Flint fires up the oven for soulful cooking

Springy-fresh squid sauteed with tomatoes, olives and basil.

Both welcoming and chic, Flint is all about warm wood and brick, smoky, soulful cooking and the roaring fire in the depths of Big Bertha – that’s the Bertha oven, which is a central feature of the open kitchen. She feeds on stacks of local acacia wood, and is responsible for many of the wonderful aromas which continuously waft throughout the restaurant.

There’s a gentle masculine bent to the décor, but it presents itself as playful rather than exclusive – an obviously faux fireplace in the glassed-in private room upstairs, the metal skeleton deer head evoking a hunter’s trophy, portraits of animals that make them look like favourite relatives. It references tradition, but sets a very contemporary mood.