Restaurant review: Filthy MacNasty’s, EC1

Billing itself as ‘just another pub’ in cahoots with its Essex Road brother The New Rose, Filthy’s better fits that bill.

Perched on the corner of a semi-residential spot between the roaring traffic of Pentonville Road and the hipster haunts of Exmouth Market, this unassuming boozer was peppered with suits, students and creative types on our mid-week visit.

Food has to fight it out against Filthy’s decent whiskey collection for priority here, and it’s wisely kept things basic with a coterie of burger and pizza options, extended with salmon fishcakes and ploughman’s.

The hand-made pizzas are great value for a fiver (weekday lunchtimes) or less (two-for-one Monday nights) and still fair at �8.50 for a decent topping of anchovies, capers, olives and mozzarella. The dough was light and thin(ish) too.

A dense homemade bun held up well with my stacked, greasy but tasty lamb and rosemary burger (�9), which boasted some of the best skin-on chips I’ve had in a long time.

And the smoked chicken salad with baby artichoke and sundried tomato (�8.50) was passable at least.

We weren’t too worried that we couldn’t find room for the ice cream scoops which qualified as �5 desserts.

The cheapest options turn out to be the best; scotch egg and piccalilli (�3.50) and chips (�3) are great for both your wallet and your tastebuds.

Don’t make any special plans to visit; just know that, should your belly cry ‘burger’ and you’re in the area, this place’ll do just fine.