Consider this as the side project. An epilogue of a visionary concept. A retelling of a story told from another point of view. The breakfast room for hotel guests. Yes, The Corner Room is the child of Nuno Mendes’ Viajante, both nestled within the zen like confines of the uber cool Townhall hotel in uber edgy Bethnal Green on the East end. A spin-off, an overflow room for those who don’t like the idea of advanced reservations at the ultra fantastic temple of modernist gastronomy downstairs.

Perhaps the best part of it all, is how low-key The Corner Room has been kept. There is no weblink or phone and therefore takes no reservations and is totally egalitarian, if you can find it.

You’ll have to go through the main hotel reception, instead of the reception to Viajante to find the easily find The Corner Room. If you take the latter route (which we did), you’ll be taken through the guts of the hotel, maze your way through the immaculate designs and occasionally peek into the beautifully designed rooms as they are being kept. The Townhall hotel is a marvelous hotel. It’s a work of wonder. It’s understated and because of this, it probably makes cooler than staying at say The Renaissance, whose goth granduer is a little bit of a overwhelming monstrosity.

When we did eventually find The Corner Room (unsurprisingly in a corner wing of the first floor) , we were greeted with a distinctly subtle and zen-likeroom. The colour coordination, eye catching and low key was just fabulous, I particular love the large windows, whatever period they are from, as well as the dangling lamps that decorate the wall. The room has character.

Mark and I paid a visit last Saturday for lunch, and were given their weekend brunch menu. There might be a more complete dinner menu, but we didn’t see it.

Taking the low profile approach extends to the purposefully woefully written menu, that easily looks like it was swiped from a greasy spoon, as if to serve as a surprise in an exercise of suppressing the genius that would be served. “House bacon, hash brown & egg” , “avocado on toast” , “smoked salmon & scrambled eggs”.

Salmon & eggs? Far from it, check this out:

Smoked salmon with polenta, avocado & hollandaise, £8.

The smell, the wonderful fragrance of brunch! The salmon, butter, eggs and polenta, all congealing and all an interplay of pillow soft textures, easily glides in to my system. Mmm, there is abit of the cutting edge cooking from downstairs creeping into the recipe here, a dash of avocado cream, a sting of a zesty hollandaise, the custardy poached eggs and paprika infused polenta cake. It’s as beautiful to look as, it was attractive to eat.

Poached eggs with chorizo and paprika potatoes, £8.

The roast filled, relaxant feel of the chorizo and potatoes was morning after breakfast sex for the palate, mmm..

Pork loin & Portuguese bread pudding, £12.

…but this was the one which we both thought was bloody fabulous, prompting my buddy Mark to gesture “This is seriously good food. No fucking around ain’t it, dude.”

The savoury bread pud was from the spring from which comfort food had sprung. Like a rosti soaking with oodles of tomato, peppers and rich umami savouriness. We were both certain the buttery tender pork loins were the result of a master of the dark arts of cooking sous-vide. The original idea of what makes gastronomy the joy it is; an endorphine promoting and necessary part of the day, a celebration of the fact that eating is to refuel life itself.

Mackerel with celeriac & bacon, £6.

The weakest dish of the service, this was flash over substance, and compared to the dishes that came before it, it was easily forgettable. Still for six quid, it was edible art.

Final bill, including a mimosa £7, a glass of bubbles £6 and fresh OJ £2.5 was £55.69 for two.

What I like about the cooking here, is the attention to the cooking. And I say this with all the love for gastronomy from the very depths of my belly : The cooking was very handsome.

Sometimes all that flash and cutting edge modernity can be distracting to an unprepared diner, and if you’re not one to ooh and ahh over the procession, it can be exhaustingly esoteric, thus a little confusing and there is a danger that Viajante’s high end stuff may bore the living daylights off your appetite. But that’s why The Corner Room is special. This unplugged version of Nuno’s mind-bending high end stuff, strikes a perfect chord with the palate, stripping away the noise, and allowing the natural ingredients and the well honed skills of the kitchen to really shine through. This is off the cuff jazz to the disciplined masterpiece of chamber music. And so, this is the alternate interpretation of the travelling chef’s genius. It’s as if the kitchen had laid bare the inner workings of its soul to the public, private nosh turned public, like the way the butcher’s filet became the public’s onglet.

