We've been to Magdalen a few times now and never had a bad meal. Last time we went we had an excellent Chateaubriand but that was before the blog days so finding ourselves in the area with a few hours to kill, stopping by Magdalen for lunch made perfect sense. South of the river, a hop, skip and a jump away from Tower Bridge, this restaurant is popular with those who work and live locally but seems under the radar in the broader London food community and that's a shame. It made a brief splash in the newspapers back in 2007 when it opened, not least because head chef James Faulks had previously worked at The Fat Duck, but since then, it has mostly gone quiet. On Urbanspoon, even the last blog post was July 2009 and in may ways, that's a shame. That said, we overheard the restaurant manager say that they are fully booked for the night so business is clearly good. We suspect that those who do know it become loyal and repeat customers for Magdalen offers good seasonal food at a good price.
Amongst the things to like about Magdalen is the range on the menu. If you want 'basic' good food, there's potted crab as well as Italian greens and good old hot foie gras. Feeling a little more adventurous, pigeon and partridge terrine is on the set lunch menu and Hereford snails and bone marrow on toast a la carte. That's just the starters.
For the mains, there's a range of fish dishes (cod, lemon sole, sea bass), some big comfort food (Longhorn beef and suet pie and rib of beef) and for a little bit more adventure, grilled ox heart. The restaurant itself resides on Tooley Street and has a corner location with a modest bearing; you could be forgiven for walking right past it even if you were looking for it, not least as the name over the front window is in the shadow of a plain blue canopy. Inside meanwhile it's polished wooden floors and trusty wooden chairs, white table cloths and a well stocked bar. With windows on three aspects, the place has a light airy feel.
Amongst the things to like about Magdalen is the range on the menu. If you want 'basic' good food, there's potted crab as well as Italian greens and good old hot foie gras. Feeling a little more adventurous, pigeon and partridge terrine is on the set lunch menu and Hereford snails and bone marrow on toast a la carte. That's just the starters.
For the mains, there's a range of fish dishes (cod, lemon sole, sea bass), some big comfort food (Longhorn beef and suet pie and rib of beef) and for a little bit more adventure, grilled ox heart. The restaurant itself resides on Tooley Street and has a corner location with a modest bearing; you could be forgiven for walking right past it even if you were looking for it, not least as the name over the front window is in the shadow of a plain blue canopy. Inside meanwhile it's polished wooden floors and trusty wooden chairs, white table cloths and a well stocked bar. With windows on three aspects, the place has a light airy feel.
The menu also featured a little snacky toast selection with grouse liver, anchovy and olive, each at £1. We thought we'd try the grouse liver toast for a pre starter snack. The grouse liver is flavourful indeed and with crisp toast made an amusing start. We have to say, it didn't look so special on the plate as grouse liver just isn't pretty and no camera angle was going to make it so. Indeed more broadly at Magdalen, the strength of the restaurant is clearly in the cooking rather than the plate presentation. That's not to say that the presentation is bad, it's not, but you won't be making audible wows when the plates arrive in front of you but in a restaurant like this, with these prices and without the burden of a Michelin star, we don't care, it tastes good and that's what matters today.
Snails and bone marrow on toast
Duck broth, smoked sausage, prunes and armagnac
For the starters, we chose the snails, bone marrow and garlic on toast, and the duck broth, smoked suasage, prunes and armagnac. For the snails and bone marrow, perhaps the disappointment here was a slight imbalance between snails, of which there were plenty, and bone marrow of which there was rather little. The toast was quite thick also so as a starter you have in front of you something quite substantial and overall, this was perhaps the most disappointing dish of the day as the ingredients weren't balanced appropriately. The star of the broth was the prune, with a big fat one sitting in the middle of the dish (even if the menu does say prunes plural). Soaked in armagnac, this added a deep rich flavour on top of the broth which gave this dish a wonderful extra warmth on a cold approaching Winter day. The sausage sadly lacked impact within the dish but overall, I enjoyed this somewhat different starter.
wild sea bass, brill & smoked haddock, choucroute and butter sauce
rare roast red deer saddle, black cabbage, Ogleshield gratin and pears in red wine
For the mains, we had a fish dish and a meat dish: wild sea bass, brill & smoked haddock, choucroute and butter sauce, and for the meat, rare roast red deer saddle, black cabbage, Ogleshield gratin and pears in red wine (Ogleshield being a Jersey cows' milk cheese made in the West Country). The fish was cooked 'perfectly', the butter sauce just right and the choucroute received another vote for perfect, this was a well balanced and tasty dish. The deer too was perfectly cooked as can be seen from the above picture and it was also well seasoned. The gratin was totally moreish with the only small let down being the wine soaked pear that provided some extra juice to the dish but added little to flavour. With the duck and prune to start and the deer for the main, this was a really great seasonal lunch for the day that we finally turned on our central heating.
Quite full, we skipped dessert and took the bill which including a pre lunch gin and tonic each came to £76 in total, less than what we had paid at the famed gastro-pub The Gun just a few days earlier for a similar format meal. Of the two, this was definitely the better meal and would be our preferred venue to return to. Our only quibble with the lunch was the pedestrian rate of service. With an early booking, the restaurant, at least initially, was quite empty but the food took some time to arrive and we did get fidgety towards the end with all the waiting around. Maybe we just looked like people who weren't in a hurry (which was actually the case). Had the service been a little quicker, maybe I would have had a run at a dessert.
Overall though, we like Magdalen. We like the menu, we like the food and we like the value for money it offers. British food with continental borrowings and a seasonal menu, it delivers on what it promises and we enjoyed our visit there once again. Tooley Street SE1 is always going to be off the beaten track for most but if you do find yourself in or around the area, Magdalen is certainly worth a look in for good honest food.
Quite full, we skipped dessert and took the bill which including a pre lunch gin and tonic each came to £76 in total, less than what we had paid at the famed gastro-pub The Gun just a few days earlier for a similar format meal. Of the two, this was definitely the better meal and would be our preferred venue to return to. Our only quibble with the lunch was the pedestrian rate of service. With an early booking, the restaurant, at least initially, was quite empty but the food took some time to arrive and we did get fidgety towards the end with all the waiting around. Maybe we just looked like people who weren't in a hurry (which was actually the case). Had the service been a little quicker, maybe I would have had a run at a dessert.
Overall though, we like Magdalen. We like the menu, we like the food and we like the value for money it offers. British food with continental borrowings and a seasonal menu, it delivers on what it promises and we enjoyed our visit there once again. Tooley Street SE1 is always going to be off the beaten track for most but if you do find yourself in or around the area, Magdalen is certainly worth a look in for good honest food.
RSS Feed