Rochelle Canteen
Shoreditch, London
Whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth time at Rochelle Canteen, you can’t fail to feel a frisson when pressing the buzzer to gain admission. Is this the place? Is it open? But once inside the old building (formerly a school bike shed), seated in the glass-walled canteen or basking in the beautifully dappled light of the garden, you feel immediately at ease. The daily changing menu is a ‘celebration of all the things that we love most,' say owners Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold, while the venue's many regulars share their enthusiasm for Anglo-European cookery, classic and modern. Typically, that might mean faggots with carrots and green sauce, French onion soup, cod cheeks with anchovy and rosemary, crab tart with a nicely dressed little salad, or sweetbreads with radishes, bacon and mint. For afters, steamed marmalade pudding, cherry parfait and plum pavlova are puds of the ‘proper’ persuasion. In short, Rochelle is pretty much idyllic – especially at lunchtime and especially in the summer. Wines (from £35) are European, and predominantly French.
Dining Information:
No background music, Outdoor dining, Wheelchair access
16 Playground Gardens, Shoreditch E2 7FA
020 3928 8328