The Corner Room is brilliant. It may even be more fantastic than big brother Viajante downstairs. It certainly is a wonderful brunch venue, and I suspect it will not stay hidden from you guys for very much longer. I love Nuno Mendes’ high end trickery, but I also highly enjoy his low-key flirtation of a stripped down performance.

I fully endorse The Corner room and I suggest you find the time to pay The Corner Room a visit, or perhaps two.

The Gist of It

The Corner Room
Hidden Genius £25pp
No reservations, no phone.
First Floor at The Town Hall Hotel
Patriot Square | E2 9NF
Tube : Bethnal Green

In this coner: Euan Ferguson for TO

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It was probably the most intriguing restaurant opening last year. It generated a polarising reception, ranging from those who hailed Nuno Mendes’ travelling fusion food as groundbreaking to others who thought it a purely self indulgent public experiment, injected with an unhealthy dose of pretense. When I visited last summer, I thought the food was innovative, there were dishes which were memorable for ingenuity and flaccidity, in equal measure. There is no question of Nuno’s talents, his recipes show great potential; at the time, I felt all that was needed was maturation time. A revisit was always on the cards – it was one of my favourite meals in 2010 – and I was keen to see if Viajante had morphed into a well oiled machine, going into the New Year. Especially with the impending release of the revision to the Michelin Guide due next week.

I opted for a late lunch last Sunday. Nuno was not leading the service on the day of rest. In the former Bethnal Green town hall, it exudes a stoic, artist’s loft, air of zen kind of ambiance. The calming surrounding being a large aspect of Viajante’s appeal. It is like theatre in the way the entire mechanics of the kitchen being fully visible to diners. A little surprising how silent the kitchen is… and ironic how little ‘cooking’ seems to be taking place. You would easily mistake the chefs to be an army of uniformed and glorified food stylists.

I’m suppose to be saving up for an impending holiday in a couple of weeks to try some nice restaurants in Singapore, so we opted for the 3 course menu (£28) over the six (£60). I drank a glass of Aligote, a lesser used white grape varietal from Burgundy, £8. While the structure of the menus remain as ‘blind tasters’, they have tweaked its presentation (from my first meal) , with take home menus that describe the dishes.

I’ll keep the commentary to a minimum from this point forward, since I’ve done a review at length before.

A flurry of amuse bouches to start, the now signature ‘thai explosion’, a crispy mini curry chicken sandwich, gets the juices flowing.

Bread and Butter.

They had added a new black pudding flavoured brown butter in added to the chicken skin, iberico ham shavings and purple potato powder. Both are great, I prefer the purple one, it’s salty, as opposed to the black pudding one, which tasted sweeter. Both have an amazingly fluffy texture, close to whipped cream.

Confit Salmon, Miso paste, dashi.

Some dishes are brought to tables personally by the presiding chefs, and at every point in the meal, there is a sense of wonder as you lean in to listen to the exposition, since the menu is a surprise. They usually end their description of the dish by ladling the necessary juices on, making for quite a dramatic introduction.

The dish wouldn’t be out of place in a Japanese restaurant. Confit salmon – perhaps sous-vide – was delicately cooked, the texture of which very raw, not unlike sashimi, or even a cut of tzar-cut fillet. The dashi soup was brimming with bright savoury flavours, piercing and mellow at the same time. It’s a very elegant dish, and very accomplished. Being a fan of raw food in general, I liked this.

Roast Duck, beetroot and pistachio.

Art on a plate? Or just controlled chaos?

The flavour combinations .. like a forest in your mouth .. and the interacting textures of the various vegetables were in its own class. The effervescent beetroot sauce was superb and I thought it matched the duck very well. Duck was cooked on point, pink, with well sealed juices, but perhaps it needed abit of pounding. It was tough and chewy. Aside from that, I liked it.

Sea buckthorn and burnt meringue.

The fruit of sea buckthorn look like satsumas, these particular ones were sourced from France, we were told. Made into a slushy sorbet, it tasted like a shrubby and herby orange, something which cleansed the palate well. The oddly shaped meringue was confusing, and I’m not entirely certain what the chef is trying to say with the styling. Whatever it was, I think it demonstrated that the line between class and rubbish, is thin. Great meringue though. Sticky and syrupy and sugary. This dish really reminded me of those orange-vanilla ice cream popsicles from my childhood. Not sure what you call those things, but I remember sucking on them on hot days. Mmm.

Frozen maple pannacotta and shiso granite with green apple.

