Canteen

anthonykennedy

The best roast pork 1st December 2008

2 found this helpful

This is where I had the best roasted pork with apple sauce I have ever had. The pork was moist, tasty and the apple sauce was perfect, not too sweet or too tart. The desert of plum cake was also very good.

Highly recommended if you are in the area.

CristinaA

Honest & delicious 29th October 2008

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I love the concept behind this place.

Honest British grub, all meat is sourced in the UK and the dishes change depending on the season.

Everything is made from scratch using traditional British cooking techniques.

The staff are welcoming, and the simple decor only exaggerates what they're about.

paul1979

Yum Yum 11th September 2008

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Love this place. Have the devilled kidneys everytime i go and they are amazing!! They also do nice salads (warm beetroot and goats cheese) and lovely pies and bakes. Fresh and delicous. Yum

chrisp

A Curate's Egg 13th August 2008

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Looking for something to break the tedium of sandwich bar lunches in the City, today I wandered a little further down Commercial Road and stumbled across a row of interesting looking dining spots in Spitalfields Market. Choosing one completely at random - Canteen - I sat down in front of a refreshingly British looking menu populated with the likes of potted shrimps, gammon and potatoes, and Arbroath Smokie. The room was done up in the hideous Wagamama style of long bench seating, although unlike Wagamamas the staff weren't quite so keen to force you to sit cheek to jowl with as many other diners as possible, so I managed to keep a healthy distance from the Nathan Barley-esque advertising execs braying loudly over their Macbooks about their new pitch for JD Sports at the other end of the table.

Starter of Pea and Ham Soup was actually pretty good. There was plenty of it, and it did taste satisfyingly home made, although the accompanying bread was slightly stale, and it would have been nice to have some chunks of ham in the soup itself just to break up the texture a bit - but even so, not bad for £4.50.

I have written before about the curse of the foodie to always go for the most bizarre item on the menu, and so for my next course I chose Devilled Kidneys. I'd never had them before and they sounded like a nice traditional dish - very pre-war, offal, I tend to think. I am always open-minded about food - any dish would have to be pretty unusual if not actually dangerous to make me think twice about wolfing it down. But having been presented with a plate piled high with wobbling offal which smelt of urine, well, I must admit I was staring defeat in the face. You know when you go to the zoo in winter, and all the African animals have been keeping warm inside for weeks and the smell of camel urine and straw burns your nose as you enter the enclosure? That, on a plate, with toast.

If this is what they're supposed to taste like then I'm not surprised you don't see them on menus more often. And if they're not supposed to taste like this - and if anyone out there can enlighten me either way, please feel free - then someone should tell Canteen because, quite frankly, they were revolting.

Devilled Kidneys aside (which is where I left them), I am actually very much in favour of what Canteen is trying to do. Very reasonably priced, unapologetically British food, served informally and with charm. But to serve up a dish which is actually so bad it's inedible is pretty much a black mark against any place, no matter how good their intentions are. I can't recommend Canteen I'm afraid, but I'm optimistic about their future.

anise

Breakfasting old stylee 31st December 2007

2 found this helpful

We ate here on a quiet morning (ie not Spitalfields market day) for breakfast. The service was relaxed but attentive, the menu was small but perfectly formed and the decor was simple but stylish. And I am not just saying that because I was enchanted with the Peugeot cruet set.

My orange juice was freshly squeezed and the bacon, eggs and bubble and squeak was great - with the eggs beautifully cooked (not overdone) and the bubble and squeak well seasoned with a slightly herby flavour.

My companion chose the Welsh rarebit which had a good strong-flavoured cheese and excellent sunflower seeded bread, with neither of these potentially dominating flavours out-doing the other (in fact for those who would like more tang, extra Worcestershire sauce was available on the table).

We were only sorry we were so full (portions are ample), as we would like to have stayed for toast and tea, but as it is, we will just have to settle for a return visit - perhaps to try the rather delicious looking mains and desserts (gingerbread and pear anyone?).

