East London to me really is a kind of alien world, I know nothing about it. I’ve lived in London all my life yet seem be pretty much confined to Zone 1. Mostly it’s down to my hatred for the tube but also the idea of sitting on a bus for a couple of hours to East London is not the most attractive of transport methods. I can’t quite remember where I first heard about INK but social media was telling me to look forward to an exciting, well priced restaurant with a fine dining element and experimental cuisine – I couldn’t resist that temptation of finally getting the chance to make my way down after all this time.
The head chef here at INK is Lithuanian born, Martyn Meid. Martyn loves to experiment in the kitchen here with unusual cooking methods, avant-garde style presentation and a unique blend of flavours. Inside the restaurant, the place has been completely stripped back – much like the food. Bare walls, neutral colour schemes and a fantastic (huge) outdoor terrace for sipping on a glass of champagne before sitting down to a multi course dining experience. The stark bareness certainly lets the food do all the talking but if a quiet evening arose I’m sure it could very easily lack an atmosphere.
I’m a huge radish fan and you barely see them in restaurants these days, even though it used to be a much-loved salad ingredient from the 90’s – especially served bathed in salty water at the table. Here, INK have gone a few steps further than that and stuffed the centre of them with bone marrow and served alongside a traditional Nordic flat bread. Now the flat bread is rather bland, but this was about educating and introducing us to some traditional Nordic delicacies. I get it, it’s a nice idea but people paying money will in fact want something with more flavour and to be wowed. The bone marrow in the radishes didn’t work in the slightest leaving the roof of your mouth feeling as if you’d swallowed a bottle of glycerin – still I appreciate the inventiveness and technicality.
What i have yet to mention is that all this food you’re seeing is from the 72 hour menu. If you pre-book (72 hours ahead) you can design your own tailored seven course tasting menu for £72. Making a menu this personal, and at this price can’t be argued with. Hand dived Scottish scallops, burnt onion and peach puree was actually a delightful plate of food. A well cooked scallop, which could have done with a little more heat through it went perfectly with the few burnt onions skins and the peach puree gave it a lovely zesty, yet soft mouthfeel. I’ve eaten my fair share of tasting menus and I felt this dish, of all of the dishes we ate was out of sync in terms of size. Quite literally it was one mouthful.
Lobster with textures of cucumber was another lovely and refreshing dish. Gorgeous lobster tails oozed a taste of the sea. Its meat was sweet, juicy and its outer side ever so slightly charred adding another dimension of flavour. Sliced cucumber, cucumber puree and a cucumber granite made for such a refreshing and summery vibrant dish. If I had to pick a dish whose flavours and cooking techniques summed up Martyn Meid’s cooking – it may just have to be this.
Who’s ever eaten a quails egg with the shell on before? I hadn’t, but I did and I liked it. Pea and quails egg – the dish described. But it was much more than that. One thing I will comment on first are the new potatoes, tasting as if they came from a tin with a briny salted water flavour to them – I’m not entirely sure how they were cooked. Quails egg eaten with the shell on gave a lovely contrasting texture which quite literally disintegrates with the warmth of your mouth. Peas served in the pod, loose peas and as a thick mouse like pea block were all together were stunning. The flavour of the pea in that mouse had been extracted so well and cooked so perfectly that not an ounce of freshness was lost. A helping of some sort of white sauce was added to the dish shortly after. I never quite figured out what it was, or whether they intentionally managed to shape the sauce in to a….. – I’ll leave that for you to work out.
By this time the wine had certainly made it apparent that I was probably quite drunk now – that and my attempt to finish off everybody else’s glasses of wine. Goose with popcorn and caramelised hazelnuts was paired with a beautiful Cotes du Rhone which went perfectly. The goose was cooked perfectly and had a lovely strong flavour while the popcorn left what could have been an elegant dish feeling a little cheap. Popcorn should be in only two places, in the cinema or between your teeth. The caramelised hazelnuts were also nice but would have been better chopped finely around the dish. The gravy on the other hand was worth licking the bowl for.
Monkfish, celeriac puree, carrots, parsnips, raisins and chives made up our next course. An enticing mixture of foods which may sound like they wouldn’t work together, but in fact they do – very well. The piece of monkfish was minuscule in size, even for a tasting menu portion but was cooked very well and had that meaty texture one should expect. This dish had all the flavours i could have possibly wanted, yet they still needed to work on its plating and deliver that wow factor in presentation to match some of the other dishes we had eaten so far.
Our final dish, dessert – was a strange mix of ingredients. Chocolate served a few ways, and textures of avocado. The avocado wasn’t solely served or immediately apparent but instead mixed in with a gorgeous bitter chocolate. A slight avocado creaminess could be detected but nothing that was too intense or offensive. Presentation perhaps needed a little more work but importantly the flavour was there which is what really matters, especially if you have a sweet tooth like mine.
There is no denying that serious talent is lurking in the kitchens here at INK. Armed with competent chefs, a friendly and infectious manager it is certainly a great new addition to Bethnal Green. Some dishes need a little work in terms of flavour intensity, and consistent portion sizes. But one thing to remember here is that INK has only been open since April and I’m sure it still has lots more potential. And while I love the idea of the 72hr tasting menu, I could imagine dishes from the a la carte which have had more time to be developed and conjured up – have even more to give to the overall dining experience.
7/10
