What to Order at Bar Crispin: French Fries, Crab Rarebit

Great wine and thoughtful food have always made a memorable pairing. Bar Crispin brings the two together with confidence. We serve seasonal small plates alongside a carefully curated wine list.

Snacks for all occasions

Bar Crispin's food menu isn't built around courses. It's built around moments: the fifteen minutes before a table elsewhere, the two hours that turn into three, or the solo seat at the bar with a book and no plans. The menu is designed for sharing but is just as enjoyable to share or to order favorites solo. Dishes arrive freshly made. The cozy dining room has a welcoming buzz that appeals to both new and returning guests.

Start here: Comté gougères

Order these while you're still deciding on wine. Warm and faintly cheesy, with a shatter to the outside that gives way to something soft and eggy within.
They're small but set the tone for everything else on the table: French in spirit, precise in execution, no more complicated than they need to be.

The monkfish crudo

Cool, clean, and quietly confident. The monkfish crudo changes with the season and catch, but the idea stays constant: firm, sweet fish, barely dressed, letting a squeeze of citrus and a slick of oil do most of the talking.

It's the dish we'd point a wine-curious guest toward first. Order it alongside something skin-contact or a chilled red, and you'll understand why natural wine and treated fish were made for each other.

Crab rarebit

Ask a regular what to order, and this is usually the first thing mentioned. The crab rarebit arrives barely warm, sharp with mustard, and gone before you've decided what to drink next. Brown crab meat folded through a rarebit mixture, grilled until the top catches, served on good bread that knows to stay out of the way.

It isn't reinvented from one season to the next, and that's rather the point. Some dishes earn their place on a menu by staying exactly as good as they were the first time.

Lamb skewers and labneh

Char, spice, and something cooling to bring it back down: the lamb skewers are built for eating standing at the bar, glass in hand, in no particular hurry. The labneh underneath does real work here: thick, tangy, a proper counterweight to the char from the grill.

French fries

We'll say it plainly: people come back for the fries. Crisp and well-salted, served in a portion that's always slightly too small and always ordered again. There's no trick beyond doing the simple thing properly: good potato, the right oil, enough salt, out of the fryer at the right moment.

They're the dish most likely to appear in a photo before anyone touches the wine list and the one most likely to disappear before the rest of the table arrives.

Dessert

Small, considered, and rarely more than two or three options, dessert at Bar Crispin isn't an afterthought but a last, quiet note.

Expect something seasonal and unfussy: a bowl of something creamy, a single well-made sweet. It's not the reason you came but often the reason the table stays another twenty minutes.

Pair with wine

Bar Crispin's Bottles are chosen for their personality and a genuine sense of where they come from, rather than for familiarity.

If you don't know where to start, say so at the bar. Our team finds a brief conversation about what you're eating and what you usually drink helps you find the right glass faster than scanning the list alone.

Whether it's a quick bite before dinner elsewhere, a proper session with the fries and a bottle between two, or a first attempt at natural wine with people who know the list well, Bar Crispin is built for exactly that kind of evening. Walk in or book ahead if you'd rather not wait; 19 Kingly Street is ready when you are.