Browners

Cracking British food a la Waggamas 17th November 2007

8 found this helpful

Back at the ranch in Spitalfield we had to queue for about 10 minutes for a table at Canteen which, in conjunction with the school dinner tables, reminded us of Busaba and Wagamamas... no bad thing. The menu is a tour de force of British classics. From macoroni cheese, through potted shrimps, roast duck, veal pie, abroath smokies, smoked haddock and mash and fish and chips. We couldn't find anything we didn't want! No mean feat.

We were seated at the end of a long communual table right next to the kitchen... perfect. It gave us a chance to see all the goodies flying out. Our first observations were that quite a few of the plates seemed to spend too long on the pass. And we weren't sure putting a salad under the hot lamps was a wise move either! On top of this we were quite surprised that not one of the chefs (5 of them) were British bearing in mind this is a British restaurant. And come to think of it neither were any of the waiters or greeting staff. But then again it doesn't matter because all of the food was sublime. In many ways its a great endoresement of how good British food is... and of what a brilliantly mixed culture we are lucky to have in London.

We ordered some apple and tomato juice whilst we filtered our way through the totally delicious menu. When Cowie wasn't looking I asked the waiter for some home made pork scratchings which arrived in a little kiln jar and put a massive smile on my face. The combination of salt and fat is a bit like a class A drug... except more addictive and probably worse for me in the long run!

Our water was from the eco friendly Belu which gets another tick in the box. I love the little icon of a penguin with a smile on his face... and the fact that all profits go towards bore holes in Africa and other great water projects in the developing world.

All this boring stuff aside.... Cowie had smoked haddock and mash with spinach and holandaise which was so, so good I could have licked her plate after she had finished.

Luckily I didn't get food envy because my veal pie was so epic! Stunningly crispy pastry and rich gooey innards took all the pain away from playing hockey on Saturday. The greens were great too... mainly because they were smothered in gravy and veal juice.

All for £32... what a great place. I can't wait to go back.

PhotographyJim

Nice food...shame about the service. 19th July 2007

7 found this helpful

Meeting up with a good friend for dinner, we decided to choose somewhere different from our regular haunts and thought the Canteen looked rather interesting.

When we turned up it was packed and I suddenly realised that it wouldn't have been a good idea to have booked before hand. However, within a couple of minutes a waitress had found us some space on a communal table and presented us with some menus featuring some rather promising food.

All the food sounded good and it didn't take long to pick from the relatively small menu (Not that this is a bad thing. I'd rather a restaurant do a few things really well, then a lot of dishes badly. ) Mains included Macaroni cheese, roast chicken, tarragon and walnut salad, freshly baked pies and smoked haddock, spinach and mash.

So while we waited for someone to take our order, we started to have a chat and a gossip.

And we waited...and we waited some more...

After about 15 minutes, we realised that no-one had asked us if we would like a drink, let alone asked if we wanted to place our order. Admittedly, the restaurant was rather busy, but this seemed to be rather poor, especially from a place which had won Best Restaurant in an Observer Food award.

My friend managed to grab the attention of the manager and explained the situation and to his credit he looked a bit shocked, apologised and immediately brought us our drinks order as well as fetching a waitress to take our food order.

I ordered the rump steak with roast tomatoes and chips and my friend ordered haddock with chips. The food arrived pretty quickly and my steak was good and a decent size....nothing outstanding, but perfectly acceptable. I didn't try the haddock, but my friend said it was rather good.

So we finished our mains and then waited, and waited some more, and waited some more.

We eventually caught the attention of the manager and asked for the bill.

The bill came and we noticed that they had lumbered us with a service charge...With a large group of people I think service charge is acceptable, but charging 12.5% extra (If I remember rightly) for bringing two main courses and one round of drinks (throughout the meal no-one asked if we wanted any more drinks) rather stuck in my throat.

We decided to pay the service charge, but not leave a tip as I don't believe in tipping poor service.

Overall I had a good night, but that was largely the company I was with, rather than the location.

So summing up...The food was fine, but the slow service would put me off from returning, which is why the place gets such a low grade in this review.

