Ink, Mile End

Ink

44 Palmers Road 

Mile End

London, 

E2 0TA

020 8983 6634

https://www.facebook.com/inkrestaurant

SN:  We had been warned it would be hard to find Ink - we phoned and they talked us in.  But for the avoidance of doubt Ink is in the block at the end of cul-de-sac - it's set back from the road and up some stairs.  DO NOT GIVE UP in your search and if you are struggling give them a ring - it is sooooo worth it.  Ink's creative force is Martin Meid, a Lithuanian chef who clearly likes to try squeeze every last ounce of taste and texture from his ingredients (all seasonal so the menu is rarely static) by whatever means.  So the basis of our 5 course tasting menu was similar to our ventures to Grainstore and Viajante - so by the side of the Regent's Canal on chilly February night we approached Nordic cuisine with some excitement. 

LM: Happily after a few disappointing vegetarian experiences the kitchen were more than happy to provide a meat and fish-free menu for me. I started with smoky charred chicory served with a soft poached egg and nut and stilton crumbs. It's not something I would have picked ordinarily but the flavours and textures worked fantastically.

Charred Chicory with Soft Egg, Nuts and Stilton

SN: I thought the chicory starter was a great way to set the tone - they are not afraid of taste or texture or striking presentation.  Everything your mother may have taught you about burnt food was put aside here - and it worked.

Cured Cod and Elderflower

SN: The main business of a tasting menu is to confound your expectation and my second dish in our contained a icy cold pickled fish and not much else. The deal was that it had been pickled in Elderflower vinegar.  I'm not a big fan of elderflower as a flavour and yet the delicate remanents of it against the cod and and acid were brilliant.  I would never put elderflower with cod in a million years: but this combination worked beautifully.

LM: My veggie alternative was in the same presentation (the rocks, apparently, have come from Brighton!) but filled with pickled vegetables. Lovely light, flavoursome course but not quite as standout as some of the others for me...

Seared Salmon with spinach, quinoa, daikon, onions and vanilla mayonnaise

SN: There's something about these burnt vegetable flavours which carries me past the usual domestic horror of burned food.  It was delightful to lift those tender onion halves which are delicate at first and then deliver a punch of their basic, carbonised form.  The spinach and Daikon were lovely too - the winning part of this dish was the vanilla mayonnaise,  Again a very simple idea applied in an unusual context.  It worked very well with the finely seared salmon - again a mixture of delicate and robust flavours but wonderfully mediated by the sweet mayo.  This is one I'm determined to try at home - it lifted the salmon beautifully.

LM: My next course was quinoa, spinach, morels, raisins and burnt onions with vanilla mayonnaise. As with SN's dish, the sweetness of the mayo really lifted it into something more than the sum of its parts - fantastic mix of salty and sweet flavours and the burnt onion was a revelation both in terms of taste and texture.

Beef Cheek, Belly Pork, Mashed Potato, Heritage Carrots and Black Cabbage

SN:  Now there are times to rave about new flavours and there are times just to relax with a job well done on familiar themes.  This beef and pork plate was quite conventional - the beef cheek collapsed under the slightest knife pressure,  The pork belly was robust and fatty but not greasy.  The only link to our previous courses was a superbly judged crispy black cabbage.  It reminded me of Sunday lunch fresh garden veg and the comfort of a well mashed potato.

LM: Heritage carrot 'risotto' with a mushroom stock and black cabbage was a really interesting take on my usual nemesis of a dish - instead of rice they had used pearl barley which gave it a wonderful bite. The sauce was rich and creamy - by this point in the meal I could probably have done with a smaller portion but it was delicious.

Winter Rhubarb, Soft Cheese, Vanilla Chocolate Mousse, Biscuit

SN: Just divine - I could go on but I won't - absolutely the right things together.

LM: Hands down one of the best desserts I can remember eating. The different components were light as feathers - even the flower was edible and complimented the flavours! Rhubarb was soft and sharp while retaining enough bite and the vanilla mousse and cream cheese married into a sort of deconstructed cheesecake except better. Absolutely amazing.

Service was prompt and friendly - there was just one waiter covering but he had everything under control and had time to sit and have a chat with us about the concept of the restaurant as we were paying up.

SN: the wines were very pleasant but not the dizzying distraction they could have become.  Three glasses - Prosecco, white and red came with the tasting menu.  We had a discount too thanks to an offer LM found.  But even without it Ink is a gem of a restaurant that cares about it's customers, produces marvellous very fresh ideas with very fresh food and delivers in every respect.  We had white port to finish as we chatted. I've seldom come out of a meal feeling so relaxed and looked after.  Brilliant!

POST SCRIPT

We try to be positive about great food and drink at Split the Bill but our night at Ink was preceded with a very different experience just the other side of Wellington Green

SN: Our quest for culinary excitement took us to Mile End, and so we chose the nearest thing to a cocktail bar we could find for the pre-meal snifter.  The East London Liquor Company looked so promising with a magnificent still, beautifully lit and there were customers in at just after 6pm which bodes well.  The service was pretty dire: there was no cocktail menu, the reluctant and graceless bar man couldn't have done more to make it clear he didn't want to be serving us.  He brought out drinks to our table without any explanation of what he'd made.  The lemon flavoured gin-based concoction was one dimensional, the ice should have been crushed and the rosemary was insufficiently infused. Thankfully things picked up from here...