, and then set about transforming it. “I think there’s a nice history to the area,” she says.” “One of the things I’m most proud if is that we get people eating here who are all different ages. It can sometimes feel like a bit of a homogenous crowd in East London, even though I live there. I want this to be the sort of restaurant where I could eat with friends, or my mum. London can feel quite ageist at times, so I want to feel welcoming to anyone. Come in for a long lunch. Order another bottle of wine.”

You could describe the food as modern European, but it draws from all over the place. “I'm half Serbian,” says Anna, and one of my chefs is Polish. I think it's quite an underrepresented, underrepresented food culture. For instance, this week we've got the chicken broth with dumplings, which are my mum’s own recipe. We have Polish stews and schnitzels. We take things from our own lives, as well as what’s in-season and interesting to us.”

“I just like cooking simple food with amazing ingredients,” she adds, "and I like watching people enjoy that. I think there's a skill in a really well executed simple dish, and to me they're the most wholesome and enjoyable. I think there’s a lot of pleasure to be had from that kind of food.”

“Part of the fun for us as chefs is being creative with the menu. Asparagus will go out of season, so you have to wait for another year before you can use it again, and the same goes for some of the wines that we stock, they’re from small suppliers, so they run out. 

“It helps to be guided by that. We’re working with what’s around us, and trying not to overthink it.”