Evening Standard
David Ellis made some very, very big claims for this new Portobello Road spot from the team behind the nearby Pelican and the Hero in Maida Vale: that the in-house pasta may be “London’s best”, and that (just a few weeks into its stride) it can take its place alongside Bocca di Lupo (est. 2008) as one of only two “perfect” Italian restaurants in the capital.
David omitted the River Café from that accolade, while pointing out that Canteen’s two chefs, Jessica Filbey and Harry Hills, are both graduates of its kitchen – and “God, can they cook”. Their fettuccine and ravioli “became the source of the kind of rapturous joy”; their winter tomatoes with oil and thyme demanded “why can’t every tomato taste like this?”, while the whole meal left him in a “euphoric daze”.
The name, of course, is “a conceit” – part of a “wilfully nonchalant” approach that brings the widely hyped Yellow Bittern to mind: here at Canteen there are no reservations, there is no wine list (just red or white from the keg at £47 per unmarked bottle), and “lunch is the thing” (although they have started opening on weekday evenings).
Which means, in David’s reading of the room, a very Portobello Road customer mix of “those who married well, of actors, and anyone who works at night but can afford to dine in the day, like public school drug dealers.”
David Ellis - 2024-11-17
