East Street, Fitzrovia

East Street, Fitzrovia

27 April, 2012
by: Tom Jeffreys

Tom Jeffreys flits from Malaysia to Singapore, from the Philippines to Vietnam, and finds them all much the same.

With a menu that includes dishes from Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, the recent opening of East Street must have seemed like a real godsend for returning Gap Year kids sulking about in rainy London and pining for the hot, hot sands of Haad Rin. The fact that it's situated on Rathbone Place, a very short walk from a whole host of contemporary art galleries and their well-travelled interns, suggests that this might be one target market. Plus it's just off Oxford Street and so also ideally placed to appeal to exhausted shoppers, lunching office workers and the like.

East Street's prices reflect this broad appeal – the most expensive dish on the menu costs just £10.50 – and so too does the décor. Hanging from the ceiling are a host of brightly coloured signs, reminiscent of a generic eastern high street, buzzing with trade and small-time commerce. There's 'adverts' for the likes of ComBowl, Foto Pak Tai and Hieu Vai cloth shop, whilst on the wall behind us a projection of a manga animation. With industrial touches here and there, as well as neon signs, a big, long bar area, and the staff kitted out in branded East Street football shirts, the overall effect is a little garish, but fun and pleasantly relaxed.  

Unfortunately, the brightness of the surroundings serve only to emphasise the predominantly beige tones of the food. Perhaps we simply order badly, but almost everything we're served is the same mush of grey and brown, with flavours similarly lacking in precision. That's not to say it's bad at all – just that there's insufficient differentiation between the dishes, and the “the fantastic variety of flavours” that the menu promises is never quite realised.

We kick off with a Tampopo sharing platter (very reasonable at £5.95), that arrives on a statement-sized chunk of black slate that is a little too big for our table. Tampopo is the name of the Manchester-based chain of restaurants from which East Street is an offshoot, and the selection is appropriately polished. Light, fresh summer rolls and tender chicken satay sticks arrive present and correct. The beef in betel leaves is a less mainstream touch, and it's good, although lacking the aromatic richness of, say, Tre Viet on Mare Street. A further dish of tempura prawns (£5.75) is light and crisp and the chilli dipping sauce thankfully not as sweet as some.

From this satisfactory beginning, things don't markedly deteriorate, but nor do they get much more exciting. My chicken Adobo (£7.50), hailing from the Philippines apparently, attracts my attention on account of the garnish of sweet potato slices. On their own, these little crisps just taste too sweet, but mixed in with the lightly spiced curry, they add a pleasing note of difference, but it's not quite enough to lift what is a fairly generic, bay-heavy curry dish. My companion's Daging Lembu Goreng from Malaysia (£8.75) is similarly nondescript saucy curry. The accompanying jasmine rice (£2.20) is pleasantly light.

By the time it comes to dessert we've rather tired of brown mush, and yet it's probably our fault that even more arrives – in the form of a chocolate ice-cream (£3.85) which is rich and delicious, and Bubor Pulot Hittam (£4.50). Described on the menu as a Malaysian sticky black rice pudding, this was probably a mistake to order, but with coconut milk and palm sugar, it's strangely moreish. A couple of better-than-expected cocktails (a Saigon Negroni at £5.95 and a Lemongrass Mule at £6.50) and bottle of New Zealand Gewurztraminer (at £19.95 the most expensive wine on a very short list) finish off a meal that is unmemorable but more than acceptable.

It looks like the aim is to roll out more branches across London. There's already a lot of competition in this area of the market, but if the attention to detail shown in the branding could be carried across to the food, East Street is likely to become pretty popular.

www.eaststreetrestaurant.com

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Tom Jeffreys