Galvin La Chapelle
Spitalfields, London
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Through an entrance draped with hanging flora, La Chapelle makes the most instant statement of all the Galvin brothers' venues. It's a cavernous, high-ceilinged space with swagged marble pillars and sky-high windows, sultrily lit of an evening to ensure that it feels like a proper occasion. Service of exemplary courtesy helps no end as well. The kitchen deals in a style of modern French cuisine with interesting twiddles. A duck terrine of leg and liver comes with pain d'épices of mandarin and coffee, scallops and crab are fashioned into a reimagined lasagne in beurre nantais, and Yorkshire rhubarb turns up with dark chocolate in a sauce for a barbecued Bresse pigeon. Fish could be roast ballotine of skrei cod with pickled kohlrabi in clam velouté. The precision of presentations matches the accuracy of timing and seasoning in these dishes, and the same is true of something as textbook as tarte tatin with Normandy crème fraîche, or the satisfyingly liquorous rum baba dressed in blood-orange and Espelette chilli. The Gourmand menu comes in a vegan version to show that all may enter the kingdom. Wines are a classy Eurocentric coterie, with a useful range by the small glass from £9.50.
