The Times
Camilla Long longed for a taste of Northumberland (“my favourite place in the world”) in east London, but instead of Bamburgh she found “Hackney cool” – “Mayfair with manbuns” – at Gabriel Waterhouse’s former supper club that now has a permanent home and offers a 12-course tasting menu to 24 guests at a single sitting.
Some of the courses “get it right”, she said, naming two: coral custard and quince, and scallop and koji. The rest of the meal, though, was “bonkers” – “high-end fancy food for rich, silk-clad Hackney whatevertarians who are stuck, slightly, in 2015”.
Every ingredient arrived with a long CV explained by the waiter, and Camilla lost count of the number of “quite good dishes” whose native ingredients (rye, fish and oysters) were overpowered by strong and intense flavours. A case in point was the ‘singing hinny’, a Northumbrian scone with mixed spice and currants, that was smothered in cream infused with “buckets” of Laphroaig whisky. “It tasted like Rob Roy’s shaving foam.”
Camilla Long - 2026-09-06
Drinks
Extras