My advice for those who are thinking of going would be: If you aren't in a rush and you want some good quality traditional food then Canteen is fine....having said that, I would suggest finding a nice gastropub in the area and order food there. The food will probably be just as good, you won't have to pay service charge and you can get your own drinks!!

girlswear

3rd June 2007

1 found this helpful

I was there a year ago for a friend's birthday in March, 2006. That was still an "up and coming" restaurant then.

I had a Roasted Pork Belly with Apples if i remembered. It was alright. My friend had a mutton pie, that was better. I remember liking the place but I also remember the service was slow, but we weren't in a hurry so it wasn't a big deal.

It was cool but I think it's a little overhyped.

Niamheen

A little too canteen 1st June 2007

6 found this helpful

I have heard many good things about Canteen in the new Spittalfields market in London since it opened in the Autumn of 2005. In the 2006 Observer Food Monthly awards it came second in best for breakfast (public vote) and in this years food monthly awards it won best restaurant. On paper it sounds like everything I love, quality ingredients cooked well and at very reasonable prices - starters are from approximately £5-7 and most main courses are under £10. It's not fussy either, just good food. We decided we'd go for my birthday and booked a couple of weeks in advance.

It's a nice looking restaurant, modern with a clean sharp look. The walls are glass facing out into the market so it's great for people watching and there's a busy open kitchen facing the diners. When we arrived tonight we were offered two seats squashed between two couples at a communal table. I know its communal eating but surely if you book two weeks in advance you can get a better seat? There was absolutely no room between these people and there was no sensible way of sitting there, the other diners didn't look too happy to see us try and I can't blame them. There were booths accomadating 2 or 4 people, so we asked if we could wait and have one of those. I played the birthday card and they were very good about it. So far, so good. We waited about 20 minutes and were seated at a very small booth facing the window but at least we weren't squashed with other diners so we were happy. Service was confusing, at this point we had 3 people serving us but that seems to be the informal style of the restaurant so I'll let that go.

The menu looked promising, with a standard menu and a nice looking specials menu, always a fish of the day (two today) and veggie and meat pies of the day. Good rustic comfort food. One bizarre thing about the specials menu was there was some asparagus and hollandaise listed after the cheeseplate, as soon as I saw the cheeseplate I stopped reading as I assumed the next dishes were sweet so missed it adn saw it afer the meal. I would definitely have ordered new season asparagus had I spotted it. For starters I had the crab soup, which had nice fresh crab but the soup itself was bland and oily, very disappointing. Our other starter was an excellent potted duck with homemade picalilli and toast, the picalilli particularly was outstanding. For mains we had macaroni cheese, which was as good as macaroni cheese gets, creamy & cheesey inside with a lovely crisp top and chicken pie with mash and greens. The pie was nice although it would have been nicer if there were chunks rather than shreds of chicken in the pie. The mash had a nice texture and taste and the greens were lightly cooked an buttered. We couldn't fit a dessert so finished with coffees. We accompanied the meal with some organic pilsner from the Meantime brewery on my partners part and a glass of valpolicella for me. The pilsner was excellent and we'll look out for it in future, the wine was only ok, but it was by the glass not the bottle.

Even with all this, the service killed it for me. It was very impersonal. The manager was very helpful even while clearly under pressure but otherwise the service was slow and inconsistent. If I worked in the area it would be a good option for the occasional lunch, they do have a helpful section of the menu detailing the dishes for people that want to eat quickly. It didn't do it for us tonight though.

kellytron

Big, fat, nice looking let down 22nd May 2007

3 found this helpful

I'd heard good things about Canteen (which the weekend lines also suggested) but was sorely disappointed.

Maybe they had an off day, but the service wasn't great (the tall skinny blond guy was good tho) and the food a let down. The fish and chips would have been a disappointment in a pub, but at least in a pub £12 would get you 2 serves. Likewise my Eggs Florentine were overcooked with a nasty tasteless hollandaise sauce - which my boy suggested tasted like "snot".

The side of Potato Gratin was fairly tasty, but so oily I got pimples looking at it.

On the plus side the location is great, I love the communal benches and its nice to see so much natural light on a sunny day.

sue at 22/05/07

Thanks kellytron....was thinking about going here soon, but perhaps I will try elsewhere

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