The Dalston restaurant this week launched a selection of ‘lickle plates’ and ‘big plates’, intended to encourage guests to visit more regularly and dine in a more relaxed way.
The kitchen is led by head chef Amani Garcia, who worked alongside Taylor and has a background combining professional kitchen training with experience in photography, videography and editing.
While Jamaican cooking remains central to The Good Front Room, the new menu looks more widely across the region, drawing inspiration from the food cultures and traditions of Guyana, Trinidad, Guadeloupe and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Lickle plates are divided into three sections – Caribbean Sea, Caribbean Garden and Caribbean Fire Pit – with dishes including escovitch soft shell crab; peach and mango peppered prawns; Trinidadian doubles; Guyanese pholourie skewers; pepperpot sliders; and jerk chicken with plantain jam.
Big plates include brown stew short rib with rice and peas; Guadeloupe-inspired colombo de poulet; sea bass grilled with green seasoning and tamarind; and balanjay with coconut white rice.
Lickle plates start at £12. Rather than following the restaurant’s previous fixed starter, main course and dessert format, dishes are brought to the table as they are prepared, creating a more relaxed and social style of dining.
Co-owner Ashley Letchford says the new direction retains the identity and purpose on which The Good Front Room was built.
A grandchild of the Windrush generation, Taylor began his career cooking European food before establishing a successful Caribbean private catering business.
He came to wider attention in 2023 after winning Channel 4’s Five Star Kitchen: Britain’s Next Great Chef, which led to the launch of The Good Front Room as a residency at The Langham hotel in London.
Initially intended to run for six months, the residency was extended following a successful launch and eventually closed in April 2024.
After a brief spell operating the more casual Marvee’s Food Shop in Notting Hill, Taylor opened a permanent version of The Good Front Room at Thomas Tower, next to Dalston Junction station, early this year.
Taylor died in July.