There's no forecasting software involved and no plan set more than a day in advance. Every morning around seven, before the doors open, head chef Aarav Malhotra stands in front of the delivery crates with a piece of chalk and works out what's going on the specials board — based almost entirely on what just arrived.
It starts with the delivery, not the plan
Most restaurants plan a menu and then order ingredients to match it. We tend to work backwards: the farm van and the fish supplier show up first, and the specials get built around whatever's genuinely good that morning. If the tomatoes look exceptional, something built around tomatoes goes up. If the fishmonger has something unusual, it's on the board by nine.
Why we've kept it manual
We've been asked more than once why we don't digitise the specials board — a printed insert, a QR code, something easier to update. We've resisted mostly because the handwriting itself does something useful: it signals, honestly, that this dish wasn't planned three weeks ago in a corporate calendar. It was decided this morning, by a person, based on what showed up at the back door.
"If we can plan it a month out, it's probably not really a special — it's just a menu item we haven't admitted to yet."
What that means for you
If you see something on the board you love, there's a real chance it won't be there next time you visit — and a good server will tell you honestly if that's likely. We think that unpredictability is part of what makes eating here interesting, even if it occasionally means a favourite dish takes a few weeks off.