What should we know about Typing Room?
Many of you will know the restaurant space from its time as Nuno Mendes' restaurant Viajante. The room and kitchen have been given a mild makeover (new furniture, sombre charcoal paint on the walls) for the arrival of Lee Westcott who's being backed in this space by Jason Atherton. Westcott arrives here via Atherton's Hong Kong restaurants, Per Se and Noma.
Where is it?
At the Town Hall hotel in Bethnal Green. From the entrance the Typing Room is off to the left, while Matt Whiley's new bar Peg + Patriot is on the right.
Where should I go for a drink first?
Definitely Peg + Patriot. We were here for lunch, so cocktails weren't the order of the day, but if we'd come for dinner we'd have made a beeline straight for the bar where some truly extraordinary sounding drinks are being served up - fancy a Rice Rice Baby containing roasted rice ice cream liqueur with sparkling Cocchi Brut?
Where should I sit?
The dining room here is split into two distinct parts and we'd definitely prefer the front room featuring the kitchen - a hive of thoughtful industry - particularly if you're geekily into seeing how your dinner's made.
And what should I order?
The restaurant sets out its store thus: "a refined European menu showcasing and focusing on the British seasons and produce". At lunch we had a variety of menus to choose from - a two and three course set lunch menu (£24 and £29 respectively), the tasting menu at £70 or the a la carte which is what we plumped for.
We kicked off with two snacks - a puffed cod skin wafer studded with drops of smoked cod, oyster and dill - which reminded us of the crispy cod skin at Story - and some lovely courgette and basil profiteroles with an olive dusting (both £5).
Both starters were a masterclass in textures - a smooth circle of shaved raw beef came topped with panko breadcrumbs (£14) but was pipped to the post in the starter stakes by my scorched langoustines (£15) which also featured tiny langoustine dumplings, lardo and a broth which had been infused at our table earlier in a tiny glass teapot with herbs.
For mains the tables were turned - my summery dish of bass (£23), beautifully cooked and served with ribbons of courgette, heritage tomatoes, wafer-thin disks of octopus and curled up squid, dressed with tomato water was delicious, but @hotdinners2 got the full dish envy treatment with his lamb served two ways with burnt aubergine and yoghurt (£24).
The nice thing about how light the dishes are here, was that for once we were quite happy to progress to dessert without being overly stuffed. The Jasmine brûlée served with an aerated apple sorbet (£9) was inventive, but the one you really want to order, if it's on, is Strawberry, pistachio & white chocolate (£9) where the pistachio comes in the form of sponge, and is served up with strawberries in fresh, sorbet and wafer form.
Is bread included?
It is, and you'll be doing better than us if you don't hoover it up the minute it's served. The small sourdough loaf came piping hot to our table served with marmite butter topped with toasted barley.
And how about drinks?
The wine list here is a mixture of classics and small producers, so it was packed with interesting sounding wines we hadn't an earthly about. Sommelier Miguel Angel Gomez Cabrera (try remembering that when you're halfway down a bottle) comes here via The Art Club and Clos Maggiore and steered us through it. Memorable glasses (there's a lot to be had by the glass here) included the Quintaluna Verdejo (£5 - 125ml) and the Bulgarian Vinica (£9 - 125ml)
Overall thoughts?
There's a lot to like about Typing Room. Dishes are genuinely inventive, the wines are just as interesting and the space feels very comfortable. It did look as though sommelier Miguel could do with one other front of house person to help him - he seemed to be multitasking as Maitre D' when we were there. While we're sure it's very buzzy in the evenings, we reckon we had the better deal at lunch with a greater choice of menus.
Typing Room is at Patriot Square, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9NF. Read more about Typing Room.
Hot Dinners were invited to eat at Typing Room. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
