Good enough for Batman...

Plateau: Gotham City meets Canary Wharf

A restaurant opening above Waitrose in Canary Wharf did not have me scampering to try it. I had heard that lots of people live and work in Canary Wharf and I was jolly pleased for them that Sir Terence Conran last year offered them Plateau, a restaurant with a bar and grill attached, as is now mandatory. Then last week a friend offered to drive there.

Part of me was curious to discover what had happened when Terry met Tolley. Terry, as we should know by now - he publishes books to tell us - likes simple food and bold flavours.

Plateau's head chef, Tim Tolley, has worked in New York with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, king of French-Thai fusion, and came to Plateau from Vong (now Gordon Ramsay's Boxwood Café) at The Berkeley.

It could have been lemongrass stalks at dawn, which would have been the most interesting thing ever to have happened in Canary Wharf, but in fact the result is the second most interesting thing, which is delicious, imaginative cooking. As the Michelin Guide might put it, Plateau is worth the detour.

Detour it is from central London, only to be met by a barricade and a uniformed chap recording car number plates and motives for visiting. Skilled navigational techniques are then required to find the car park beneath Waitrose from where a lift takes you to Plateau on the fourth (top) floor of the building.

This is a relatively modest perch within the Eighties vision/version of a brave new future, but at night, brightly lit, tall, empty office blocks surrounding the square overlooked by the restaurant have enough of a flavour of Gotham City to have persuaded the makers of the new Batman film to use Plateau as a location. The staff can talk of little else.

Loud music in the Bar & Grill fades as you wend your way past an open kitchen, complete with rotisserie, to the restaurant, smoking lounge and heated terrace beyond where barbecues are planned for the summer months. Tables are marbletopped and the padded tulip chairs swivel, the better to catch a waiter's eye or the view. The design seems deliberately retro, but it is comfortable.

The restaurant menu reads conventionally. It is in the cooking of the dishes that details and dedication and empathy with the ingredients emerge to make it special. Prawn salad, champagne vinaigrette doesn't convey the friskiness of the shellfish or the complexity of the dressing where truffles and soya have added their savouriness.

Similarly, dressed crab, apples, olive oil and basil doesn't prepare you for the daring acidity that makes the assembly sing. A woodland of wild mushrooms mined the Jerusalem artichoke velouté, giving it interest beyond the eerily subtle artichoke flavour.

In the main course, I chose vegetable nage, barley, broccoli because it reminded me of the incredibly healthy vegetable gatherings that used to be a feature of the Vong menu. If the reason for going to a restaurant is to eat food you wouldn't attempt to prepare at home, then this is your dish. It is labour-intensive in preparation and offers a variety of vegetables in their infant prime unlikely to be on hand in a domestic setting. Barley, soft and nutty, is an under-used, comforting grain.

Venison which comes with braised endive and cranberry onion compote was much praised and the chap who chose Dover sole, herb crust said it was perfect. Side dishes include aligot potato, from the Auvergne, which is mash made elastic with Tomme de Planèze cheese. It pulls apart in strings liked cooked mozzarella. In the Bar and Grill, aligot is served with spit-roast black-leg chicken and lemon purée, which sounds a brilliant combination.

For dessert we tried tarte Tatin with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fondant with fromage blanc sorbet. The tart, made as a small, individual serving, was crisp and gooey, just as it should be. Chocolate fondant, when cut, poured forth its liquid dark heart which is the point of the confection.

Although I am not a great one for tasting menus, I would recommend trying it here. It includes quite a few of the dishes described above plus seared foie gras with fig chutney and spiced monkfish à la plancha with mushroom broth. Portions are, anyway, delicate when eating à la carte, and I think one could dance through the six courses without flagging.

The reassuringly well-upholstered Michael Simms, who used to be sommelier at Vong, has moved to Plateau, which is good news for customers. Maybe he has bought a flat in Canary Wharf.

  • Plateau Canada Place, Canary Wharf, E14. (020 7715 7100) Restaurant open lunch Monday-Friday noon-3pm, dinner Monday-Saturday 6-10.30pm. Set-price dinner menu £24.75/£29.75 for three/four courses. Tasting menu £47 per person. A la carte, a meal for two with wine, about £110 including 12.5 per cent service.

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