Clerkenwell Dining Room

In November 2010 this restaurant was replaced by North Road (itself since closed).  Some of the original team are now at The Chancery. The notes below are of historical interest only, and are from a meal in March 2002. 

Headed by Andrew Thompson, the ex executive chef of L’Escargot, The Clerkenwell Dining Room has been open since November 2001. It has a smart dining room, decorated in a modern style with hard-wood floor, some tasteful wall lamps and some tasteless modern art. Tables are well spaced and generous in size. I found the waiters to be fairly attentive, if a little pushy at times with their recommendations. I started with a special, two scallops in a thick bouillon of sweetcorn and bacon. The scallops were timed quite well but were not the best quality diver’s scallops, the broth worked well (15/20). Less good was a crab cake, pleasant enough in itself but with a red pepper remoulade that lacked distinctive flavour (13/20). The bread was just slices of white and brown, decent and freshly made (14/20).

For my main course I tried suckling pig, slices of what was effectively gammon on a bed of green cabbage. The suckling pig was quite bland, the cabbage better, surrounded by a fricassee of fairly tender white beans with garlic (13/20). Slightly better was a seared salmon with a rather ordinary red wine sauce but with very good leeks (14/20). Desserts were more consistent: the passion fruit crème brûlée was a little runny but had well balanced passion fruit in the custard (14/20). A chocolate fondant had excellent texture and rich taste (16/20). The wine list is short and fairly priced, and there is also a short “premium” list of rather uninspiring wines; the mineral water was Hildon. The coffee was reasonable (14/20). The price is quite fair here: starters average £7, main courses £13, desserts around £6.