Saturday 4 May 2013

Canteen - London


Dodging through the rain in South London on the only day this year close to being 'April', I meant to visit Brixton Village after spending the afternoon drinking a few Doom Bar (4.0%) in The Bedford. Diverted to Canteen under the Royal Festival Hall, I found a surprisingly empty (for a Saturday evening) restaurant sitting behind a drenched and, therefore, deserted cheese and wine market.
Canteen modern, clean, light, glass, wooden, etc. It served pie and mash, which seemed an unlikely option. A squat pie, aside a small portion of greens and scoop of mash. Again, clean.

The one let down? The pudding. A small (a theme here) apple crumble served in a ceramic pot. A bowl would be so much better. I know it doesn't fit the image, but it cools the pudding down in time for you to eat it. Burning the roof of my mouth was an overly sweet crumble topping, a purée of apple, and a flavourless custard.

It's not a good choice for a modern restaurant - homely puddings. Crumble should be the epitome of rustic. Uneven chunks of apple beneath a bobbling surface of crumble. No vanilla custard, nothing fancy. It's one item I just don't think a chef can do better than I could at home.

Eat the pie; go home for the crumble.

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