November 9, 2026
A table covered in small dishes tells guests that nobody is in charge of the pace. Plates travel from hand to hand and the conversation follows. These sharing plate dinner party ideas come from the way we cook and serve at Crispin Spitalfields.
Dishes arrive in waves so guests always have something to pass and something to talk about. The cook stays closer to the table too because most plates can be finished ahead of time.
For six guests we usually go for four or five dishes plus bread because we've found that people eat more when plates keep arriving. So we keep portions modest and let the table ask for seconds.
We balance the table by putting something sharp next to something creamy and something crisp next to one rich dish. Most of it should taste good at room temperature. Keep one hot dish in the oven and one to dress at the last minute.
Try burrata with good olive oil and black pepper. Add roasted vegetables with a punchy green sauce and one tray of something slow-cooked.
Knowing how to host sharing plates mostly comes down to letting people help themselves. Put the dishes in the middle and give each its own serving spoon.
A summer crab rarebit and autumn feasts in the Green Room feature in a year of eating well at Crispin.
In spring we reach for asparagus and peas and wild garlic and cook them briefly so they can be served with good butter or a squeeze of lemon.
Summer is when tomatoes and peaches come into their own so we tear the tomatoes into a bowl with salt and olive oil while the peaches go on the grill to sit beside burrata.
Autumn brings squash and mushrooms and figs and we like to roast the squash until the edges catch and then add pickled shallots for a bit of sharpness.
Winter leans on celeriac and chicory and blood oranges and a braised shoulder can sit on the hob all afternoon while you get on with everything else.
We wake the whole table up with bread and pickles or thinly sliced fennel and then bring out the vegetable dishes before any fish or shellfish. The richest dish goes out near the end with a bitter salad that clears the palate.
Natural wine comes from grapes grown with minimal spraying and made with very little added in the cellar. We call these low-intervention wines. Here natural wine explained covers what low intervention means and why orange wine tastes so distinctive.
Open with a cold Muscadet. This crisp Loire white tastes of sea air and suits bread and anything raw. Move on to a light Beaujolais red chilled for twenty minutes. For roasted dishes try a skin-contact wine. That is a white made with the grape skins left in so it turns amber and gains a little grip.
We like to finish with one shared dessert and a spoon each. In summer that could be stone fruit baked with a little honey and yoghurt while colder months suit a dark chocolate tart cut into thin wedges. Make it the night before and you can sit down with everyone else.
Crispin sits in a glass and zinc pavilion at White's Row, Spitalfields, London E1 and the walk from Liverpool Street station takes less than five minutes. Take a seat by the open kitchen or on the south-facing terrace and you will see how east London dining handles pacing and portion size.
If you know a host who would enjoy it, our gift cards make an easy present.
