The Modern Pantry

An absolutely delightful place. Came here for solo brunch one Sunday morning and found that the Ground Floor Café was already packed at 11.30 AM, however the 15 minutes wait was well worth the effort.

The dining space exudes an informal and chill-out atmosphere. When crowded the whole room can be lively and noisy, as well as a near ‘elbow to elbow dining experience’ found especially on the large refectory table in the middle of the room. Service was erratic during the time I was there but constantly smiling and friendly.

It was also an absolute bonus to see Anna Hansen in the kitchen cooking my meal (on a Sunday as well! That alone was heroic). I skipped the healthy breakfast options and avoided the more unorthodox (I believe Ms Hansen discourages the word fusion in her cooking) creations and went straight for the Grilled miso marinated onglet steak with cavolo nero and cassava chips. The steak was cooked beautifully rare and totally delicious. The bland tasting cassava chips were an acquired choice, personally I think they should’ve sliced them a lot thinner like game chips in order to bring out the delicate flavour. My gorgeous pudding of Eton Mess was lovingly concocted and suitably messy in appearance. BTW they also passed on the Flat White test, it tasted strong enough and not at all wishy-washy as reported on one of the blogs.

This is a great place to enjoy with friends, from the crack of dawn to late at night. It’s a happy place and as far as I can tell there’s soul in the cooking.
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bellaphon
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Sunday, November 09, 2008

After getting lots of positive reviews, the place was packed. I work around the corner and so never go out in Clerkenwell on weekends. Maybe I should - it's very calm and now has another good place to eat. The building from the outside is impressive and the decor inside is pared-down and quite minimalist - in a good way.

The staff are nice (got the bill wrong at the end, but that stuff happens now and again). Having enjoyed Peter Gordon's place in Marylebone - I like the creative side of cooking like this. It's not as god as Providores, but it's also much better value.

I liked the fritter and octopus starter (the latter was very good - incredibly tender & the nicest I've eaten outside Spain). Wine list is pretty good by the glass.

The mains were less good - duck confit with flabby skin and sweet potato not quite soft enough for my liking. My companion's steak was pretty good, although the chips were kumara (very antipodean, but let's face it - potato is better!) - so whilst it was a nice meal - it's hard to rave about this part of it.

Desserts were top notch - I love pistachios and to see them in pannacotta made my day......& we had a scoop of this ice cream/parfait with honeycomb/wobbly bits in it - it was lovely.

I can't comment on the upstairs dining room, as I didn't bother to look, but it was rammed with people having a good time.

I would go again for sure, but would treat it like a tapa/racion type place and then I think it would really come into it's own.
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Coops
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Sunday, September 21, 2008