The English Restaurant Reviews

Times Magazine - Giles Coren

"I went to The English Restaurant in Spitalfields with our Literary editor, Erica Wagner, because Jeanette Winterson, who lives round the corner, told her it was good. And Ms Winterson is not wrong. It's a folksy/elegant paradox of London Ancient and Modern, a lovely, wood-panelled, 17th-century townhouse...which now offers an unselfconscious roster of old English staples: oysters, devilled whitebait, steak sandwiches, bread pudding, salt beef."

"We had nine very excellent Colchester oysters and a crisp chicory and walnut salad dressed with Roquefort, and then a crab salad...and Erica had the special, a Dover sole, off the bone, over buttered spinach with a Jerusalem artichoke puree and a scatter of deep-fried oysters. These were so good, so stupidly, stupidly wonderful, so crisp and hot and sweet, that I hollered out for more, a plateful, all for me..."

Squaremeal.co.uk

Best places for afternoon tea in London

"Now a fully fledged restaurant, with painstaking restoration work continuing upstairs, The English Restaurant is an admirable, warm-hearted local, with nicely observed Spitalfields character - think reclaimed panelling, homemade Victorian-style lemonade, bread from St John, kippers for breakfast.

The chef used to cook at the swish Lanesborough hotel on Hyde Park Corner, so his take on British cuisine is refined, not rustic: expect pressed Norfolk ham-hock terrine with dried fruit chutney, braised rabbit with thyme dumplings, & pan-fried pollock with hand-dived Cornish scallops, mash & green beans. Wines are an all-French bunch, & the original cafe at the front now doubles as a bar, where you can down damson martinis overlooking the market. Breakfast & afternoon tea are still very much on the go, with home-baked cakes & pastries as excellent as ever." www.squaremeal.co.uk

Download the Squaremeal review (word doc) here.

Google Reviews

"I want to write a bad review - to keep this place for myself!" Anon.

Trip Advisor

"What a find. The food was exceptional and I have to say that the Game Pie I had was head and shoulders above the standard of food you would get in any of the chain restaurants littered throughout the market. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone who is looking to eat in the area." Anon, Trip Advisor.

"I walked in by myself on my last night of a business trip to London, wanting a comfy English meal before heading back to NYC ... and it was probably the best meal I had during a week in London." Anon, Trip Advisor.

Other reviews

"Best cappuccino in London. And hot chocolate. And carrot cake. And to talk about the good food would take paragraphs." Edward Ferrel