The Sparrows

Green Quarter start-up and Good Food Guide entry, The Sparrows (sometimes with an umlaut) serves up a variety of continental pasta and European origin dumplings, “made daily with love”. Spätzle, gnocchi, pierogi, pelmeni and more are on the menu here.

Spätzle – or little sparrows – are a kind of irregularly shaped egg pasta popular in Germany’s Bavaria, and in Austria, Switzerland and beyond, most often served with Emmental cheese and braised onion (on the menu here as Käse). Other sauces available (also teamed with the gnocchi) include the likes of beef ragu, a basic sage butter and guanciale cured pork cheek. For continental pasta, think ravioli and tortellone parcels, and their less well-known sibling saccottini, while the dumplings include Russian-originating pelmeni, with a choice of meat or vegan options, and handmade Polish-style pierogi, of which you get five pieces and a choice of vegan or vegetarian. Speck cured ham and burrata mozzarella cheese are imported and served alongside rosemary focaccia, and other authentic European flavours include pickles, sauerkraut and goulash, in this case inspired by the Tyrolean version. Sweet treats include a sugary spätzle and a matcha cheesecake, or there’s a Swiss cheese board if you want to stick to savoury.

Drinks also add to the vibe, with an unfiltered pilsner from Prague on tap, alongside wines from as far-flung places as Armenia, Georgia and North Macedonia, special edition vodka from Poland, various types of schnapps and a couple of house cocktails for good measure.

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