I loved the dessert course. The iced pannacotta tasted…as you’d expect frozen pannacotta to taste. The mint-like shiso ice shavings was another nod to Japanese cuisine. Cubes of green apple took away the edge off the pannacotta, bridging the divergent flavours of the shiso and the milk-based ice cream rather nicely.

Petit fours, coffee.

We threw them a curve ball by requesting for soya milk in our flat whites, and they handled that without a hitch. Hats off to the tremendously professional service, from the moment they took my reservation on the phone – you can hear him smiling on the other end – to the non-intrusive and relaxed attitude throughout service.

Petit fours of creme catalan with the fragrance of shaved nutmeg (I think), a white chocolate truffle, with shavings of black truffle and some sort of marshmallow.

We paid £131.63 for 3 , or £44 each. It a tremendously well valued lunch, considering the array of freebies which supplement the 3 standard courses. Oh and water was on the house too, with a choice of still or sparkling. Brilliant no?

About the only thing we regretted was not taking our coffee in the sexy looking Viajante bar, across the hall from the restaurant.

A convincing show, even with this abbreviated menu, I think in the 9 months or so, Viajante has continued to polish its potential as one the exciting new restaurants in London. I think it ticks the right boxes, it is very different in execution; and conceptually I think it breaks new ground when compared to many of the serious restaurants in town. Which tend to be quite disciplined in following traditional European standards.

Anyway, Viajante is on the right track. It might win a star next week, or perhaps it won’t. The bib is ever unpredictable year on year. Whatever the case, I heartily recommend you try Viajante if you haven’t already.

The Gist of It

Viajante
Portuguese Fusion, £28 for 3, £60 for 6
Patriot Square E2 9NF
Tel: 020 7871 0461
Tube: Bethnal Green

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Guys, Rachel Khoo is BACK.

You’ll remember a while back when I put out a post about the latest secret restaurant that is being run out of the Private dining club called The Loft, belonging to Chef Nuno Mendes. Well, Rachel is now back to put together another dinner event called a mash-up which will blend and incorporate various media formats into a dinner event.

I know some of you were keen to try a dinner out at Nuno’s private kitchen and here is your chance to apply again. The event will take place on Wednesday 24th June 2009, 7.30pm and it will be a five course menu plus wine at £65pp.

If you are interested, all you need to do is RSVP with Rachel by email to mashuplondon@gmail.com. .

Places are of course, extremely limited so reserve your seat on the table now.

Oh, and I’ll be tagging along for this one as event photographer, so if you’ve always been curious about secret restaurants, there ain’t a better chance than this one. As usual, I’ve included the full press release to this post (keep reading..) and read this post about how it went down the last time. Hope to see you there guys!

Full Press Release from Rachel

Photo by Bronia Stewart

After the debut success of her first mash up, Rachel Khoo is back with another mouth-watering installment.

The mash up* concept is about creating a dining experience for all your senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, touch). For this scrumptious supper, T. Baas will be offering a visual feast with some delectable designs and Jay-P will be tantalising your earbuds with some toothsome tunes.

This will all be rounded off with Rachel’s creative culinary touch to the 5-course dinner (paired with wine).

The festive feast will be held at the private dinner club The Loft on Wednesday 24th June at 7.30pm.

Rachel Khoo is a Food creative based in Paris. With an Art & Design degree from Central St Martins and Pâtisserie diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris Rachel brings her unique touch to culinary events.

The Loft is a private supper club and personal test kitchen of Nuno Mendes, one of London’s innovative & revolutionary chefs (El Bulli trained & previous head chef of Bacchus, London). He will be opening his next restaurant, Viajante at the Bethnal Green Town Hall in 2010.

T. Baas originally from Strasbourg but now based in Paris has been creating a visual storm with his illustrations the past 8 years for a range international brands, books and bands. He has a sweet weakness for mirabelle plum tarts too.

Jay-P when not spinning some savoury sounds in the cities Paris, London or New York puts his creative skills to producing multi-layered and heavily patterned paintings. And after all that creativity nothing hits the spot more than a Thai green curry.

Places are limited to ten people. Email mashuplondon@gmail.com. to reserve. A recommended donation made via paypal confirms your place. 5-course dinner paired with wine at £65 pp. Address details will be sent out once reservation has been confirmed.

Click here to take a look at the last event.

Feel free to forward this on to fellow foodies!

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