Canteen is another restaurant forming a part of the British cuisine renaissance, albeit in an ‘informal’ setting. The ‘informal’ basically means you may have to share some of the long tables & benches with others, although being in a group of 12, we secured one for all of us. A bit of a mixed bag, this one, although overall I’d say it was at least overpriced for the food that was served.

The decor consists of plenty of blonde wood and striplights, with a mixture of long tables with benches and smaller booths, with quite a few tables outside. I imagine in the summertime it will be a very pleasant place to sit, smack bang in the middle of Spitalfields market. The decor does give it a modern, utilitarian feel, which I guess fits the name rather well.

Having consumed too much wine the night before and noticing all the beers came in small bottles, I decided to go for the 500ml bottle of Weston’s cider, which was very pleasant indeed.  It was also interesting to note that the Llanllyr water was ‘organic’ which certainly raised a few comments about which water isn’t organic.

I chose the potted shrimp with salad and toast to start and very much enjoyed the buttery, sweet brown shrimp, which were well spiced with predominantly mace. I also liked the presentation, with the shrimp coming in a jam jar, as did the potted duck & piccalilli. I had a taste of the Smoked Mackerel & potato salad, which was also very good. The purple sprouting broccoli with hollandaise sauce looked quite spectacular and seemed to go down very well.

The mains let the side down, with my Duck pie & mash being fine, but not worth £9 a pop. Several people didn’t finish their fish & chips, which were again, fairly mediocre and definitely not worth the £12 price tag.

We all forewent dessert, although this was because of the birthday cake which we’d been allowed to bring in for the Birthday Girl, rather than because no-one fancied what was on offer.

I think all 12 of us had really enjoyed the starters, but the mains were just not up to it. Other than that, the service was reasonable and it’s not an unpleasant place to be, but overall, it just didn’t cut the (English) mustard.