Corner Room restaurant hidden away in the Town Hall hotel in Bethnal Green. This cosy looking restaurant appealed to us, Nuno mendes being named as the head chef (think he is probably a little busy at Chiltern Fire House and his new restaurant Vigante but never the less) we ventured over.
The Town Hall hotel beautifully grand on the outside, there are two restaurants within, corner room being the small of the two. First impressions when we enter, cosy interior but falls in line with other hotel restaurant, business me with their laptops perusing the menu for the meatiest dish, families with their fussy children ordering a plate of plain pasta.
Never the less we take a seat and I am soothed with the very reasonably priced good quality wines by the glass, Cote du Rhone (£4 each!).
The menu, you can see Mendes style coming through, interesting flavours yet not over complicated, we share the rabbit terrine and the gin infused salmon to start.
Some of the best dishes of the evening actually, well balanced interesting flavours, the rabbit with a light creamy mustard quenelle on top, the salmon so refreshing lightly gin flavoured and topped with salty bursts of salmon eggs.
For the main we both couldn’t resist the sound of the duck with Asian pear, the taste and textures complimented each other, the morsel of deep fried confit duck leg was fantastic, the price of this menu mustn’t be forgotten but for me the duck was not pink enough.
The dessert we both choose the chocolate delice, not too sweet but so dark and rich, with a banana ice cream, sesame tulle and a hidden salted caramel centre which was so delicious I wanted the whole dessert to be covered in it!
Overall there was a little ‘Je ne sais quoi’ missing, possibly just the atmosphere was a little flat.. but for £40 per person for a glass of wine and three course meal I hardly think we can complain! Good value for money if you are looking for a quiet dinner for two.
http://townhallhotel.com/cornerroom/
