Metal Meets Meat at Lee Tiernan’s Black Axe Mangal

Guides  -   -  Share
31blackaxe0710a
Head chef and owner Lee Tiernan in front of BAM’s woodfire oven, appropriately adorned in heavy metal band KISS illustrations.

After its first life as a series of pop-ups in Copenhagen, Black Axe Mangal – a meat meets metal eatery run by chef Lee Tiernan  – opened up a 22-seater in Islington in autumn 2015. Based on Mangal cuisine’s principle of using the whole animal, Tiernan’s London joint (whose name carried over from its Danish club days) leaves no beast behind, but also makes room on its bold menu for savoury veggie-friendly dishes like charred onions, pomegranate, and curd. The space is compact and comfortable and in every way relishing its own kitsch: from the aloha flower print tablecloths and schoolhouse-esque plastic chairs, both of which contrast hilariously with the deep fried pig’s tail.

What Tiernan's vegetarian dishes miss on meat they don't lose on flavour: the charred onion meets tangy pomegranate reduction to create a rich, animal-free entrée or main.
What Tiernan’s vegetarian dishes miss on meat they don’t lose on flavour: the charred onion meets tangy pomegranate reduction to create a rich, animal-free entrée or main. For those with a carnivorous lean, BAM’s offerings – which are changed up often – are nearly endless.

For carnivores, BAM’s woodfired oven serves up culture-crossover dishes ranging from spiced lamb offal to kebabs of anchovy-crusted pork jowl, while notorious bartender Ryan “Mr. Lyan” Chetiyawardana mixes inventive cocktails (garnished with ironic paper umbrellas, naturally) and pours BBQ beloveds like Porkslap IPAs and Cisk.

BAM-1

Lee met his work and life partner Kate while working at St John Bread and Wines in Spitalfields for over a decade. Turkish, Mission Street San Franciscan and Danish experiences meld with the street food-fine dining crossover that marks Tiernan’s career to create a truly unique and experimental dining experience. Combining light and fluffy flatbread handmade daily (here Tiernan worked with SanFran’s Tartine bakery to perfect the recipe) with heavy metal tunes sound into the night as BAM prepares dish after dish of Turkish barbecue and ocakbasi (“fireside”) cuisine, the restaurant has managed to combine flavourful heritages, heavy metal and a bit of kitsch into a lively creation that’s worth sinking your teeth into.

tumblr_nvqweqkfHT1tct3mno5_1280
The Bakkan Special: a bowl of lentils, grilled and slow-cooked lamb with cabbage and trad pickles, topped with flecks of chili.

 

BAM-3

 

 

Related posts
Film, Guides

The Best Independent Cinema to Look Forward to in 2025

2025 holds great promise for global independent and arthouse cinema from the return of old masters to a rich trove of breakthroughs by debut directors. Many of these films have received critical acclaim at film festivals while others have been flying a bit under the radar.  Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof) In Farsi…
Features, Film

The Films That Inspired David Lynch

At the end of last week, news of visionary filmmaker David Lynch’s passing was announced. Months before his death, Lynch, aged 78, shared that he’d been diagnosed with emphysema. One of the most important filmmakers of his era, Lynch’s oeuvre—from Eraserhead and Blue Velvet to Mulholland Drive and his cult TV show, Twin Peaks—has been…
Food, Guides

7 Life-Affirming Restaurants in Kuala Lumpur

“Makan makan makan!” is a rallying cry that booms across Malaysia, meaning “let’s eat, let’s eat, let’s eat” — a Malay phrase nowhere more fittingly celebrated than in the country’s capital and largest metropolis, Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia’s complex history, which spans large scale migrations, colonisation and its geographic location sandwiched between multiple Southeast Asian countries,…

Stay up to date with Something Curated